The Senate has advanced President Trump’s Big, Beautiful Bill to a full debate despite two GOP defections after hours of drama.
The final tally was 51-49. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Thom Tillis of North Carolina were the two Republican nays.
Ron Johnson of Wisconsin initially voted no but switched to yes.
Vice President JD Vance arrived at the Capitol earlier to potentially cast a tie-breaking vote.
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Vice President Vance enters the Capitol as he prepares to break a potential tie on the first procedural hurdle on the GOP reconciliation bill pic.twitter.com/d2ATm6dP6m
— Max Cohen (@maxpcohen) June 29, 2025
The GOP holds a 53-47 majority in the Senate. With Tillis and Paul voting no, Republicans needed to hope that Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska voted to proceed with the debate.
This was a bit of a gamble since these are the two most notorious RINOs in all of Congress. With that in mind, the GOP gave a little gift to Murkowski: a special tax cut for Alaskan whaling captains, which would benefit subsistence hunters.
Fortunately, both came through, though Murkowski helped drag the process out by over an hour.
But then Senators Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, Senator Rick Scott of Florida, and Senator Mike Lee of Utah held the vote up for two more hours. Finally, they were able to cut a deal.
Johnson then flipped his vote to yes.
As The Gateway Pundit reported, the final text of President Trump’s signature domestic legislation was released late last night. The legislation accomplishes several critical policies, including making the Trump tax cuts permanent, eliminating taxation on tips and overtime, locking down the border, and taking an axe to Joe Biden’s green energy scam.
The vote to proceed was supposed to happen roughly 4 pm. but Democrats blocked it for a few hours in a childish tantrum.
However, there were questions regarding whether the vote would succeed. One key GOP holdout, Johnson, announced Sunday morning he would vote no after Paul made clear several days ago he was opposed.
“President Trump, his goal in the Senate was to make the Big Beautiful Bill even better. I’d like it much better,” he told “Fox and Friends on Saturday.” “Right now, I’m not going to vote for a motion to proceed today.
“We just got the bill. I got my first copy about 1:23 in the morning, this morning.”
Then, Tillis announced he was a no.
Tillis, who has warned about the impact of state directed payments to North Carolina, tells me he is a “no” on the motion to proceed.
“I respect their choice,” he said. “It’s not a good impact in my state, so I’m not going to vote on the motion to proceed.”
— Alex Miller (@AlexMillerFox1) June 28, 2025
Now, the process will stall for up to 15 hours as Democrats have vowed to force the Senate clerk to read the entire bill. But they are likely only delaying the bill’s inevitable passage.
