After weeks of talks, the House passed the "big beautiful bill" that is at the center of the president's plan in a close vote just before 7 a.m.
Early in the morning on May 22, the House of Representatives passed a bill to carry out President Donald Trump's executive and economic agenda. This ended weeks of talks and uncertainty in the House Republican conference, as The Daily Caller reported.
The House barely passed the bill by a vote of 215-214, largely along party lines. The vote happened just before 7 a.m., after the lower house had been debating all night.
The bill is now on its way to the Senate, where changes are likely to be made. If there are any disagreements, they will have to be worked out in a meeting before going to Trump's desk.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) applauded the bill after it made it through the lower chamber of Congress, saying: “It’s a great day to be an American. It’s great to be a Republican.”
Johnson said he believes the law is a strong reflection of the conservative party's principles, including fiscal discipline, personal liberty, and limited government.
The speaker said that he had doubts about the party's ability to come together on the bill.
“I give glory to God,” he said. “There’s a lot of prayer that brought this together.”
Some Republicans were less than positive about the bill, however, and declined to support the legislation over spending concerns.
“It’s a debt bomb,” Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) told reporters about the recently passed legislation.
Two Republicans from Ohio, Massie and Warren Davidson, voted against the measure. The House Freedom Caucus chair, Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.), did not cast a vote.
Those holdouts plus the close margins in the House caused the long-term debates over the bill.
Trump offered his thanks for the bill’s passage, calling the package “arguably the most significant piece of Legislation” in the country’s history.
“Now, it’s time for our friends in the United States Senate to get to work, and send this Bill to my desk AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!” he wrote on Truth Social.
House members finally returned to work at approximately 11:00 p.m. on Wednesday following a 21-hour hearing in the House Rules Committee. That marathon cleared the package for a vote on the floor.
In the evening of May 21, Republican leaders released an addition to the megabill that was made to address concerns from moderates and fiscal conservatives in the Republican conference.
