President Donald Trump’s to final passage Thursday, overcoming multiple setbacks to approve his signature second-term policy package before a self-imposed Fourth of July deadline.
The tight roll call, 218-214, came at a potentially high political cost, with two Republicans joining all Democrats opposed. GOP leaders worked overnight and the president himself leaned on a handful of skeptics to drop their opposition and send the bill to his desk to become law.
The outcome delivers a milestone for the president and his party, a longshot effort to compile a lengthy list of GOP priorities into what they called his “one big beautiful bill,” an . With Democrats unified in opposition, the bill will become a defining measure of Trump’s return to the White House, with the sweep of Republican control of Congress.
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Treasury Secretary says bill passage sets stage for ‘coming Golden Age’
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in an emailed statement that the passage of Republicans’ mega tax bill “has set the stage for the coming Golden Age as we prepare to celebrate the 250th year of our great nation.”
Thanking President Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans, Bessent said the GOP wing has “passed the biggest legislative win for American workers and families.”
Democrats accuse Republicans of passing a bill that will rip health care and food assistance away from millions of working poor, seniors and veterans around the country.
The House gives final approval to Trump’s big tax bill and sends it to him to sign
House Republicans propelled President Donald Trump’s to final congressional passage Thursday, overcoming multiple setbacks to approve his signature second-term policy package before a Fourth of July deadline.
The tight roll call, 218-214, came at a potentially high political cost, with two Republicans joining all Democrats opposed. GOP leaders worked overnight and the president himself leaned on a handful of skeptics to drop their opposition and send the bill to him to sign into law. Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York delayed voting by holding the floor for more than eight hours with a against the bill.
“We have a big job to finish,” said , R-La. “With one big beautiful bill we are going to make this country stronger, safer and more prosperous than ever before.”
Johnson makes closing arguments for Trump bill
House Speaker Mike Johnson is making the GOP’s closing arguments as the chamber prepares to take up President Trump’s tax and spending cut bill.
“For everyday Americans, this means real, positive change that they can feel,” Johnson said of the bill.
At another point, he asked colleagues: “Are you tired of winning yet?”
“No,” they roared back.
Jeffries concludes speech after 8 hours 44 minutes
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has concluded his record floor speech that including everything from highlighting everyday Americans to mocking President Donald Trump and promising to make his “Big Beautiful Bill” a centerpiece of the upcoming midterm elections.
Jeffries repeatedly assailed the measure as “an all-out assault” on the nation’s values, hard-working Americans, labor unions and “law abiding immigrant families.”
He reminded voters how Republicans disavowed Project 2025, the conservative policy tome that proved unpopular during the 2024 campaign, only to watch Trump and the GOP pursue many of its ideas.
But Jeffries said voters have a chance to shift course.
“After Project 2025 comes Project 2026,” he said, prompting roars from his Democratic colleagues. Based on the current House roster, Democrats need a net gain of just three seats to reclaim control of the chamber for the final two years of Trump’s second presidency.
Jeffries quotes New Testament to explain Democrats’ opposition and slams Trump for hawking bibles
— “I don’t know who I’m talking about, but if you sell the Bible, you should know the Bible.”
House rules generally don’t allow members to attack others by name. So Jeffries chose his words carefully. But he was clearly the “God Bless the USA” Bible that Trump hawked for $59.99 with singer Lee Greenwood.
— “Got some folks in this town, they go to church and they pray on Sunday. P-R-A-Y. And then they come to Congress and they prey, P-R-E-Y, on the American people. I’m not down with that kind of faith.”
Again, Jeffries called no names but was talking about religious conservatives backing the bill that Jeffries said flouts many biblical commands on helping others in need.
— Jeffries spent several minutes on Matthew 25, a Christian gospel chapter many Democrats commonly quote because it includes Jesus’ teachings on how to treat “the least of these.”
“For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger and you invited me in ... ,” Jeffries said. “E pluribus unum. Out of many, one. I needed clothes, and you clothed me. I was sick, I had medical problems. ... I was in prison, and you came to visit me. ... That’s not what’s happening in this one Big Ugly Bill.”
Jeffries sets record for longest floor speech
House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries has surpassed the record for the longest floor speech as the chamber considers President Trump’s tax and spending cut bill.
The stemwinder began at 4:53 a.m. EDT and has touched an array of subjects, including the reading of letters from Americans who rely on government programs such as Medicaid and SNAP.
Jeffries said the bill “steals” from those programs to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy.
The speech took on the air of a Sunday church service air as it extended into its eighth hour and he began citing passages from the Bible.
“Take your time,” “Take your sweet time,” colleagues replied as he spoke.
“Shame on this institution if this bill passes,” he said.
US recalls top diplomat from Colombia
The Trump administration has recalled its top diplomat in Colombia for “urgent consultations” over recent comments from Colombian officials criticizing U.S. policy.
The State Department said Thursday that the charge d’affaires at the U.S. embassy in Bogota, John McNamara, would be returning to Washington “following baseless and reprehensible statements from the highest levels of the government of Colombia.”
Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said in statement that the administrations would also be “pursuing other measures to make clear our deep concern over the current state of our bilateral relationship.” The statement did not elaborate on the reasons for the recall.
US sanctions Iranian oil shipper and Hezbollah officials
U.S. Treasury on Thursday imposed sanctions on a network of firms run by Iraqi-British national Salim Ahmed Said, who is accused of smuggling Iranian oil disguised as, or blended with, Iraqi oil. Treasury says Said’s companies use ship-to-ship transfers and other obfuscation techniques to hide their activities and have done so since 2020.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement that Treasury “will continue to target Tehran’s revenue sources and intensify economic pressure to disrupt the regime’s access to the financial resources that fuel its destabilizing activities.”
In addition, Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control imposed sanctions on seven senior officials and one entity associated with the Hezbollah-controlled financial institution Al-Qard Al-Hassan, which was designated for U.S. sanctions in 2007.
Treasury alleges the officials have facilitated the evasion of U.S. sanctions, enabling Hezbollah’s access to the formal financial system.
In case it’s not obvious, Democrats are a ‘Hell No!’ on Trump’s bill, Jeffries says
If Jeffries’ long-form speech wasn’t enough to communicate the Democrats’ uniform opposition to Trump’s policy priorities, the House Speaker is summing it up in two words: “Hell no!”
More than eight hours into his opposing presentation, Jeffries said that despite the president’s rhetoric about helping Americans in their daily lives, “not a single thing in Donald Trump’s One Big Ugly Bill will meaningfully make life more affordable for everyday Americans.”
“We were a ‘Hell No!’ last week, a ‘Hell No!’ this week, a ‘Hell No!’ yesterday, a ‘Hell No!’ today, and we’ll continue to be a ‘Hell No!’ on this effort to hurt the American people.”
As his volume rose, Jeffries’ fellow Democrats joined his “Hell No!” refrain. And then they laughed at his conclusion: “I know, for the record, Mom, ‘hell’ is in the Bible.”
Putin and Trump talk Ukraine, Iran and other issues, Kremlin says
Regarding Iran, Putin emphasized during their Thursday call the need to resolve all issues by political and diplomatic means, said Yuri Ushakov, his foreign affairs adviser.
As for Ukraine, Ushakov said Trump emphasized his push for a quick cessation of hostilities, and Putin voiced Moscow’s readiness to pursue talks with Ukraine. At the same time, the Russian leader emphasized that Moscow will seek to achieve its goals in Ukraine and remove the “root causes” of the conflict, Ushakov said.
The Kremlin adviser said a suspension in U.S. military aid to Ukraine wasn’t discussed during the call.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy hopes to speak to Trump soon about weapons
The Ukrainian president says he hope to speak soon with Trump following a pause in some weapons shipments to the country seeking to fight off invading Russian forces.
Asked Thursday when he would find out more about the halt, Zelenskyy said, “I hope that maybe tomorrow, or close days, these days, I will speak about it with President Trump.”
Zelenskyy spoke to reporters in Aarhus, Denmark, after a meeting with major European Union backers.
The chamber has been mostly empty during Jeffries speech
For those watching Jeffries speech online or on TV, the rows of clapping and nodding Democrats behind the House minority speaker may give the impression that the chamber is filled with representatives attentively tuned in.
Not so.
Aside from those few rows of Democrats positioned into view for the TV cameras, the chamber, particularly the Republican side, has been mostly empty. So while Jeffries is calling out specific Republicans over their support of the bill, his main audience is people watching from home.
First immigration detainees arrive at Florida center in the Everglades
The first group of immigrants has arrived at deep in the Florida Everglades that officials have dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” a spokesperson for Republican state Attorney General James Uthmeier told The Associated Press.
“People are there,” Press Secretary Jae Williams said, though he didn’t immediately provide further details on the number of detainees or when they arrived.
“Next stop: back to where they came from,” Uthmeier said on the X social media platform Wednesday.
Gov. Ron DeSantis said housing immigrants in the hot, humid, mosquito-ridden Florida Everglades and naming it after the known for its brutal conditions is meant to persuade people in the country illegally to leave voluntarily. Rains already flooded some of the tents during Trump’s visit this week.
Jeffries calls out Republicans who voted yes, then urged changes
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries is calling out 13 House Republicans who supported Trump’s big tax bill in May but later sent a letter urging the Senate to scale back some of its clean energy cuts. He urged the Republicans who signed the clean energy letter to vote against the final bill.
He also criticized Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who voted for the bill Tuesday but said it “needs more work across chambers and is not ready for the president’s desk.”
Jeffries said he was “flummoxed” that GOP lawmakers would urge members of the other chamber to fix a bill they voted for.
“That is not how the people’s business should be done in the United States Congress,’′ he said. “We have a responsibility to stand up for what is right in the chamber that we serve in.”
First lady: ‘That’s a big slime!’
Melania Trump visited with sick patients at Children’s National hospital in Washington on Thursday, continuing a tradition of support by first ladies for the pediatric care center.
She also stopped by the hospital’s rooftop “healing” garden she dedicated during the first Trump administration. Decorating rocks, she drew a red heart on one and engaged a few kids with questions while they played with slime.
“Wow, that’s a big slime!” she told one child who was more focused on stretching the sticky goo.
Trump also gave each child a gift bag with a blanket and teddy bear wearing a shirt reading, “Be Best,” her campaign focused on children’s well-being. They placed small American flags and patriotically-colored pinwheels into the soil.
Then the first lady visited the hospital’s heart and kidney unit, meeting privately with a 3-year-old patient.
Jeffries is previewing Democrats’ 2026 midterm arguments
The Democrats lack the votes in Congress to stop Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill.” So Jeffries’ speech is really about framing it — today and for the 2026 midterm elections — as “an all-out assault on the American people.”
“This is personal to us,” Jeffries said as he notes the Republican measure’s impact on Americans including veterans, the working class, small-business owners, employees trying to unionize, federal workers, Medicaid beneficiaries and customers in Affordable Care Act insurance exchanges.
That list spans typical Republican and Democratic coalitions.
Republicans hold 220 seats to Democrats’ 212, with three vacancies after recent deaths of Democratic members. So Democrats would need a net gain of just three seats to make Jeffries the potential House speaker in 2027.
House Democratic leader says what Republicans are doing is criminal
“I never thought that I’d be on the House floor saying that this is a crime scene,” Jeffries said. “It’s a crime scene, going after the health, and the safety, and the well-being of the American people.”
And as Democrats, he said, “We want no part of it.”
Jeffries seized a leader’s prerogative for unlimited debate early Thursday, and after speaking for more than five hours is still a few hours away from breaking the record for the longest House leader’s speech, set in 2021.
House Republicans, up all night, are ready to vote on Trump’s as soon as he gives up the floor.
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Jeffries cites case of father of Marines beaten by Border Patrol
As he railed against Trump’s deportation crackdown — saying that Democrats support removing violent criminals, but the president is rounding up far too many peaceful immigrants — he cited the case of California landscaper .
Video of Barranco has been widely circulated, showing the father of three U.S. Marines being beaten and pepper-sprayed by Border Patrol agents in Santa Ana, a city south of Los Angeles.
“This is not the way that anyone in the United States should be treated, particularly not the father of three patriotic Marines,” Jeffries said.
The administration says Barranco, who came to the U.S. from Mexico in the 1990s and does not have legal status, had swung a lawn trimmer at one of the agents who came to take him away.
How a GOP rift doomed the bill’s ban on state AI laws
A bid to deter states from regulating artificial intelligence for a decade seemed on its way to passing as part of the but was doomed by a relentless campaign by Republican governors, lawmakers, think tanks and social groups.
Activist Mike Davis urged right-wing podcaster Steve Bannon’s viewers to call their senators to reject this “AI amnesty” for “trillion-dollar Big Tech monopolists.” He said he texted with Trump directly, advising the president to stay neutral despite significant pressure from White House AI czar David Sacks, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and others.
The schism revealed the enormous influence of a segment of the Republican Party that has come to distrust Big Tech. They believe states must remain free to protect citizens against potential harms from AI, social media or emerging technologies.
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Trump’s bill rolls back past presidential agendas
In many ways, the package is a of the last two Democratic presidents, a chiseling away at the Medicaid expansion from Barack Obama’s , and a pullback of Joe Biden’s climate change strategies in the .
Democrats have warned that lives will be lost due to the bill’s cuts to Medicaid, which some 80 million Americans rely on. Cutting food stamps that help feed more than 40 million people would “rip food from the mouths of hungry children, hungry veterans and hungry seniors,” Jeffries said.
Republicans say the tax breaks will prevent a tax hike on households and grow the economy. They maintain they are trying to rightsize the safety net programs for the population they were initially designed to serve, mainly pregnant women, the disabled and children, and root out what they describe as .
Small business owners get a shout out in Jeffries’ speech
The House Minority Leader is shifting from veterans to small business owners, continuing to highlight groups of voters that Republicans often claim are theirs.
“Small business represents the heart and soul of the American economy,” Jeffries said, pointing to entrepreneurs who could see their insurance access compromised.
The 2010 Affordable Care Act created exchanges that fostered entrepreneurship by freeing Americans from dependence on employer-based insurance. The Trump-GOP bill through the exchanges.
Jeffries says the GOP is pushing a “lie … that the everyday Americans who are participating in, have access to programs like the Affordable Care Act aren’t worthy.”
Freedom Caucus still tight-lipped about how they got to ‘yes’
Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, says he and other conservatives got some “last-minute things” as they withheld support for Trump’s big tax bill. But he’s not ready, yet, to spill any detail.
“We can talk about it after the final vote,” he said.
“We’ve got to get thru a few of these last minute things out of deference to the entire team. We got some significant things that we feel pretty good about. Nothing is perfect but — All along this way we get to ‘yes,’” Roy said.
Jeffries reads comments from veterans as he continues marathon floor speech
Jeffries says the GOP tax and policy bill’s effects is “an all-out assault” on veterans.
He’s quoting from veterans who he said sent lawmakers their stories of pending benefit cuts. One man, he says, is recovering from injury and “needs help … from the American people” only as a bridge to get back to work.
“I have had your backs,” Jeffries says in the veteran’s voice. It’s time for the country “to cover my back.”
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How Ukraine can cope with the US pause on crucial battlefield weapons
The has come at a : Russia’s bigger army is making a concerted battlefront push and intensifying long-range drone and missile attacks against .
Washington has been Ukraine’s biggest military backer since Russia launched its but the Trump administration has been and there’s no end to the fighting in sight despite .
Ukraine has raced to build up its domestic defense industry, producing , and amid with Trump, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has in weapons manufacturing.
But some high-tech U.S. weapons are irreplaceable. are needed to fend off Russia’s frequent ballistic missile attacks, but cost $4 million each.
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Trump to speak with Putin on Friday morning
The president said in a social media post that he’ll speak with Putin at 10 a.m. Eastern time.
The call comes after the Pentagon confirmed earlier this week that it’s pausing shipment of some weapons to Ukraine amid a global review of U.S. military stockpiles.
Among the weaponry being held up for Ukraine are some air defense missiles, precision-guided artillery and other weapons. The details on the were confirmed by a U.S. official and former national security official familiar with the matter. They both requested anonymity to discuss what is are being held up as the Pentagon has yet to provide details.
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Massachusetts advocates say Trump’s bill unravels health safety net
In the state that served as the model for , advocates and health care workers fear the Trump administration will dismantle piece-by-piece a popular program providing insurance, preventive care and life-saving medication to hundreds of thousands of people.
contained in both the Senate and House versions of could strip health insurance from up to a quarter of the roughly 400,000 people enrolled in the Massachusetts Health Connector, according to state estimates.
Trump and Republicans in Congress say new documentation requirements and limitations on who can apply for tax credits to help pay for insurance are necessary to root out fraud, waste and abuse.
The changes to the Affordable Care Act and massive cuts to Medicaid and other programs would eliminate roughly $1.1 trillion in health care spending nationwide over the next decade, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
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Supreme Court to consider which school sports teams transgender students can join
Just two weeks after upholding a ban on gender-affirming care for transgender youth, the said Thursday that justices will hear arguments in the fall about lower court rulings in favor of transgender athletes in Idaho and West Virginia.
More than two dozen states have enacted laws barring transgender women and girls from participating in certain sports competitions. Some have been blocked in court as Republicans leverage the issue as a fight for athletic fairness. The Trump administration meanwhile has filed and launched over policies allowing transgender athletes to compete freely.
This week, the modified a trio of school records set by transgender swimmer and said it would apologize to female athletes “disadvantaged” by her participation on the women’s swimming team, part of a resolution of a federal .
Billions to fund the military within the United States
The budget bill includes a hefty investment, some $350 billion, in national security and and to help develop the defensive system over the U.S.
To help offset the costs of lost tax revenue, the package includes $1.2 trillion in cutbacks to and food stamps, largely by imposing new work requirements, including for some parents and older people, and a massive .
The estimates the package will add over the decade and 11.8 million more people will go without health coverage.
House speaker: ‘We will meet our July 4th deadline’
“Our way is to plow through and get it done,” said as he emerged in the middle of the night from a series of closed-door meetings on .
The package’s priority is extending $4.5 trillion in tax breaks enacted in Trump’s first term, and adding some new ones, like allowing workers to deduct tips and overtime pay, and a $6,000 deduction for most older adults earning less than $75,000 a year. Democrats say these savings will be wiped out by higher costs for most Americans as safety net benefits are cut.
Wisconsin governor signs budget in early morning to secure Medicaid funds
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers signed a new two-year budget in the early morning hours Thursday in a race against Congress to ensure the state gets a that it would lose under President Trump’s .
In an extraordinarily rapid succession of events, Evers and Republican lawmakers unveiled a on Tuesday, the Senate passed it Wednesday night and hours later just before 1 a.m. on Thursday the Assembly passed it. Evers signed it in his conference room minutes later.
Democrats who voted against the $111 billion spending bill said it didn’t go far enough in meeting their priorities of increasing funding for schools, child care and expanding Medicaid. But Evers, who hasn’t decided on whether he will seek a third term, hailed the compromise as the best deal that could be reached.
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Alaska Democrats dial up pressure on Murkowski
Democratic Sen. Ruben Gallego says Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski “folded like a cheap suit” on Trump’s big bill.
The newly elected Arizona senator spoke during a virtual town hall Wednesday night organized by the Alaska Democratic Party as it worked to dial up pressure on Murkowski, who faces re-election next year in a race crucial to Democrats in their difficult path to a Senate majority.
Gallego decried the Alaska carveouts Murkowski secured in exchange for her vote, calling the deal the “Kodiak kicker,” while Alaska’s other Republican senator, Dan Sullivan, “didn’t even attempt to fight.”
The bill hurts working class families nationwide, Gallego said, and Sullivan and Murkowski “screwed and rigged these working class people to benefit the Uber rich.”
US employers add a surprising 147,000 jobs despite uncertainty
The American labor market continues to show surprising resilience despite uncertainty over Trump’s economic policies. The unemployment rate ticked down 4.1% from 4.2% in May, the Labor Department said Thursday.
Hiring rose modestly from a revised 144,000 in May and beat economists expectations of fewer than 118,000 new jobs as , the federal hiring freeze and immigration crackdown weigh on the American job market. U.S. applications for jobless aid fell to 233,000 last week as layoffs remain low.
A survey released Wednesday by the found that private companies cut 33,000 jobs last month, reflecting a hesitancy to hire and a reluctance to replace departing workers.
The president’s deportations, meanwhile, are driving immigrants out of the U.S. labor force. Those working and looking for work fell by 625,000 in May, the biggest drop in a year and a half.
What's in the Big Beautiful Bill Act
includes , spending cuts, a , . The bill on Social Security benefits, despite what Trump says.
The bill rolls back past presidential agendas: In many ways, the package is a of the last two Democratic presidents, a chiseling away at the Medicaid expansion from Barack Obama’s , and a pullback of Joe Biden’s climate change strategies in the .
Congressional Budget Office review: The nonpartisan CBO said Sunday the bill would load from 2025 to 2034, a nearly $1 trillion increase over the House-passed version of the bill. The analysis also found that by 2034 if the bill passed.
White House: The big bill is kind of like the solution to a bad hair day
With Trump’s spending and tax cut bill nearing passage, the White House is getting creative in pitching it to Americans who haven’t been closely following the debate over the legislation.
The White House late Wednesday dropped on social media that includes before and after shots of women who transform flat hair to voluminous bouffants as a narrator ticks off aspects of the bill that she says will make Americans’ lives better.
“Are you tired of government promises falling flat? Do you go through an outrageous amount of stress just trying to get by?” the narrator intones as a woman screams in frustration over her bad hair day. “Then bump it up with ‘one big, beautiful bill’ and get that relief fast and easy.”
By the end of the short video, the screaming woman and others are sporting new hairdos that are markedly more voluminous.
Hakeem Jeffries has been talking for three hours and counting
Republican leadership spent much of the night and early morning persuading a handful of holdouts to support the Senate-approved tax cuts and spending bill. But now, House Speaker Mike Johnson appears to have the votes, and Democrats are standing in the way.
As the House wrapped up its debate over passing Trump’s agenda, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries used a tool known as the “magic minute” that allows leaders unlimited time to speak. He started his address just before 5 a.m. ET. And it’s still going.
“I’m going to take my time,” he said, before launching into a speech criticizing Republicans’ deference to Trump, reading through personal accounts of people concerned about losing their health care coverage, and recounting American history.
Eventually, Jeffries will end his speech, and Republicans will move to final passage of the bill.
The Associated Press
