House Republicans advance Trump’s tax-and-spending bill, opening way for debate – US politics live | Trump administration

Now that the House has voted to advance the bill, a final debate on the floor has begun.

The debate will be followed by a final vote on the bill.

The Republican-controlled US House of Representatives on Thursday advanced President Donald Trump’s sweeping tax-cut and spending bill, a procedural step setting the stage for possible passage of the legislation in a vote expected later in the day, reports Reuters.

The House voted 219-213 to move forward.

Another update on Scott Perry by way of Fox News’s Chad Pergram and Dan Scully on X:

Johnson on GOP PA Rep Perry on leaving DC to go back to PA. The House is waiting for him to return to the Capitol: It’s a two hour drive home, so he went home to get a change of clothes and all of that. So it’s very practical reason for it.

While we wait for updates, here is a handy explainer of what is in Donald Trump’s major tax bill:

According to multiple reports, Republican Scott Perry returned home to Pennsylvania and the holdouts are unwilling to vote until he returns, as they want to vote as a bloc.

Donald Trump spoke to holdouts by phone early this morning, Fox confirms.

According to the NYT, speaker Mike Johnson said the delay is partly due to members wanting additional time to go through the changes made in the Senate. The publication reports that Johnson told reporters just after 1.30am on Thursday:

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.

House speaker Mike Johnson has said they are “about to get those votes right now” and he expects final vote “by early morning”, reports Chad Pergram, senior congressional correspondent for Fox News.

On the holdouts, Johnson reportedly said: “We’re about to get those votes right now.”

It’s passed 2am in Washington DC and Donald Trump’s signature tax-and-spending bill has been hanging in the balance as Republican leaders struggle to muster sufficient votes in the US House of Representatives.

House speaker Mike Johnson said he was “absolutely confident we are going to land this plane” but lawmakers were blocking the approval of a procedural rule that is necessary to begin debate on the bill and set the stage for its passage.

Johnson said he would keep the procedural vote open for “as long as it takes” and the vote was still open as the clock struck midnight with five Republicans and all Democrats voting against it.

Eight GOP lawmakers had yet to cast their votes, and that group contains several of the bill’s detractors. Enough Republicans have already voted to block the rule but Johnson has been hoping to change their minds.

In other key developments:

• Trump has demanded the legislation – known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act – be on his desk by Friday 4 July and spent much of Wednesday holding meetings and phone calls with skeptical Republican lawmakers. As the rule stalled, he wrote on Truth Social: “FOR REPUBLICANS, THIS SHOULD BE AN EASY YES VOTE. RIDICULOUS!!!”

• The chamber began taking procedural votes on the bill earlier in the day, but in a sign of the measure’s challenges one was kept open for more than seven hours, making it the longest vote in the history of the House of Representatives.

• For the bill to pass it must approve the version passed by the Senate on Tuesday when vice-president JD Vance cast the tie-breaking vote after an all-night session. Johnson has acknowledged the bill “went a little further than many of us would have preferred” in its changes, particularly to Medicaid.

• Johnson said as he headed to the House floor for the rule vote: “We’re in a good place right now. This is the legislative process, this is exactly how I think the framers intended for it to work.” But after voting against the motion, Keith Self, a conservative Texas congressman, blasted the bill as having failed to save enough money, curb green energy incentives or crack down on transgender rights.

• The bill in its current form would add $3.3tn to the US budget deficit through 2034, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office estimates.

Reports are emerging in US media that House speaker Mike Johnson is saying Republicans now have enough votes the clear the key procedural hurdle now under way as well as to pass Donald Trump’s signature megabill.

We’ll bring you more on this as soon as it comes to light.

The White House continues to exert pressure on Republican lawmakers to advance the bill to a vote.

Stephen Miller, Trump’s powerful White House deputy chief of staff, has said America is “on the verge” of enacting Trump’s agenda. In a late-night post online, he listed the president’s achievements and urged House Republicans to “honor destiny’s call”.

Honor the mandate. Honor the moment. Stand with Trump. Bring it home. Deliver the win.

Rand Paul, one of three Senate Republicans to break with his party and vote against the bill in the upper house on Tuesday, has said he spoke to House Republicans and encouraged them to “add ‘real savings’ to [the] Big Not So Beautiful Bill”.

Reaffirmed that I can vote to allow a larger increase in debt ceiling if House attaches immediate REAL spending cuts.

Paul has been an ongoing critic of the bill’s impact on the budget deficit and national debt, but his vote on Tuesday wasn’t enough to stop if being passed through the Senate.

In other Trump news, the president will be in Iowa on Thursday to kick off a year of patriotic festivities leading up to next year’s 250th anniversary of American independence.

Organisers see the coming year of festivities – which start on 3 July – as a way to help unite a polarised country and bridge partisan divides, the Associated Press reports.

But a recent Gallup poll showed the widest partisan split in patriotism in more than two decades, with only about a third of Democrats saying they are proud to be American, compared with about nine in 10 Republicans.

More US adults also disapprove than approve of how the Republican president is doing his job, according to a June AP-NORC poll.

The event at the Iowa state fairgrounds in Des Moines will feature “dazzling” displays of Americana and American history, musical performances and a fireworks show to cap the night, said US ambassador Monica Crowley, Trump’s liaison to the organising group, America250.

As a candidate, Trump proposed a “great American state fair” in Iowa, but it will take place next year in Washington instead.

Donald Trump is continuing to post on social media as his signature legislation struggles to pass a procedural vote in the House.

The president just said on Truth Social:

FOR REPUBLICANS, THIS SHOULD BE AN EASY YES VOTE. RIDICULOUS!!!

Donald Trump’s signature tax-and-spending bill is hanging in the balance as Republicans struggle to muster sufficient votes in the US House of Representatives.

House speaker Mike Johnson is determined to pass the bill as soon as possible but has been frustrated by lawmakers who object to its provisions and overall cost. They have blocked House Republicans from approving a rule that is necessary to begin debate on the measure and set the stage for its passage.

As our just-updated full report says, the vote was still open as the clock struck midnight on Thursday in Washington DC, with five Republicans and all Democrats voting against it. Eight GOP lawmakers had yet to cast their votes, though that group contains several of the bill’s detractors.

Enough Republicans have already voted to block it but Johnson is hoping to change their minds and says he will keep the vote open for “as long as it takes to make sure we got everybody here and accounted for and all the questions answered”.

Trump has demanded the legislation – known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act – be on his desk by Friday, the Independence Day holiday, and spent much of Wednesday holding meetings and phone calls with sceptical Republican lawmakers.

Those and all the other key developments are in the full report here:

Five Republicans have joined with the Democrats to vote against a procedure that would open the measure up for debate and set the stage for the bill’s eventual passage. The Republican leadership can only afford three no votes, but voting remains open and it’s thought speaker Mike Johnson is seeking to persuade some of those no’s to change their position.

In the past hour, Republican Thomas Massie switched his vote to “no” from a “yes”. According to the New York Times, Massie – who has consistently voted against the bill over his deficit concerns – changed his vote because “if this ends up being the only vote on the domestic policy bill, he does not want to be on the record supporting it”.

It’s past midnight in Washington but Donald Trump is clearly still tuned in to the progress of his signature bill as it struggles to pass a procedural vote in the House.

The president has just posted to Truth Social, excoriating his Republican colleagues and warning that their failure to pass the bill will cost them votes.

Largest Tax Cuts in History and a Booming Economy vs. Biggest Tax Increase in History, and a Failed Economy. What are the Republicans waiting for??? What are you trying to prove??? MAGA IS NOT HAPPY, AND IT’S COSTING YOU VOTES!!!”

It is now a few minutes past midnight in Washington and the procedural vote that would open final debate on the tax-and-spending bill has been going for two-and-a-half hours.

A reminder, Donald Trump set a deadline of 4 July to pass the bill into law.

Earlier on Wednesday the House broke the record for the chamber’s longest vote in history, with more than seven hours of voting. The current vote still has some way to go to beat that record.