By Dawn's Early Light: Battles Trump's 'big, beautiful bill' will face in the Senate
"This is one big ugly bill that House Republicans are trying to jam down the throats of the American people under the cover of darkness," argued House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y. at 6:09 a.m. Thursday morning on the House floor.
Nothing could be further from the truth. The sun was rising.
"Why are we here at 3 a.m., fast-tracking this bill?" asked Rep. Becca Balint, D-Vt., during House debate on the measure at 3:15 a.m. ET Thursday.
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The House debated the package well past the witching hour Thursday, but lawmakers approved the bill just before the break of dawn.
House Republicans squeezed out a victory, 215-214 with Freedom Caucus Chairman Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., voting present.
There haven’t been many all-night sessions in Congress lately. Especially when moving a piece of legislation of his magnitude during off-hours - coated with high drama and towering political stakes. But it’s not surprising that the House had to burn the midnight oil – on three different occasions – just to finish the package in recent days. That’s typical for massive legislation with exponential consequences. It doesn’t matter what party or what the issue is. COVID-19 money. Obamacare. The infrastructure law. The Inflation Reduction Act. You name it. Congress works around the clock when they’re on the precipice of doing something big.
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Whether it’s good is another question.
The week started with a Sunday night meeting of the House Budget Committee at 10:26 p.m. The House Rules Committee did the Budget Committee one better, meeting at 1 a.m. Wednesday. That session ran nearly 22 hours, ending late Wednesday night. The House then began floor action on the bill in the early hours of Thursday. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., gaveled the vote closed on the bill just before 7 a.m.
Talking about Congress is usually enough to put people to sleep, but with hours like these, if you snooze, you lose.
Rip Van Winkle, er, Rep. Andrew Garbarino, R-N.Y., accidentally caught a few zzz’s early Thursday at precisely the wrong time. Johnson said Garbarino "fell asleep in the back" of the House chamber during the vote on the "big, beautiful bill."
Garbarino and other Empire State Republicans lost sleep for weeks as they fought for a deal on SALT. They wanted a higher deduction for state and local taxes in exchange for their support of the bill. A sleeper issue, this wasn’t. A new pact was paramount to passing the bill. Still, Garbarino was less than satisfied with the compromise.
Perhaps it gets changed in the Senate.
Garbarino can only dream.
If you heard a creaky noise on the north side of the U.S. Capitol Thursday, that was the Senate awakening from its legislative slumber. The Senate has focused for most of President Donald Trump’s term on confirming his cabinet. Legislation hasn’t dominated Senate floor traffic this year, but that will change soon.
"Our team is suiting up for discussions with the Senate side of Capitol Hill," said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
But divisions are already emerging.
Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., abhors the House package.
"I have already said that in its current state it’s completely unacceptable to me," said Johnson. "I would vote no."
President Trump wants the Senate to finish the measure and deposit it on his desk by July 4, but the Wisconsin Republican quibbled with Mr. Trump’s timetable and demand for this version of the bill.
"I couldn't care less if he's upset," said Johnson.
Other Republican senators were willing to grant some deference to President Trump.
But only to a point.
"He’s the leader of the band and he's a heck of a good leader," said Sen. Jim Justice, R-W.Va. "But with all that said, I would tell you we don't want to get in a hurry just to meet a deadline date and everything. We want to get it right."
Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., thought that July 4 was an "optimistic" deadline.
"Look at how long it’s taken the House to get to this point," said Tillis. "There's still a lot of decisions to be made. So I think we're talking about weeks or months."
And the Senate will inevitably change the measure.
"The Senate's going to want to put its own stamp on this. We'll write our own version of the bill," said Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo.
Senators are already making their demands.
"I'm not voting to raise the debt ceiling $5 trillion, because that's not fiscally responsible and that's not conservative," said Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky.
Trimming deficits worried other senators.
"Don't get high on our horse here that we've somehow made some major advancement of reducing spending because we didn't," said Senate Budget Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.
What winds up in the bill hinges on a solitary factor.
"We’ve got to get to 51 votes," said Tillis.
Senate Democrats are also thinking about the number 51, but in the context of 2026. Democrats believe this bill might help them get 51 Senate seats in the midterms.
"Based on what the House has passed our, chances of taking back the Senate have just increased," said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
House Democrats believe the early morning roll call vote in House will be the seminal ballot cast in this session of Congress.
"This day may very well turn out to be the day that House Republicans lost control of the United States House of Representatives," said Jeffries.
That’s not a newsflash. Both parties customarily focus on a handful of votes each body takes over the course of a two-year Congress. They deploy the results of those votes against their opponents. Take a look at the tiny script on the lower portion of the TV screen when ads for the midterms begin running in September and October next year. You can bet Democrats will document the vote which closed at dawn Thursday.
Moreover, Republicans are stashing all of their political eggs in one basket. The bulk of President Trump’s agenda is tucked into this singular measure – for better or worse. Lawmakers must fund the government later this year. And next year, too. But after that, it’s unclear if Republicans have any other legislation which would compete with the breadth of this bill.
Jeffries alleged that Republicans tried to advance the bill "under the cover of darkness." That isn’t accurate. Democrats - and Republicans – will work to make sure voters know all about this bill. The political consequences of this legislation are too significant.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. And voters will decide just how "beautiful" this big bill is.