BREAKING: Big Beautiful Bill advances in Senate with 51-49 vote

The Senate convened on Saturday, resulting in a late night vote of 51 to 49 to advance the "Big Beautiful Bill" that has been backed by President Donald Trump. The lawmakers will now read the bill aloud before debate and a vote on passage.

Ahead of the vote on Saturday, there were some GOP holdouts on the legislation who indicated what they would do when it came to the procedural vote. The vote is not final, but is a procedural step to begin debate on the bill and get it to the floor. 

Moderate GOP Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) as well as Josh Hawley (R-MO) had been holding out on the possibility of advancing to a vote on the bill; however, both on Saturday said they would vote to proceed to debate, clearing a procedural hurdle for the package. Both voted in favor of advancing the package to debate.  Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), who was also a possible holdout, voted in favor of the bill. 

Others were opposed to the bill in its final form ahead of the vote, with Sens. Ron Johnson (R-WI) and Thom Tillis (R-NC) indicating that they would not be voting to proceed with the bill. Tillis and Rand Paul (R-KY) voted against the motion to proceed with the package along with the Senate Democrats. Johnson initially voted no but later reversed.  

The final version of the bill in the Senate chamber was released late on Friday night by the Senate Committee on Budget Chairman Lindsay Graham (R-SC).

The package passed the House earlier this year before advancing to the Senate. Earlier this week, a number of provisions were struck from the bill by the Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough, who is something of a “referee” in the Senate to guide legislative procedure.

In the budget reconciliation process, the maneuver the Senate GOP is using to get the bill to pass with a simple majority vote has to be kept within certain parameters as determined by the parliamentarian.

The bill, if passed into law, will bring about a number of President Donald Trump's agenda items into law, including the extension of his 2017 tax cuts, stronger immigration enforcement, no tax on tips, as well as others.