‘Big Beautiful Bill’ advances in 219 to 213 House vote

The final vote is expected to take place later on Thursday as Republican lawmakers are aiming to get the Senate version of the bill to President Donald Trump's desk by July 4th. The bill, if signed into law, will extend Trump's 2017 tax cuts as well as fulfill a number of other economic campaign promises from the president, such as no tax on tips or overtime pay.

According to CBS News, the procedural vote began yesterday at around 9:30 pm and lasted until 3:20 am on Thursday morning. The vote was to advance the bill to the floor for debate, a key step to get to a final floor vote.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) began to speak after the vote, and since party leaders have unlimited time in order to debate on the legislation, he was still speaking as of 9:00 am on Thursday, where he was critical of the bill's spending cuts.

Vice President JD Vance said that a GOP Congressman had texted him, "I was undecided on the bill but then I watched Hakeem Jeffries performance and now I’m a firm yes."

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) is also expected to speak ahead of the vote. Johnson told reporters before the bill was advanced that Trump was "directly engaged, as he always is, and that was very important."

"Members wanted to hear certain assurances from him about what's ahead, what the future will entail, and what we're going to do next, and all of that. And he was very, very helpful in that process," he added.

As of 1 am on Thursday morning, five Republicans have voted in opposition to the bill, which meant the bill could have failed, but since the vote was still open, lawmakers were able to switch their vote from no to yes.