By Leif Le Mahieu | Daily Wire
"Today we are laying a key cornerstone of America's new golden age."
The House passed President Donald Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill” on Thursday, overcoming significant Democratic opposition and internal Republican hesitancy to hand the president a major legislative victory.
The Republican-controlled House voted 218-214 to pass the measure shortly after Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) wrapped up an hours-long speech delaying the bill’s advancement. Trump, who imposed a July 4 deadline for its passage, is expected to sign the bill at the White House sometime on Friday.
“With one big, beautiful bill, we are going to make this country stronger, safer, and more prosperous than ever before. And every American is going to benefit from this,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said just before the vote. “Today we are laying a key cornerstone of America’s new golden age.”
To reach the final vote, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) spent hours working with Republican holdouts to get them to back the measure. Once he opened up the vote on advancing the bill to final debate, Johnson said he would keep the vote open as long as needed to secure the votes.
“It will have all been worth it in the end. And we will meet our July 4 deadline, which everybody mocked when I said it,” Johnson told reporters after midnight on Thursday.
By 3:30 a.m., Johnson had the votes, and the House voted 219-213 to send the bill to a final debate and vote.
After that vote, Jeffries spoke for more than eight hours, utilizing a rule that allows House leadership members to speak for as long as they want. During his speech, Jeffries accused Republicans of imperiling the welfare of Americans who rely on programs like Medicaid and food stamps.
Throughout the night Trump also pushed Republicans to back the measure, which makes the 2017 tax cuts permanent, increases funding for border security, enacts work requirements for able-bodied recipients of Medicaid and food stamps, defunds Planned Parenthood for a year, funds the “Golden Dome” missile defense program, and ends taxes on tips and overtime.