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Big Beautiful Bill: When will Trump sign the spending bill? Latest update on House vote tonight
House Republicans are in turmoil over President Trump's domestic policy bill, with fiscal concerns and Medicaid cuts causing divisions.
Late Wednesday night, House Republicans were underway with a procedural vote on Donald Trump's ‘Big Beautiful Bill’, hours after pressing and huddling to win over holdouts to meet their self-imposed 4 July deadline of getting the legislation to his desk.
Following a razor-thin victory in the Senate on Tuesday, with Vice President JD Vance stepping in to cast the tie-breaking vote, the bill is now back in the House, and it's proving to be just as difficult to pass there. House Speaker Mike Johnson had hoped for a final vote on Wednesday.
By late afternoon, Republicans didn’t even have enough votes to pass the procedural rule bringing the bill up for debate.
The earlier House version of the bill passed in May by a single vote. Now, with new Senate amendments, Republicans have to reconcile the differences if they want to meet Trump’s self-imposed 4 July deadline.
Trump himself has been working the phones and holding White House meetings to sway holdouts. But South Carolina Rep. Ralph Norman wasn’t moved. “There won’t be any vote until we can satisfy everybody,” he told BBC, adding, “I got problems with this bill. I got trouble with all of it.”
Kentucky Rep Thomas Massie consistently opposing Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’
Rep. Thomas Massie, a consistent Trump critic on spending, also isn’t backing down. “I have raised $400,000 from 4,500 donors in the last 10 days for taking this principled stand,” he told NBC News. “They’re whipping this horse, because I’m out of the barn, to keep the other horses in the barn,” he quipped.
The biggest sticking points? First, the national deficit. The Congressional Budget Office estimates the Senate version would add $3.3 trillion over the next decade, more than the $2.8 trillion projected under the House version. That’s triggered fury from fiscal conservatives in the House Freedom Caucus, who’ve been echoing Elon Musk’s warnings about unsustainable debt.
“Promising someone else will cut spending in the future does not cut spending,” Ohio Rep. Warren Davidson posted on X. However, Davidson, who initially voted against the bill in May, changed course Wednesday night. “This bill isn’t perfect, but it’s the best we’ll get & includes major wins,” he wrote.
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Several Republicans are worried the Senate’s steeper cuts to Medicaid, like healthcare and food subsidies, will hurt constituents and their reelection chances. “I will not support a final reconciliation bill that makes harmful cuts to Medicaid,” California Rep. David Valadao, per BBC.
