Senate Passes Trump’s ‘Beautiful’ Bill After Holdout Supplies Critical Vote

The Senate approved President Donald Trump’s landmark bill largely along party lines Tuesday morning after senators took dozens of votes on amendments and procedural motions in a marathon session that lasted more than 24 hours.

Senators voted 51 to 50 with Republican Sens. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Susan Collins of Maine opposing the president’s sweeping domestic policy legislation. The bill’s passage is a massive victory for Senate GOP leadership who were able to keep defections to a minimum and convince one holdout, Republican Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, to supply a critical vote to pass the president’s tax and immigration bill.

Vice President JD Vance, who arrived in the Capitol shortly after 6 a.m. Tuesday, cast the tie-breaking vote. The Senate-amended bill now heads to the House for consideration where lawmakers are racing to meet Trump’s July 4 deadline.

Given Senate Republicans’ 53-47 majority, Thune could afford to spare just three votes. Every Senate Democrat, led by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, voted no on the Senate version of the president’s domestic policy bill.

The “vote-a-rama” that preceded the vote on final passage was the longest in American history. Senators cast more than 45 votes in a session that started at 9 a.m. Monday as Senate GOP leadership lobbied holdouts to support the bill.

The Senate agreed to pass just five amendment to the bill during the course of voting. Senators overwhelmingly backed a measure offered by Republican Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn to eliminate a provision freezing state and local AI regulation.

The Senate also approved a “wrap-around amendment” immediately preceding to a vote on final passage that incorporate last-minute changes to the bill. Vance cast the tie-breaking vote.

Tillis and Collins justified their opposition to the president’s domestic policy bill, citing the proposal’s aggressive reforms to Medicaid.