Senate Republicans overcame public disgust and bipartisan opposition on Capitol Hill and advanced the party’s domestic policy megabill — by the narrowest of margins — on Tuesday afternoon. Almost immediately thereafter, House GOP leaders announced that they planned to bring the right-wing package to the floor for a vote the next day, without changing so much as a comma in the Senate’s version.
The question was whether House Speaker Mike Johnson’s members shared his ambitions. That question now has an answer.
After a lengthy delay that dragged on through much of Wednesday, a debate that continued overnight and into Thursday afternoon, and the longest speech in the history of the institution, House Republicans approved the Senate-backed version, 218-214, sending the bill to the White House for Donald Trump’s signature.
Two GOP members — Kentucky’s Thomas Massie and Pennsylvania’s Brian Fitzpatrick — sided with a unanimous Democratic conference against the legislation.
Success was by no means assured. In the runup to the House vote, Rep. Ralph Norman of South Carolina described the Senate’s version of the inaptly named One Big Beautiful Bill Act “a non-starter” and “unconscionable,” before vowing not to vote for it. Rep. Andy Ogles of Tennessee called it a “dud.” Rep. Chip Roy of Texas slammed the bill as a “travesty,” before adding, “My colleagues in the Senate failed us.” Rep. Keith Self of Texas called the Senate version “morally and fiscally bankrupt.”
Even Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a close White House ally, told Steve Bannon after the Senate vote, “This is far from over.” The right-wing Georgian added that she did not believe her party’s leadership in the House had the votes to pass the Senate’s version.
What’s more, just last week, 16 House Republicans — almost all representing competitive districts — publicly condemned the Medicaid cuts in the Senate Republicans’ version, and at least one of them, California’s David Valadao, responded to the Senate vote by saying, “I’ve been clear from the start that I will not support a final reconciliation bill that makes harmful cuts to Medicaid.”
As recently as Wednesday afternoon, Republican Rep. Andy Harris of Maryland declared that the bill, at least in its current iteration, was “not going anywhere.” Around the same time, Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, a consistent opponent of the reconciliation package, boasted that he knew of a “vote bloc of 10” GOP members who were firmly opposed to the Senate version.
If just four House Republicans balked, that would’ve been enough to derail the overall legislation, at least temporarily. But a familiar dynamic kicked in: GOP members talked a good game, and swore up and down they’d stick to their guns, right before they caved to pressure from Donald Trump and his confederates — again. For opponents of the most regressive legislative proposal in a generation, which is poised to do devastating harm to the nation’s health care system and finances, among many other areas of concern, the options have run out. There were some hopes that four Senate Republicans would reject the right-wing package, but only three did, just as there were hopes that four House Republicans would balk. But that didn’t happen. The inaptly named One Big Beautiful Bill Act now heads to the White House for the president’s signature — just ahead of his self-imposed, arbitrary and substantively unnecessary July 4 deadline. This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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