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Donald Trump’s landmark tax and spending laws moved a step closer to becoming law on Tuesday after the US Senate ended days of haggling and narrowly passed the so-called big, beautiful bill.
The bill’s passage through Congress’s upper chamber now leaves its fate within the hands of the House of Representatives, where it could still face considerable opposition ahead of a looming July 4 deadline.
The Senate approved the sweeping laws, 51-50, on Tuesday after vice-president JD Vance forged the tiebreaking vote.
The US president celebrated the laws’s progress during a visit to a migrant detention facility in Florida, telling reporters there was “something for everybody” within the bill.
Critics have warned that the laws, which incorporates steep tax cuts, will sharply increase the US’s national debt. The US dollar has fallen in recent months amid fears of decay in America’s fiscal outlook.
For days, senators had been split on the bill, with a critical variety of Republicans voicing concerns about its size and scope. The crucial vote got here after a marathon session within the chamber that lasted greater than 24 hours as Republican leaders hashed out deals with dissenters.
Ultimately, all but three Republican senators — Rand Paul of Kentucky, North Carolina’s Thom Tillis and Susan Collins of Maine — voted in favour of the bill, while all 47 Senate Democrats voted against it. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who had also raised concerns in regards to the bill, voted for it.
The “big, beautiful bill” would fund an extension of sweeping tax cuts introduced within the president’s first term by slashing spending on healthcare and social welfare programmes. It will also increase spending on the military and border security, and scrap taxes on suggestions and extra time.
However the laws still faces significant hurdles whether it is to be signed into law by Trump’s self-imposed deadline of July 4.
“I believe it will very nicely within the House,” Trump said on Tuesday. “Actually, I believe it’ll be easier within the House than it was within the Senate.”
But House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson will walk a political tightrope to secure the votes needed from his fractious Republican party and send the laws to the president by the tip of the week.
Johnson on Tuesday said the House would “work quickly” to pass the bill by Friday’s independence day holiday.
“The American people gave us a transparent mandate, and after 4 years of Democrat failure, we intend to deliver directly,” he added in a press release released shortly after the Senate vote.
While an earlier version of the bill passed the House by a single vote in May, several House members have taken issue with the Senate version. Fiscal hawks have said the Senate bill adds an unsustainable amount to the federal government’s growing debt pile.
More moderate House members have criticised the bill’s cuts to Medicaid, which provides healthcare to low-income and disabled Americans.
The House rules committee was set to start thinking about the Senate bill on Tuesday afternoon, with votes in the total House expected as soon as Wednesday.
Independent forecasters have warned that the laws will add to the country’s already swollen debt levels, with the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office estimating on the weekend that the Senate version of the bill would increase the deficit by $3.3tn over the following decade.
But many Republicans have criticised the watchdog’s record, while the White House argues the laws will ultimately narrow the deficit through fostering growth.