US House passes Trump policy bill, which will head to White House for president's signature
Passing in a 218 to 214 vote, the sprawling One Big Beautiful Bill Act – which would lock in Trump's priorities on border and defence financing, and make permanent tax cuts that Congress passed at Trump's behest during his first term in 2017 – is the most significant legislative win of his second term so far.
The final vote in the House followed a session that ran through the night on bringing the legislation to the floor, ending months of wrangling on Capitol Hill. The bill faced resistance from all Democratic lawmakers as well as different factions of the Republican Party over its deep cuts to Medicaid, the healthcare programme which roughly 70 million low-income, elderly and disabled Americans depend on, and its hikes in federal spending.
On the latter, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office projected recently that the bill would add at least US$3 trillion to the federal deficit over the next decade. That prompted a handful of Republican representatives to hold out during the marathon procedural session before giving way; in the end, only Representative Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania voted no, joining every House Democrat, with the House voting 219-213 to bring the bill to the floor.
Trump, who had been helping House Speaker Mike Johnson press the holdouts on Wednesday, intensified his pressure on them in a series of increasingly strident posts. 'RIDICULOUS!!!' he said in one sent shortly after midnight as the bill was in limbo.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York (left) speaking in the House chamber early Thursday morning before the final vote for President Donald Trump's signature bill of tax breaks and spending cuts. Photo: AP
Earlier in the week, Senate Republicans also wrestled over Medicaid, food stamps, green energy credits and rural hospital funding. The chamber passed the same bill on Tuesday 51-50, with Vice-President J.D. Vance casting the tiebreaking vote.
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