The marathon vote-a-rama on President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” was still underway in the Senate as of Tuesday, as Republican lawmakers face mounting pressure from the Trump administration to pass the One Big Beautiful Bill Act by the self-imposed July 4 deadline.
Republicans need a simple majority for final passage. Of the 53 GOP senators in Congress, a few have already indicated they won’t support the bill: Sens. Thom Tillis (R-NC), who voted against the bill’s advancement over its Medicaid reforms, and Rand Paul (R-KY), who has suggested he won’t back the bill because it “explodes” the debt. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the Senate version of the legislation will increase the deficit by some $3.3 trillion over the next decade.
The vote-a-rama has also made history: The previous record for the most roll-call votes during a vote-a-rama was 44 from 2008, but Democrats, with the help of some Republicans, appeared to break that record on Tuesday. Around 7:30 a.m., senators took their 45th roll-call vote, when counting a pair of procedural votes that started the session on Monday.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) vowed Democrats would bring “amendment after amendment after amendment to the floor” as they look to stall the bill. Republicans have also offered some amendments of their own, including Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) stripping her own provision over artificial intelligence regulation after a deal over the amendment fell through.
The vote-a-rama comes after a jam-packed weekend in Congress. After hours of negotiations, Senate Republicans voted 51-49 late Saturday night to advance the GOP megabill. As part of Democrats’ opposition, Schumer then forced Senate clerks to read aloud the 940-page bill on the chamber floor, a procedural tactic that took nearly 16 hours from Saturday night until Sunday afternoon.
If the bill passes the Senate, it will go back to the Republican-controlled House for consideration. The lower chamber narrowly passed the legislation last month in a 215-214 vote.
