By Joseph Lord and Nathan Worcester
WASHINGTON—After House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Republican leaders spent hours scrambling to flip holdouts, President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act passed a first vote in the House.
The package had passed the Senate a day earlier with Vice President JD Vance casting a tie-breaking vote.
As midnight came around on July 3, a vote to advance a procedural measure, known as a rules vote, had been held open for more than two hours in a 207–217 vote. Five Republicans have joined all Democrats to vote against advancing the bill.
Eight other Republicans had yet to vote.
Johnson had told Fox News’ Sean Hannity at 11 p.m. ET that he planned to keep the vote open “as long as it takes to make sure we’ve got everybody here and accounted for and all the questions answered.”
“This is part of the process. We are tying up some loose ends,” Johnson said.
He explained that House lawmakers “liked the House version of the bill better,” and are unhappy about the Senate’s revisions to the package.
“We had reached a very delicate balance on it, so it’s taken a little while to go through the changes and to have everybody fully process that and figure out what that means for them and their districts,” Johnson said.
The speaker could only afford to lose three Republican votes on this vote, meaning Republican leaders needed to flip at least two no votes and ensure the remaining eight Republicans vote “yea.”
Four conservatives—Reps. Keith Self (R-Texas), Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.), Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.), and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.)— voted against advancing the bill, along with one moderate Republican, Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.).
Self explained his opposition to the bill in a post on X on July 2, citing differences between the Senate version being considered and the House’s original draft.
He said that the Senate bill defunds Planned Parenthood for one year instead of ten, “watered down Medicaid reforms,” and slowed the phase-out of clean energy tax credits.
Self and other conservatives also expressed concerns about the potential impact of the bill on the deficit, which the Congressional Budget Office has projected could be $3.3 trillion over 10 years.
The stalled vote came after Trump and Johnson spent all day trying to bring a deeply-divided Republican conference—split between moderates and conservatives whose goals for the legislation have often been at odds—in line with the legislation.
Shortly after midnight, Trump encouraged lawmakers to advance the bill.
In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump wrote, “Largest Tax Cuts in History and a Booming Economy vs. Biggest Tax Increase in History, and a Failed Economy. What are the Republicans waiting for??? What are you trying to prove??? MAGA IS NOT HAPPY, AND IT’S COSTING YOU VOTES!!!”
Early in the vote, Democrats in the chamber began to call for “order,” parliamentary language for closing a vote, once it became apparent that Johnson lacked the votes to advance the bill.
As the vote continued to remain open, Democrats—who have been vocal in their opposition to the package—were visibly pleased by the outcome.
One member, Rep. Becca Balint (D-Vt.), high-fived someone on her way out of the chamber.
Ahead of this vote, another procedural vote was held open on the floor for a record seven and a half hours as leadership sought to build support for legislation behind the scenes.
Trump has asked Congress to pass the bill by July 4.
