US Senate passes Trump’s megabill

US Senate Republicans narrowly passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act on Monday (US time), sending it to the House for final approval following a 27-hour blitz of amendments.

US President Donald Trump described the Senate’s passage of his tax and spending bill as “music to my ears”.

The 51-50 vote — with Vice President JD Vance breaking the deadlock — puts Republicans on track to have the bill on Mr Trump’s desk by the self-imposed Fourth of July deadline, if enough House lawmakers stay on board.

Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Thom Tillis of North Carolina joined all 47 Democrats in voting “nay.”

“Today was a historic day for our country, and, we’re very excited to be a part of something that is gonna make America stronger, safer, and more prosperous,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) told reporters following the vote.

“This is historic in my time in Washington DC,” he added. “This is the first time we’ve done anything meaningful on entitlement reform.”

The megabill, which clocks in at nearly 900 pages, extends most of Mr Trump’s 2017 tax cuts; reduces taxes on tips and overtime pay; and increases spending on defense, border security, and energy exploration while slashing entitlement outlays.

The legislative bundle had inched through Congress, overcoming criticism from all parts of the Republican Party.

After more than a month of deliberation, the Senate modified the House version of the legislation to extend business tax reductions, deepen cuts to Medicaid, increase the debt limit by $5 trillion, and eliminate a moratorium on state restrictions against artificial intelligence.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) emerged as the key swing vote, with GOP leadership leaning on her aggressively — and even trying to exempt Alaska from some spending cuts to woo her, but those amendments were blocked by Democrats.

“I had to look on balance, I had to look on balance,” she told reporters. “We do not have a perfect bill by any stretch of the imagination.”

“My hope is that the House is going to look at this and recognise that we’re not there yet.”

Before the vote, fiscal hawks like Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) grumbled over the One Big Beautiful Bill Act’s impact on the deficit, even threatening to derail its passage.

Eventually, leadership agreed to deepen cuts to Medicaid from the version that passed the lower chamber last month, assuaging Johnson’s concerns.

“I’m convinced they’re committed to returning to reasonable pre-pandemic spending, and I’ll be highly involved in a process to achieve and maintain it,” Mr Johnson told “Fox & Friends” on Monday morning local time.

Leadership was also forced to grapple with moderate Republicans who were uneasy over reforms to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, aka food stamps).

“We can’t be cutting health care for working people and for poor people in order to constantly give special tax treatment to corporations and other entities,” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) told NBC News last week.

But ultimately, Mr Hawley backed the bill, and GOP leadership was able to keep enough moderates on board.