The Senate voted on the “Big, Beautiful Bill” on the 30th. The Democrats launched a series of unlimited amendment votes, namely marathon “vote-a-rama” votes to delay the voting results; if the Big, Beautiful Bill is successfully sent to the Senate, it is expected to pass the House of Representatives as early as July 2, in time for President Trump’s deadline of July 4 to send it to the White House.
The White House said that the Trump administration is confident that the Republicans will fully support the passage of the bill, and pointed out that House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune both went to the White House to meet with President Trump on June 30.
The Trump administration is pushing for the Big, Beautiful Bill, which includes tax cuts, spending cuts, and a large increase in funding for deportation of immigrants, to pass it in the Senate on the 30th, hoping to pass it on schedule before July 4, the US Independence Day, and send it to Trump for signature.
Although the bill passed the procedural vote with a vote of 51:49 on the evening of the 28th, Senate Democratic leader Schumer fought back and asked Senate members to read out the 940-page bill to delay the bill voting process; the reading of the bill lasted about 16 hours and was not declared over until the afternoon of the 29th. The Senate entered the speech and debate process until the early morning of the 30th.
The Senate immediately processed the vote at 9 am on the 30th, but the Democratic Party used a marathon voting method. This method can be used after the debate, so that senators can propose an unlimited number of amendments for voting; according to Senate statistics, the highest number of consecutive votes was as many as 44 times.
Senate Democratic senators began to propose motions at more than 10 am, and each motion speech and vote took an average of about half an hour, so the senators were bound to work all night.
The bill was very close to being passed during the procedural vote on the 28th, with Republican Senators Rand Paul and Thom Tillis both opposing it, and Senator Ron Johnson changing his mind at the last minute. In the end, it was up to Vice President Vance to cast the crucial vote to pass the bill.
Republican Senator Markwayne Mullin said in an interview with the media on the 30th that he was confident that the Republican Party could come up with 51 votes.
However, even if the Big, Beautiful Bill is successfully sent to the Senate, it must return to the House of Representatives for a final vote this week to pass the Senate’s amendments in order to pass before Friday.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on the 30th that Trump was very clear that it was not enough for the Senate to pass the bill, but that it had to return to the House of Representatives; so the Republican caucus needed full support; as for Tillis’s statement that passing the Big, Beautiful Bill would violate Trump’s promise to protect Medicaid, Leavitt said that Tillis’s statement was wrong.
If the beautiful bill passes the Senate, it will face challenges in the House of Representatives, especially since it passed by only one vote in May.
According to ABC, Republican Congressman David Valadao has expressed his disagreement with the Senate version of the bill; in addition, Congressmen Chip Roy, Josh Brecheen, and Eric Burlison also oppose it; the report pointed out that House Speaker Johnson can only afford three votes against it.
