More dissenters were expected due to several fiscal hawks’ and centrist Republicans’ concerns with the Senate altering language that they think did not comply with the budget framework earlier this year.

However, House GOP leadership and Trump spent the last 24 hours muscling holdouts to gain their support as they hold a razor-slim majority. Support for the Senate-passed piece of legislation trickled in Wednesday and continued through the night, where the floor remained open for more than seven hours, where it made history as the longest continuous vote in modern history.

Lawmakers passed the legislation through reconciliation, a legislative process that allows bills to bypass the filibuster and pass with only a simple majority in the Senate. 

The bill now heads to the White House, just in time to meet the Independence Day deadline that Republicans imposed on themselves to try and get a legislative win on the books ahead of the 2026 midterms. The last time Republicans had a trifecta was in 2017, when they passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. 

The party entered the new year determined to pass landmark legislation within the first two years of Trump’s second term and to deliver on Trump’s campaign promises for more tax breaks.

Pushing the bill over the finish line is a major legislative win for Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), who met with various holdout factions on Wednesday to persuade them to vote “yes.” He and other leaders pitched the legislation as the “best product we could produce” given the House’s narrow margins and the so-called “Byrd rule” in the Senate that forced some provisions to be stripped out.

Rep. Jodey Arrington (R-TX) breathed a sigh of relief on Thursday after months of hard negotiations as chairman of the House Budget Committee.

The passage “feels like the greatest team effort in my career,” Arrington told the Washington Examiner. “It’s the most consequential bill of my lifetime, and I’m proud of it.”

The bill passed despite fiscal hawks’ anger over the Senate not adhering to the budget resolution passed earlier this year, despite a verbal promise from Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) on cost cuts. Some conservatives said they should have asked for something more concrete to hold the Senate GOP to their promises.

“Bottom line, we should have had something in writing,” Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) told reporters Tuesday. “I wouldn’t dare buy a car, a house, or really a toaster, without seeing what’s in writing.”

Fiscal hawks were not the only side of the party unhappy with the final draft of the bill, as many members expressed frustration with the upper chamber. The Main Street Caucus and other centrist Republicans were displeased with the Senate’s changes to Medicaid cuts, which they considered to be more severe than the version that passed the lower chamber.

“Am I happy about everything? No, but there’s a difference between compromise and capitulation,” Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-WI) told reporters. “We’re not capitulating, we’re compromising. That’s how this government is structured.”

Democrats, with virtually no political power, spent the week trying to stall a vote on final passage as much as possible. During the Rules Committee hearing, Democrats offered hundreds of amendments, all of which were not adopted.

On Wednesday, most Democrats headed to the House floor to participate in a “UC storm,” which means an offering of amendments to alter the legislation. The process was largely a delay tactic, and Rules Committee chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC) repeatedly declined to allow unanimous consent.

Before the bill headed for final passage, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) held the floor to deliver a record-breaking “magic minute” speech, highlighting personal stories of Americans on Medicaid, who are concerned they will lose health care coverage under the bill.

“As a result of the all-out Republican assault on healthcare in the US, people will die,” Jeffries said.

“I never thought that I’d be on the House floor saying that this is a crime scene,” he added.

What’s in the bill? 

At the heart of the multi-trillion-dollar legislation is an extension of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, also known as the Trump tax cuts. The reconciliation bill doesn’t just extend the lower individual tax rates that were part of the 2017 law, but makes them permanent — a key priority for GOP tax writers.

The majority of voters, over 60%, would see their taxes go up next year if the legislation isn’t passed.

But the reconciliation legislation also contains other new tax provisions, many of which Trump campaigned on during the election. Many target individual subsets of people rather than broad swaths of taxpayers.

The now-passed legislation sets a $25,000 limit for deductions for income earned as tips. The deduction also phases out at a 10% rate starting at $150,000 in income for a single filer and $300,000 for a joint filer.

The legislation also sets a $10,000 limit on deductions for auto loan interest paid. The deduction phases out starting at $100,000 for single filers and $200,000 for joint filers. Also, the break is only available for new cars assembled in the United States.

Additionally, the bill provides a $6,000 deduction for seniors over the age of 65, a provision meant to fulfill Trump’s campaign promise to end taxes on Social Security benefits.

One tax provision, the cap on state and local tax deductions, courted much discussion after a group of Republicans from high-tax states like New York and California banded together to raise the $10,000 SALT cap that was imposed in 2017 as a pay-for for TCJA.

SALT caucus members were able to quadruple the cap to $40,000, although that will not be permanent and will only last for five years before snapping back to $10,000, the current limit.

The bill also includes funding for Trump’s push to increase border security and curb illegal immigration into the U.S. The legislation allocates nearly $200 billion over the next decade to increase illegal immigration enforcement and funding for the southern border wall, immigration detention centers, and more.

“The Big Beautiful Bill will allow ICE to hire 10,000 new officers,” Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said. “ICE currently has 20,000 law-enforcement and support personnel in more than 400 offices. A larger force will provide ICE agents with the necessary protection so they can continue to carry out removals.”

The bill includes healthcare changes as well. The legislation beefs up Medicaid work requirements for single, able-bodied adults and cuts into Planned Parenthood by stopping Medicaid funds from being allowed to reimburse health clinics that provide abortions.

It also rolls back former President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act with an aggressive phasing out of clean energy tax credits. Additionally, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — food stamps — would be cut through work requirements and other changes.

Some deficit hawks have been concerned about the cost of the bill and argue it didn’t go far enough to cut spending, to offset the making the 2017 tax cuts permanent. 

The Congressional Budget Office estimated that the legislation will add some $3.3 trillion to deficits over the next decade. But the CBO also scored the bill using the current policy baseline and found the legislation would reduce the deficit by $508 billion.

The “current policy baseline” is a novel accounting method that suggests it is cost-free to make permanent the 2017 Trump tax cuts that would otherwise expire next year. The White House also argued that economic growth from the bill would offset the deficit hit. The CBO score assumes Congress would have allowed for a $4.5 trillion tax increase by letting Trump’s 2017 tax cuts expire at the end of this year, rather than measuring against current tax policy.

How did Republicans do it?

Wednesday served as a chaotic day for House Republican leadership as they worked to sway over a dozen holdouts who were opposed to the Senate’s changes.  

The House left open a vote for over seven hours as holdouts huddled in a room — breaking the record for the longest continuous House vote in history. Johnson had told reporters around 5 p.m. that “we’re going to get there tonight” and he was feeling “very positive” about the progress made with fiscal hawks.

“We’re working through everybody’s problems and talking them through it,” Johnson said.

The vote held open was an amendment to the rule, needed due to a mistake made by the Rules Committee. Without it, Johnson wouldn’t have had the ability to pull the bill if he didn’t have the votes. 

The rule vote eventually passed nearly six hours after the floor was opened, with Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) as the sole dissenter. Four others initially cast “no” votes — Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY), Victoria Spartz (R-IN), Andrew Clyde (R-GA), and Keith Self (R-TX) — but all flipped their votes to “yes” around 3:20 a.m. after hours of the vote being open. Their decision helped clear the way for final passage Thursday morning.

The Trump administration helped push holdouts to a “yes.”

“We had the president himself, we had the vice president, we had attorneys and agencies answering questions,” Johnson told reporters around 1:30 a.m. “I mean, it was very detailed and I think very productive in the end.” 

Members from the Freedom Caucus and some centrist Republicans from the Main Street Caucus traveled to the White House earlier on Wednesday to meet with Trump over the bill.

Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-SD), co-chairman of the Main Street Caucus, told reporters that Trump is the “best closer in the business” and it was a “productive meeting.”

“He got a lot of members to yes in that meeting,” the South Dakota Republican said.

Dusty Johnson added that many lawmakers, at least the ones at the meetings he was present for, were holdouts due to a lack of understanding of the bill’s contents, not opposition to the changes themselves.

“There are some members who have concerns about the Medicaid impact,” Dusty Johnson said. “The President walked through the specifics, which made members feel a lot better.”

But fiscal hawks returned from those meetings not convinced, with Freedom Caucus chairman Andy Harris saying throughout the day that he hadn’t heard what he needed to hear to get himself to a “yes” vote on the rule and the bill. He eventually voted for both.

Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) spent much of Wednesday undecided, telling reporters he needed a better understanding of the Medicaid provisions and the IRA credits. He, like many Freedom Caucus members, was upset the Senate didn’t meet the $2 trillion benchmark for spending cuts stated in the budget framework. However, Roy ultimately voted for the rule and the bill.

At one point, Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought arrived on Capitol Hill to meet with holdouts. Leaving the meeting almost a half hour later, Vought told reporters that they were “making good progress.”

Trump took to Truth Social early Thursday as the holdouts dragged on. “FOR REPUBLICANS, THIS SHOULD BE AN EASY YES VOTE. RIDICULOUS!!!,” he posted at 12:45 a.m. Eastern.

Although pockets of the Republican caucus loudly expressed their distaste for the bill, a large portion know how this game ends, regardless of how hard members hold out. 

“I’m gonna tell you right now, it’s the same actors, it’s the same movie, it’s gonna be the same ending,” Van Orden said. “So, some people need a little me time and to self-actualize. I’m not one of them.”

What happens next? 

The bill now heads to Trump’s desk for his signature, which will likely come on July 4. 

The debate over spending cuts and reducing “waste, fraud, and abuse” in the federal government is not likely to go away any time soon. Democrats also see a political opening to accuse Republicans of hurting working Americans with the passage of the bill, which will feature strongly in midterm messaging.

But in the short term, Trump, who worked closely with Johnson and Thune to get the tax and spending bill over the finish line, can celebrate his biggest legislative victory of his second term.