House Republicans pulled an all-nighter to advance the megabill and are set to vote on final passage Thursday morning.
Speaker Mike Johnson is potentially just a couple of hours away from sending Donald Trump his “big, beautiful bill,” defying expectations about whether he could meet the president’s arbitrary but unwavering July 4 deadline.
After it appeared to be derailed late Wednesday by hard-right holdouts, Republicans advanced the bill around 3:30 a.m. and were set to vote on final passage as early as 6 a.m.
During the all-nighter, GOP leaders kept the procedural vote open for almost six hours as they worked to flip 12 votes. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) was the lone Republican to vote “no” at the end.
Things looked dire until around the 2 a.m. hour, when Johnson and Majority Leader Steve Scalise returned to the House floor saying they had the votes. Not long after, the speaker was seen talking, laughing and what appeared to be praying with some of the House Freedom Caucus holdouts.
How did they get there? Holdouts say they’ve secured commitments from the White House on a variety of topics, especially on how the megabill is implemented. But House Republicans described the hours of talks as more of a venting session for the hard-liners.