US House sets make-or-break final vote on Trump tax Bill
US House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson spent much of July 2 struggling to cajole holdouts into playing along.
WASHINGTON – US lawmakers teed up a final vote on Mr Donald Trump's marquee tax and spending Bill for July 3 after a bruising day of Republican infighting that threatened to derail the centrepiece of the president's domestic agenda.
Mr Trump is seeking a green light in the House of Representatives for his Senate-passed 'One Big Beautiful Bill' – but faces opposition on all sides of his fractious party over provisions set to balloon the national debt while launching a historic assault on the social safety net.
Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson spent much of July 2 struggling to corral his rank-and-file members as the package scraped through a series of 'test' votes that laid bare deep divisions in the party.
It was set for a final vote to advance it from Congress to Mr Trump's desk around 8.30am (8.30pm Singapore time) after passing its last procedural hurdle in the early hours.
'We feel very good about where we are and we're moving forward,' an upbeat Johnson told reporters at the Capitol. 'So we're going to deliver the Big, Beautiful Bill – the president's 'America First' agenda – and we're going to do right by the American people.'
Originally approved by the House in May, Mr Trump's sprawling legislation squeezed through the Senate on July 1 by a solitary vote but had to return to the lower chamber for a rubber stamp of the senators' revisions.
The package honours many of Mr Trump's campaign promises, boosting military spending, funding a mass migrant deportation drive and committing US$4.5 trillion (S$5.7 trillion) to extend his first-term tax relief.
Top stories
Swipe. Select. Stay informed.
Singapore $500 in Child LifeSG credits, Edusave, Post-Sec Education Account top-ups to be disbursed in July
Singapore PAP questions Pritam's interview with Malaysian podcast, says politics should stop at water's edge
World Liverpool's Portuguese forward Diogo Jota dies in car crash in Spain, TVE reports
Singapore Man to be charged after he allegedly damaged PAP campaign materials on GE2025 Polling Day
Singapore Scoot launches flights to Da Nang, Kota Bharu and Nha Trang; boosts frequency to other destinations
Singapore Electrician who bit off part of coworker's ear during fight gets 6 months' jail
Asia 4 dead, 30 missing after ferry sinks on way to Indonesia's Bali
Singapore $1.46b nickel-trading scam: Ng Yu Zhi's bid for bail midway through trial denied by High Court
But it is expected to pile an extra US$3.4 trillion over a decade onto the country's fast-growing deficits, while shrinking the federal food stamps programme and forcing through the largest cuts to the Medicaid health insurance scheme for low-income Americans since its 1960s launch.
While moderates in the House are anxious that the cuts will damage their prospects of re-election, fiscal hawks are chafing over savings that they say fall far short of what was promised.
Mr Johnson has to negotiate incredibly tight margins, and can likely only lose three lawmakers in the final vote, among more than two dozen who have declared themselves open to rejecting Trump's Bill.
'Abomination'
Republican leaders had been hoping to spend just a few hours on July 2 approving the package, although they had some breathing room ahead of Mr Trump's self-imposed Independence Day deadline on July 4.
The 887-page text only passed in the Senate after a flurry of tweaks that pulled the House-passed version further to the right.
Republicans lost one conservative who was angry about adding to the country's US$37 trillion debt burden and two moderates worried about plans for around US$1 trillion in health care cuts.
Some estimates put the total number of recipients set to lose their health insurance under the Bill at 17 million, while scores of rural hospitals are expected to close.
Legislation in the House has to go through multiple preliminary votes before it can come up for final approval, and a majority of lawmakers must wave it through at each of these stages.
But there were warning signs early on as the package stumbled at one of its first procedural steps, with a vote that ought to have been straightforward remaining open for seven hours and 31 minutes – making it the longest in House history.
Mr Johnson had been clear that he was banking on Mr Trump leaning on waverers, as the president has in the past to turn around contentious House votes that were headed for failure.
The Republican leader has spent weeks hitting the phones and hosting White House meetings to cajole lawmakers torn between angering welfare recipients at home and incurring his wrath.
'FOR REPUBLICANS, THIS SHOULD BE AN EASY YES VOTE. RIDICULOUS!!!' Mr Trump thundered in one of multiple posts to his Truth Social platform that sounded increasingly frustrated as the marathon voting session on July 2 spilled into July 3.
The minority House Democrats have signalled that they plan to campaign on the Bill to flip the chamber in the 2026 midterm elections, pointing to analyses showing that it represents a historic redistribution of wealth from the poorest Americans to the richest.
'Shame on Senate Republicans for passing this disgusting abomination,' House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters. AFP
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Straits Times
17 minutes ago
- Straits Times
West Bank town becomes 'big prison' as Israel fences it in
FILE PHOTO: Palestinians walk behind a closed gate at the entrance of Turmus Ayya village near Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank May 21, 2025. REUTERS/Mohamad Torokman/File Photo SINJIL, West Bank - A five-metre-high metal fence slices across the eastern edge of Sinjil, a Palestinian town in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Heavy steel gates and roadblocks seal off all but a single route in and out of the town, watched over by Israeli soldiers at guard posts. "Sinjil is now a big prison," said Mousa Shabaneh, 52, a father of seven, watching on in resignation as workers erected the fence through the middle of the nursery on the edge of the town where he planted trees for sale, his sole source of income. "Of course, we're now forbidden from going to the nursery. All the trees I had were burned and lost," he said. "In the end, they cut off our livelihood." Walls and checkpoints erected by Israeli forces have long been a part of day-to-day life for the nearly 3 million Palestinian residents of the West Bank. But many now say that a dramatic increase in such barriers since the start of the war in Gaza has put towns and villages in a state of permanent siege. The fence around Sinjil is a particularly stark example of barriers that have sprung up across the territory, becoming an overwhelming feature of daily life. The Israeli military says it erected it to protect the nearby Ramallah-Nablus highway. "In light of the recurring terror incidents in this area, it was decided to place a fence in order to prevent stone-throwing at a main route and repeated disturbances of public order, thereby safeguarding the security of civilians in the region," it said in a statement. Because residents are still permitted to enter and exit through the single remaining entrance, the policy is deemed to allow "free access" to the town, the military said. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. World Trump says countries to start paying tariffs on Aug 1, floats range of 10% to 70% Singapore Sengkang murder: Man accused of killing elderly mother escorted back to crime scene Singapore Multiple charges for man accused of damaging PAP campaign materials on GE2025 Polling Day Singapore Jail for man who recruited 2 Japanese women for prostitution at MBS Singapore Seller's stamp duty rates for private homes raised; holding period increased from 3 years to 4 Asia Malaysia dismantles Islamic State network involving workers from Bangladesh Asia Chinese national missing in Thailand rescued, embassy warns of shady job offers Asia Indonesian rescuers widen search for missing after ferry sinks CUT OFF FROM LAND The people who live there now have to walk or drive through narrow, winding streets to the sole allowed entry point. Some cross road closures on foot to reach cars on the other side. Those who once earned their livelihoods in the surrounding land are effectively cut off, said Bahaa Foqaa, the deputy mayor. He said the fence had enclosed 8,000 residents inside barely 10 acres, cutting them off from 2,000 acres of surrounding land which they privately own. "This is the policy that the occupation army uses to intimidate people and break the will of the Palestinian people." Israel says its fences and barriers in the West Bank are necessary to protect Jewish settlers who have moved there since Israel captured the territory in a 1967 war. Israel Gantz, head of the Binyamin Regional Council which governs the 47 Israeli settlements in the part of the West Bank where Sinjil is located, said the town's fence was needed because its residents had thrown stones and molotov cocktails at cars on the nearby highway, solely because the occupants were Jewish. "A carte blanche lifting of the restrictions on Arab Palestinians would encourage the mass murder of Jews," he told Reuters. Some 700,000 Israelis now reside in territory Israel captured in 1967. Most countries consider such communities a violation of the Geneva Conventions which ban settling civilians on occupied land; Israel says the settlements are lawful and justified by historic and biblical Jewish ties to the land. After decades during which Israel paid lip-service to the prospect of an independent Palestinian state, the far-right Israeli government now includes prominent settler activists who openly proclaim their aim to annex the entire West Bank. HALF OUR LIFE IS ON THE ROADS Israel increased its military presence in the West Bank immediately after Hamas' surprise attack in October 2023, which precipitated war that has devastated the other main Palestinian territory, the Gaza Strip. Overnight, mounds of earth and heavy boulders were placed on roads. Then heavy metal gates, usually painted yellow or orange, were installed and locked by the military at entrances to Palestinian communities, often leading to roads also used by settlers. The military established new permanent checkpoints. So-called flying checkpoints, set up suddenly and without warning, became more frequent. Sana Alwan, 52, who lives in Sinjil and works as a personal trainer, said what was once a short drive to reach Ramallah can now take as long as three hours each way, with no way of knowing at the start of the day how long she will be stuck at checkpoints. Work has slowed because she can no longer promise clients she can reach them. "Half of our life is on the roads," she said. While the West Bank has largely been spared the all-out assault waged in Gaza, life has grown increasingly precarious. A ban on entering Israel for work abruptly cut off the livelihoods of tens of thousands of workers. At the start of this year, tens of thousands of West Bank residents were displaced by an Israeli crackdown on militants in Jenin in the north. Mohammad Jammous, 34, who grew up in Jericho and lives in Ramallah, used to see his family almost every week. With the hour-long drive now typically stretching to several hours each way, he says he is now usually able to visit only once a month. The Israeli military said its forces operate in a "complex security reality", and checkpoints must be regularly relocated and set up at new locations to monitor movement and respond to threats originating from Palestinian communities. Officials in the Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited self-rule in the West Bank under Israeli occupation, suspect that the stifling impact on the economy and ordinary life is intentional. They say it could backfire against Israel by driving more youths to sympathise with militants. "They are doing everything they can to make life extremely difficult for our people," Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa told reporters last month. REUTERS
CNA
25 minutes ago
- CNA
Higher seller's stamp duty, longer holding period for private homes to have limited impact on market: Analysts
SINGAPORE: The increase in seller's stamp duty (SSD) and holding period for private properties is meant to curb speculative growth and is expected to have a limited impact on the property market, analysts said. On Thursday (Jul 3), the Ministry of National Development (MND) announced that the holding period for private properties will increase from three to four years. Those who sell their property within four years of the purchase will also incur higher SSD, by 4 percentage points for each tier of the holding period, up to a maximum of 16 per cent for those who sell within a year of the purchase. The changes will be in effect for all private residential properties purchased on and after midnight on Friday. INCREASE IN SUB-SALES SINCE COVID-19 In introducing the tighter rules, the ministry said that there has been a significant increase in the sub-sale of units that were not yet completed. Market analysts said that the proportion of sub-sales in the market has been increasing steadily since the COVID-19 pandemic. Using data from the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA), senior director of data analytics at Huttons Asia Lee Sze Teck showed that the proportion of sub-sales across all private residential properties increased from a low of 0.9 per cent in 2020 to a peak of 6.8 per cent in 2023. The proportion has since tapered down to 4.4 per cent in the first quarter of this year and 4.5 per cent in Q2 2025. ERA Singapore CEO Marcus Chu noted that since 2021, there had been a "significant jump" in sellers who sold their homes after holding them for between three and four years. Focusing on non-landed private homes, Mr Chu said that URA caveats show that in 2020, only 358 sellers sold their homes after holding them for three to four years, said Mr Chu. Last year, this number surged to a peak of 2,104 sellers, he added. Mr Chu said non-landed private homes in the Outside Central Region saw the highest volume of homeowners selling within three to four years, followed by the Rest of Central region and Core Central Region. Despite the increase, Mr Chu said that the majority of homeowners continue to sell their properties after holding them for five years or more. Accounting for the increase, executive director for research and consultancy at Savills Singapore Alan Cheong said that private residential prices remained pretty flat until just after the pandemic, when relaunches came and prices "gapped up". "Naturally, those who bought into the 2018, 2019 period would have a windfall gain. And because of their profit, they will naturally flip," said Mr Cheong, adding that these were mostly Singaporean buyers who were waiting for their properties to reach completion. "And just before completion, another new project gets launched, and this time around, the prices gapped up in the market," Mr Cheong said. "And those who bought ... fortunately or fortuitously for them, they see that massive gap up, and they are holding on to a windfall profit. They will flip." NO SIGNIFICANT IMPACT ON MARKET Property analysts said that there would not be a significant impact on the market, with majority of genuine homebuyers and long-term investors unlikely to be affected. Through the new measures, the government is discouraging short-term flipping and sub-sales, which have contributed to artificial demand and price volatility recently, associate head of research Joel Lim said. "This measure reinforces the notion that housing should be viewed primarily as a home rather than a quick investment vehicle," added Mr Lim. Head of research and data analytics at Singapore Realtors Inc Mohan Sandrasegeran pointed to transaction data, which noted that average holding periods for sub-sale units remain relatively stable and in many cases, exceed the four-year threshold. "This reinforces the view that recent market activity has been driven more by owner-occupiers and long-term investors rather than speculative flippers," Mr Mohan said. The changes have minimal impact on investors and homeowners with medium- to long-term horizons, and may even contribute to greater confidence as the market is protected against speculative swings, he added. Realion Group chief researcher and strategist Christine Sun noted that although the number of sub-sale transactions was higher than before the pandemic, quarterly transactions have been on a downtrend over the past few quarters. "Furthermore, most condominiums are purchased for owner-occupation, especially after the additional buyer's stamp duty (ABSD) has been raised several times. Those who buy properties for their own use will not be affected by the increased SSD, as they are likely to stay in the property for the long term." She suggested that the policy changes were introduced as a preventive measure to limit speculative growth, since more condominiums are due to obtain their temporary occupation permit (TOP). The number of sub-sale transactions might rise in line with the anticipated increase in private residential units securing TOP, which is projected to grow from 5,920 units in 2025 to 6,838 units in 2026 and further to 10,306 units in 2027, Ms Sun said. She also noted that several new projects are expected to be launched in the coming months. Lower interest rates will make housing loans more affordable, which in turn may spur more buying activity, she added. Huttons Asia's Mr Lee said that the tighter rules will reduce the number of sub-sales in the market, with the proportion likely to go below 2 per cent starting from 2026. "The buyers who would otherwise have bought a sub-sale unit will buy from the new sale market now as the number of sub-sale listings will reduce," he said. ERA's Mr Chu said that buyers have become more cautious alongside rising economic uncertainty in recent months, and more now see property as a long-term investment. He noted that even without the revision, higher costs from elevated interest rates and property taxes have eroded profits, likely resulting in investors holding properties for more than three years. "Since most homebuyers are genuine owner-occupiers or longer-term investors, this measure is a gentle touch rather than a heavy-handed approach on the overall market. It aims to stabilise any spikes caused by short-term investors. "It is not designed to crack down on the market but to reduce the froth from investors who sell shortly after the third year."
AsiaOne
25 minutes ago
- AsiaOne
Trump says he expects Hamas decision in 24 hours on 'final' peace proposal, World News
WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump said on Friday (July 4) it would probably be known in 24 hours whether the Palestinian militant group Hamas has agreed to accept what he has called a "final proposal" for an Israel-Hamas ceasefire in Gaza. The president also said he had spoken to Saudi Arabia about expanding the Abraham Accords, the deal on normalisation of ties that his administration negotiated between Israel and some Gulf countries during his first term. Trump said on Tuesday Israel had accepted the conditions needed to finalise a 60-day ceasefire with Hamas, during which the parties will work to end the war. He was asked on Friday if Hamas had agreed to the latest ceasefire deal framework, and said: "We'll see what happens, we are going to know over the next 24 hours." A source close to Hamas said on Thursday the Islamist group sought guarantees that the new US-backed ceasefire proposal would lead to the end of Israel's war in Gaza. Two Israeli officials said those details were still being worked out. Dozens of Palestinians were killed on Thursday in Israeli strikes, according to Gaza authorities. The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered in October 2023 when Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 and taking about 250 hostages, Israeli tallies show. Gaza's health ministry says Israel's subsequent military assault has killed over 56,000 Palestinians. It has also caused a hunger crisis, internally displaced Gaza's entire population and prompted accusations of genocide at the International Court of Justice and of war crimes at the International Criminal Court. Israel denies the accusations. A previous two month ceasefire ended when Israeli strikes killed more than 400 Palestinians on March 18. Trump earlier this year proposed a US takeover of Gaza, which was condemned globally by rights experts, the UN and Palestinians as a proposal of "ethnic cleansing". Abraham accords Trump made the comments on the Abraham Accords when asked about US media reporting late on Thursday that he had met Saudi Defence Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman at the White House. "It's one of the things we talked about," Trump said. "I think a lot of people are going to be joining the Abraham accords," he added, citing the predicted expansion to the damage faced by Iran from recent US and Israeli strikes. Axios reported that after the meeting with Trump, the Saudi official spoke on the phone with Abdolrahim Mousavi, chief of Iran's General Staff of the Armed Forces. Trump's meeting with the Saudi official came ahead of a visit to Washington next week by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. [[nid:719810]]
