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Donald Trump’s flagship tax and spending bill moved closer to final Congressional approval on Thursday after Republican holdouts in the House of Representatives agreed to advance the legislation.
The rebellion by a handful of members of Trump’s own party stalled progress through the lower chamber of Congress of the bill for hours through the US night.
The bill is now on track for final passage later in the morning, which would meet Trump’s self-imposed deadline of signing it by July 4.
Earlier on Thursday, the president lashed out on Truth Social at the Republican holdouts, as the procedural vote appeared to be on track to fail.
“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!!!,” Trump said.
With a narrow majority in the House, Republicans could only afford to lose three votes on the bill — and that tight margin will apply in the upcoming final vote as well.
On Wednesday, Trump met privately at the White House with Republican dissidents to prevent them from torpedoing his “big beautiful bill”.
Several conservative and centrist Republican lawmakers have raised concerns about the legislation that was approved by the Senate this week.
Some are unhappy that the bill — which implements a big chunk of Trump’s domestic agenda — does not go far enough to rein in the US debt, or roll back clean energy subsidies. Others are worried about cuts to healthcare programmes.
The “big, beautiful bill” extends vast tax cuts from Trump’s first administration, paid for in part by steep cuts to Medicaid, the public health insurance scheme for low-income and disabled Americans, and other social welfare programmes.
The bill would also roll back Joe Biden-era tax credits for clean energy, while scaling up investment in the military and border protection.
A version of the sweeping legislation was narrowly passed in the Senate after three Republicans sided with Democrats against the bill, forcing US vice-president JD Vance to cast a tiebreaking vote.
That sent the legislation back to the House, which must approve the bill before Trump signs it into law. An earlier version of the legislation passed the House by a single vote in May.
Fiscally conservative lawmakers, including many Freedom Caucus members, object to the cost of the legislation, which the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office says will add $3.4tn to the deficit over the next decade. The group has circulated a three-page memo detailing what it described as “failures” of the Senate bill.
More moderate members have argued that the cuts to Medicaid, which would strip an estimated 12mn people of their health insurance, are too steep.
The White House has dismissed the CBO’s projections and argued that the bill would more than pay for itself in the long term by generating stronger economic growth.
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