WASHINGTON — The House narrowly passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act in the early hours of Thursday morning, marking a major win for President Donald Trump as he attempts to push his agenda through Congress.
The vote is also a major win for House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., who pushed the Republican conference to work around the clock for days to get the vote done before the Memorial Day break.
Lawmakers voted 215-214 along party lines to approve the massive budget framework, marking a significant point of progress for Republicans after months of negotiations on the signature bill. All four members of Utah’s delegation voted in favor of the resolution.
Rep. Blake Moore celebrated the win on social media early Thursday morning.
“I worked to get on the Ways and Means and Budget committees for this very moment to represent Utah in this historic effort to lower taxes for hardworking families and support our small business owners. We’ve seized this opportunity head on, and now I urge the Senate to quickly move through the legislative process so we can get this bill to the president’s desk,” he wrote.
Only two Republicans voted against the measure: Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Warren Davidson, R-Ohio. House Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris, R-Md., voted present.
“If something’s beautiful, you don’t do it after midnight,” Massie said on the House floor.
The legislation will now head to the Senate for consideration, where it is subject to changes.
The bill’s passage comes after weeks of grueling negotiations between Republicans, which had dragged on until hours before the vote on Thursday.
GOP leaders struck a deal with key holdouts late Wednesday afternoon, making a number of key changes to Trump’s massive budget framework in an effort to get all corners of the party on board.
House Freedom Caucus holdouts met with Trump at White House
GOP leaders gathered with members of the conservative Freedom Caucus at the White House as the president urged the most stubborn members of his party to adopt his budget framework advancing policies on border, energy, national defense and tax reform, including cutting tax on tips and overtime.
House leaders returned to the Capitol touting a deal they believed could satisfy all factions of the GOP conference.
“I think we’re in a very good place. I think that all of our colleagues here will really like this final product,” Johnson told reporters after the meeting. “You’ll all be surprised. There’s not much changing here because the underlying product was so well done. So we will do that.”
Republicans advanced a last-minute manager’s amendment, a procedural tool to make key changes to provisions in the bill before it reaches the floor. The amendment includes alterations to provisions on Medicaid work requirements, green energy credits and tax deductions.
What did Republicans change before vote? SALT, Medicaid
One of the most significant changes in the manager’s amendment would be higher federal deductions for state and local taxes paid, also known as SALT.
Republican leaders offered to increase the current deduction cap to $40,000 — up from the current $10,000 limit — for individuals who make $500,000 or less a year. That cap would then increase by 1% every year over the next decade and remain permanent after that period.
The policy mostly affects high-tax states, but the changes were made to appease a group of blue-state Republicans who repeatedly threatened final passage if a higher deduction was not included.
The amendment also includes changes to convince members of the conservative Freedom Caucus to support the final package, including updated language for Medicaid work requirements that would accelerate the timeline. Under the framework, able-bodied adults without dependents must work at least 80 hours a month or complete some other activity, such as community service.
Those requirements are now expected to take effect at the end of 2026, three years sooner than the original timeline in the budget framework.
The bill could also move up the timeline for repeals of clean energy credits previously passed in the Inflation Reduction Act.
The agreement follows an intense pressure campaign by Trump, who made an in-person plea to House Republicans on Tuesday at the Capitol, urging them to drop their specific demands and get a start on enacting his agenda.
The White House doubled down on that ahead of the Wednesday meeting, sending a letter to lawmakers pressuring them to fold, claiming it would be the “ultimate betrayal” not to pass Trump’s agenda as soon as possible.
The House Rules Committee finished debate on the framework late Wednesday night, the final step before the megabill could come to the floor for a vote. The committee convened at 1 a.m. EDT on Wednesday and was still dragging on well after GOP leaders returned from the White House at 5:15 p.m. EDT.
Republicans published their manager’s amendment just after 9 p.m. EDT and it was advanced straight to the floor for debate after it was passed by the Rules Committee.
Because of Republicans’ slim majority, they could only lose three lawmakers’ support. GOP leaders knew they would have at least one solid no: Massie, who said for weeks he would not vote for the bill in any form because it doesn’t reduce the nation’s deficit.