U.S. President Donald Trump's sweeping tax and spending bill cleared a crucial hurdle on Thursday, as the House of Representatives voted roughly along party lines to begin a debate that would lead to a vote on passage later in the morning.
The bill would extend Trump's signature 2017 tax cuts, create new tax breaks for tipped income and auto loans, end many green-energy subsidies and boost spending on the military and immigration enforcement. It would also tighten eligibility for food and health programs that serve millions of low-income Americans.
The proposed legislation - which Trump nicknamed "one big beautiful bill" - would also add $3.8 trillion to the $36.2 trillion U.S. debt burden over the next decade, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
Lawmakers voted 217-212 to begin a floor debate on the legislation during a rare pre-dawn session that featured choruses of cheers and boos between party members. A single Republican lawmaker, fiscal hawk Thomas Massie, joined Democrats in opposition.
They were due to vote again to pass the measure later in the morning and send it on to the Republican-led Senate, which would likely take weeks to act.
It was not clear that House Speaker Mike Johnson would secure the necessary support from his own narrow 220-212 seat Republican majority.
Johnson expressed confidence the bill would pass the House after a White House meeting with Trump and hardline conservatives, who were angry that it did not contain more spending cuts.
"We're in a very good place," Johnson told reporters. "I believe we are going to land this airplane."
Republicans have been deeply divided over the bill, raising questions about whether they can muster the unity needed to pass it against uniform opposition from Democrats.
After a false start in one congressional committee last week, the legislation cleared another panel late on Wednesday following a marathon session lasting nearly 22 hours in which Democrats filed more than 520 amendments in an unsuccessful bid to alter the proposed legislation.
Democrats later sought to delay consideration of the bill on the House floor with a series of failed motions that called the validity of the process into question.
"We are going to fight back and we are going to fight like hell," Democratic Representative Jim McGovern said.
"This bill is a scam, a tax scam designed to steal from you, the American people, and give to Trump's millionaire and billionaire friends," he added.
The Medicaid health program for low-income households had proved to be a major sticking point between Republicans, with fiscal hawks pushing for cuts to partly offset the cost of the bill's tax components, which moderate Republicans say would hurt voters whose support they will need in the 2026 midterm congressional elections.
But after Wednesday's White House meeting, Republicans unveiled an amendment package containing deals between Johnson and various Republican factions.
The revisions included imposing work requirements for the Medicaid program at the end of 2026, two years earlier than previously planned. It also penalized states that expand Medicaid in the future and raised the amount of state and local taxes that can be deducted from federal income taxes.
DEBT CEILING
Credit rating firm Moody's last week stripped the U.S. government of its top-tier credit rating, citing the nation's growing debt. U.S. stocks fell on Wednesday amid investor concern about the mounting debt.
Passage on Thursday would meet Johnson's self-imposed goal of advancing the bill by the May 26 Memorial Day holiday.
Lawmakers will face a far more significant deadline this summer, when the Treasury Department will run out of money to cover its obligations unless Congress raises its self-imposed debt ceiling. Failure could trigger a devastating default.
Republican lawmakers have said they do not believe the nonpartisan analysts' projections and accused Moody's of deliberately timing its Friday afternoon downgrade to try to block the bill's passage.
They argue the bill will pay for itself by stimulating growth. When congressional Republicans were advancing Trump's 2017 first-term tax cuts, they made a similar argument.
But the CBO estimates the changes increased the federal deficit by just under $1.9 trillion over a decade, even when including positive economic effects.
During the floor debate, Massie warned that the bill's passage would lead to fiscal disaster for American families.
"We're not rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic tonight. We're putting coal in the boiler and setting a course for the iceberg," the Kentucky Republican said.
(This story has been corrected to clarify the current debt burden figure is $36.2 trillion in paragraph 3)
