Hakeem Jeffries uses 'magic minute' to delay vote on Trump's megabill. Democrat's last ditch attempt explained

Time of India

a day ago

US President Donald Trump's huge 'big, beautiful bill' is heading for a final vote in the US House of Representatives. But it is getting delayed while a Democrat-led debate is on. House Minority Leader
Hakeem Jeffries
, D-New York, is doing his best to delay what looks to be the inevitable passage of Trump's sweeping tax and domestic policy bill.
Hakeem Jeffries has been speaking for more than eight hours, and the "
magic minute
" means there's no limit for how long he can speak reports BBC. The intense debate on the nearly 900-page bill began in the pre-dawn hours on Thursday morning, but Hakeem Jeffries has been speaking for around eight hours as lawmakers prepare for a final vote on Republicans' spending bill. Jeffries is using it as a delay tactic, similar to the way a filibuster is used in the Senate.
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What is 'magic minute'?
For more than seven hours, Hakeem Jeffries used a rarely used House procedure known as 'magic minute' to argue against President Donald Trump's 'big, beautiful bill,' which House Republicans advanced early Thursday morning. He started speaking at 4.35am ET and has now delivered one of the longest speeches in recent House history — clocking over eight hours and counting. He's using time allotted to him on the floor by what's known as the "magic minute.
His Democratic colleagues want him to keep going. 'I feel the obligation, Mr. Speaker, to stand on this House floor and take my sweet time to tell the stories of the American people, and that's exactly what I intend to do,' Jeffries said.
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Jeffries is using his so-called 'magic minute' – a tradition that allows House leaders to speak for as long as they want after a floor debate has concluded. The House tradition allows for a leader, like Jeffries, to turn his 60 seconds of speaking time into an even longer period after debate on a bill has ended, The New York Times explains.
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It remains unclear how long Jeffries is expected to use his 'magic minute' on Thursday. If he's eyeing the record, currently held by former Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), he'll need to speak beyond 1:26 p.m. ET.
Kevin McCarthy, the then House Republican leader in 2021 spoke for a record-setting eight hours and 32 minutes, in protest of Joe Biden's signature domestic policy legislation, which ultimately passed when he ceded the floor, according to The Guardian. Jeffries started speaking shortly after 5am and would pass McCarthy's record at 1.26pm.
However long Jeffries speaks, it's unlikely to stop the massive bill from making it through the House. It is a narrow margin — Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) can lose only three votes, assuming all members are present — but the bill is still expected to pass.
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Why is Hakeem Jeffries' message?
Democrats are standing in fierce opposition to what they now call the 'Big Ugly' bill. Since the break of dawn, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has been at the podium, armed with binders full of stories from Americans who stand to suffer under the proposed legislation.
Jeffries has been spotlighting how the bill would wield a 'chainsaw' against Medicare, Medicaid, and food assistance programs that serve hungry children and vulnerable families. One by one, he reads the names and struggles of those who could lose their health coverage, nutritional aid, and other essential lifelines if the bill becomes law.
Jeffries called the bill a 'crime scene', and an 'abomination' that will benefit billionaires. 'People will die. Tens of thousands, perhaps year after year after year, as a result of the Republican assault on the healthcare of the American people,' Jeffries said.
'This bill represents the largest cut to health care in American history,' Jeffries said. 'Hospitals will close, including all throughout rural America… People in America will die unnecessary deaths. That is outrageous. It's disgusting.'
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Democrats use 'magic minute': Hakeem Jeffries speaks for more than eight hours to delay Trump's 'One Big Beautiful Bill'
Hakeem Jeffries issued a stark warning, citing Congressional Budget Office estimates that up to
1
1.8 million Americans could lose their health insurance under the Senate-approved bill. The sweeping legislation, pushed by Republicans, imposes harsher work requirements and slashes health and food assistance programs.
Calling the bill a 'cruel and chaotic' attack on vulnerable Americans, Jeffries blasted Republican lawmakers: 'Leadership requires courage, conviction, and compassion — but what we're seeing from this administration and their GOP co-conspirators is cruelty, chaos, and corruption.'
Branded by Republicans as the 'One
Big Beautiful Bill
Act,' the legislation would also fund mass deportations and roll back clean energy investments. Jeffries mocked the name, saying, 'This isn't one big beautiful bill — it's one big ugly betrayal.'