Overview
- House Republicans advanced the Senate’s version of President Trump’s $4.5 trillion reconciliation package through the House Rules Committee, teeing up a final passage vote before the July 4 deadline.
- Speaker Mike Johnson and White House pressure quelled key Freedom Caucus objections, but the party’s two-vote margin means the bill can lose no more than three GOP votes on the floor.
- Democrats used procedural tools, including an eight-hour-and-44-minute magic-minute speech by Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and repeated amendment votes, to delay the process.
- The Senate text makes permanent the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, adds deductions for tips, overtime and interest, boosts defense and border spending and rolls back Biden-era green-energy credits.
- The Congressional Budget Office projects the legislation would increase deficits by about $3.3 trillion over ten years and cut Medicaid and SNAP coverage for roughly 11.8 million Americans through new work requirements.