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The Senate is in session to pass their version of the budget reconciliation package known as the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” sending it back to the House, where the lower chamber will aim to vote on the bill in time for President Donald Trump to sign the bill into law by his self-imposed deadline of July 4th.
Late Friday night, Senate GOP leadership publicly released the 940-page text of its version of the budget reconciliation legislation, which includes considerable adjustments from the Senate parliamentarian. Changes in the Senate package (as compared to the House-passed version) includes increasing the State and Local Tax (SALT) deduction cap to $40,000 for five years (instead of permanently); increasing the debt ceiling by $5 trillion (instead of $4 trillion); and modifying timelines to phase out clean energy tax credits and imposing a new tax on wind and solar companies. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act would also allocate billions toward border security, immigration enforcement, and defense initiatives. Additionally, the plan includes provisions to expand oil and gas leasing and renew key commodity support programs under the Farm Bill, which also expire this year. On Monday morning, the Senate began its “vote-a-rama,” which is a procedure that allows for consideration on an unlimited number of amendments to budget bills, while having an expedited process for working through the proposed amendments. After completing the amendment process, the Senate could vote as early as Tuesday on final passage.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) must lock in the support of several Senate Republican holdouts in order to pass the legislation with 50 votes (Vice President JD Vance would then vote to break a 50-50 tie). Fiscal conservatives in the Senate and the White House are pushing back against Senate amendments that would delay the phase-out of clean-energy tax credits, warning it could erase major budget savings and threaten GOP support. Despite this, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and others are advancing amendments to extend benefits for energy projects already underway. The dispute is intensifying internal GOP tensions as leaders rush to pass the bill and fiscal hawks signal that they may oppose it if key provisions from the Inflation Reduction Act are not as weakened as they would like. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), another moderate, is pushing to increase the rural hospital relief fund from $25 billion to $50 billion. Senators Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), Rick Scott (R-Fla.), and Mike Lee (R-Utah) are proposing an amendment to reduce federal Medicaid spending by an additional $313 billion. Senators Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) are the only “no” votes on the bill—Sen. Tillis announced on Sunday that he would not seek reelection at the end of his term next year under the threat of potential primary challengers supported by President Trump.
While the Senate looks to wrap up voting on their version of the reconciliation bill by Tuesday, the House, led by Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), is awaiting the final package passed by the Senate and is preparing to vote on the Senate-passed version of the bill as early as Wednesday. While the House waits, moderates and conservatives in the lower chamber have begun planting their flags on portions of the bill they would like changed. The House Freedom Caucus has already cited that the Senate bill being $651 billion over the agreed budget framework between the two chambers’ versions of the legislation. Speaker Johnson can lose only three GOP votes on the House floor and still pass the Senate-passed version of the legislation (assuming all 212 House Democrats are present and vote no).
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