Senate passes Trump’s big tax and spending cuts bill as Vance breaks a 50-50 tie

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republicans hauled President Donald Trump’s big tax breaks and spending cuts bill to passage Tuesday by the narrowest of margins, pushing past opposition from Democrats and their own GOP ranks after a turbulent overnight session.

The outcome capped an unusually tense weekend of work at the Capitol, the president’s signature legislative priority teetering on the edge of approval or collapse. In the end that tally was 50-50, with Vice President JD Vance casting the tie-breaking vote.

Three Republican senators — Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Susan Collins of Maine and Rand Paul of Kentucky — joined all Democrats in voting against it.

“In the end we got the job done,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota said afterward.

The difficulty for Republicans, who have the majority in Congress, to wrestle the bill to this point is not expected to let up. The package now goes back to the House, where Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana had warned senators not to overhaul what his chamber had already approved. But the Senate did make changes, particularly to Medicaid, risking more problems ahead. House GOP leaders scheduled a Wednesday vote and vowed to put it on Trump's desk by his July Fourth deadline, which is Friday.

It's a pivotal moment for the president and his party, as they have been consumed by the now 887-page “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” which was its formal title before Democrats filed an amendment to strip out the name. Republicans are investing their political capital in delivering on their sweep of power in Washington.

Trump acknowledged it’s “very complicated stuff” as he departed the White House for Florida.

“I don’t want to go too crazy with cuts," he said. "I don’t like cuts.”

What started as a routine but laborious day of amendment voting, in a process called vote-a-rama, spiraled into an all-night slog as Republican leaders bought time to shore up support.

The droning roll calls in the chamber belied the frenzied action to steady the bill. Grim-faced scenes played out on and off the Senate floor, amid exhaustion.

Thune worked around the clock, desperately reaching for last-minute agreements between those in his party worried the bill's reductions to Medicaid will leave millions more people without care and his most conservative flank, which wanted even steeper cuts to hold down deficits ballooning with the tax cuts.

The GOP leaders had no room to spare. Thune could lose no more than three Republican senators, and two — Tillis, who warned that millions of people will lose access to Medicaid health care, and Paul, who opposes raising the debt limit by $5 trillion — had already indicated opposition.

Attention quickly turned to two other key senators, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Collins, who also raised concerns about health care cuts, as well as a loose coalition of four conservative GOP senators pushing for even steeper reductions.

Murkowski in particular became the subject of GOP leaders' attention, as they sat beside her for talks. Then all eyes were on Paul after he returned from a visit to Thune’s office.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York said Republicans "are in shambles because they know the bill is so unpopular."

An analysis from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office found 11.8 million more Americans would become uninsured by 2034 if the bill became law. The CBO said the package would increase the deficit by nearly $3.3 trillion over the decade.

Pressure built from all sides. Billionaire Elon Musk said anyone who voted for the package should “hang their head in shame” and warned he would campaign against them. But Trump had also lashed out against the GOP holdouts, including Tillis, who abruptly announced his own decision over the weekend not to seek reelection.

Few Republicans appeared fully satisfied as the final package emerged, in either the House or the Senate.

Collins fought to include $50 billion for a new rural hospital fund, among the GOP senators worried that the bill’s Medicaid provider cuts would be devastating and force them to close.

While her amendment for the fund was rejected, the provision was inserted into the final bill. Still she voted no.

The Maine senator said she’s happy the bolstered funding was added, but "my difficulties with the bill go far beyond that.”

And Murkowski called the decision-making process “agonizing.”

She secured provisions to temporarily spare Alaska and other states from some food stamp cuts, but her efforts to bolster Medicaid reimbursements fell short. She voted yes.

All told, the Senate bill includes $4.5 trillion in tax cuts, according to the latest CBO analysis, making permanent Trump's 2017 rates, which would expire at the end of the year if Congress fails to act, while adding the new ones he campaigned on, including no taxes on tips.

The Senate package would roll back billions of dollars in green energy tax credits, which Democrats warn will wipe out wind and solar investments nationwide. It would impose $1.2 trillion in cuts, largely to Medicaid and food stamps, by imposing work requirements on able-bodied people, including some parents and older Americans, making sign-up eligibility more stringent and changing federal reimbursements to states.

Additionally, the bill would provide a $350 billion infusion for border and national security, including for deportations, some of it paid for with new fees charged to immigrants.

“The big not so beautiful bill has passed,” Paul said.

Unable to stop the march toward passage, the Democrats tried to drag out the process, including with a weekend reading of the full bill.

Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, the ranking Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, raised particular concern about the accounting method being used by the Republicans, which says the tax breaks from Trump's first term are now “current policy” and the cost of extending them should not be counted toward deficits.

She said that kind of “magic math” won't fly with Americans trying to balance their own household books.

Associated Press writers Joey Cappelletti, Darlene Superville, Seung Min Kim and Kevin Freking contributed to this report.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., center, joined from left by, Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., the GOP whip, Finance Committee Chairman Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, and Budget Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., speaks to reporters after passage of the budget reconciliation package of President Donald Trump's signature bill of big tax breaks and spending cuts, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, July 1, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of N.Y., speaks during a news conference after passage of the budget reconciliation package of President Donald Trump's signature bill of big tax breaks and spending cuts, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, July 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., emerges from the chamber just after passage of the budget reconciliation package of President Donald Trump's signature bill of big tax breaks and spending cuts, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, July 1, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., is flanked by Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., the GOP whip, left, and Finance Committee Chairman Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, speaks to reporters just after passage of the budget reconciliation package of President Donald Trump's signature bill of big tax breaks and spending cuts, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, July 1, 2025. The bill now moves back to the House for final consideration. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

In this image from video from Senate Television, Vice President JD Vance, seated center, breaks a 50-50 tie to push President Donald Trump’s big tax breaks and spending cuts bill over the top, on the Senate floor at the U.S. Capitol, Tuesday, July 1, 2025, in Washington. (Senate Television via AP)

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, walks from the chamber to his office as Majority Leader John Thune struggles with Republicans, like Collins, who are opposed to President Donald Trump's signature bill of big tax breaks and spending cuts, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, July 1, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., rushes from the chamber to his office as he struggles with Republicans opposed to President Donald Trump's signature bill of big tax breaks and spending cuts, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, July 1, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., rushes from the chamber to his office as he struggles with Republicans opposed to President Donald Trump's signature bill of big tax breaks and spending cuts, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, July 1, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., rushes from the chamber to his office as he struggles with Republicans opposed to President Donald Trump's signature bill of big tax breaks and spending cuts, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, July 1, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, stands in an elevator as Republicans begin a final push to advance President Donald Trump's tax breaks and spending cuts package, at the Capitol in Washington, Monday, June 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Sen. Thomas Tillis, R-N.C., speaks to reporters as Republicans begin a final push to advance President Donald Trump's tax breaks and spending cuts package, at the Capitol in Washington, Monday, June 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Demonstrators carry cardboard caskets in front of the U.S. Capitol in protest of President Donald Trump's tax breaks and spending cuts package, Monday, June 30, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., speaks to reporters outside the Senate chamber as Republicans begin a final push to advance President Donald Trump's tax breaks and spending cuts package, at the Capitol in Washington, Monday, June 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., is followed by reporters as he walks from the chamber to his office as Republicans begin a final push to advance President Donald Trump's tax breaks and spending cuts package, at the Capitol in Washington, Monday, June 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

ALEPPO, Syria (AP) — First responders on Sunday entered a contested neighborhood in Syria’ s northern city of Aleppo after days of deadly clashes between government forces and Kurdish-led forces. Syrian state media said the military was deployed in large numbers.

The clashes broke out Tuesday in the predominantly Kurdish neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud, Achrafieh and Bani Zaid after the government and the Syrian Democratic Forces, the main Kurdish-led force in the country, failed to make progress on how to merge the SDF into the national army. Security forces captured Achrafieh and Bani Zaid.

The fighting between the two sides was the most intense since the fall of then-President Bashar Assad to insurgents in December 2024. At least 23 people were killed in five days of clashes and more than 140,000 were displaced amid shelling and drone strikes.

The U.S.-backed SDF, which have played a key role in combating the Islamic State group in large swaths of eastern Syria, are the largest force yet to be absorbed into Syria's national army. Some of the factions that make up the army, however, were previously Turkish-backed insurgent groups that have a long history of clashing with Kurdish forces.

The Kurdish fighters have now evacuated from the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood to northeastern Syria, which is under the control of the SDF. However, they said in a statement they will continue to fight now that the wounded and civilians have been evacuated, in what they called a “partial ceasefire.”

The neighborhood appeared calm Sunday. The United Nations said it was trying to dispatch more convoys to the neighborhoods with food, fuel, blankets and other urgent supplies.

Government security forces brought journalists to tour the devastated area, showing them the damaged Khalid al-Fajer Hospital and a military position belonging to the SDF’s security forces that government forces had targeted.

The SDF statement accused the government of targeting the hospital “dozens of times” before patients were evacuated. Damascus accused the Kurdish-led group of using the hospital and other civilian facilities as military positions.

On one street, Syrian Red Crescent first responders spoke to a resident surrounded by charred cars and badly damaged residential buildings.

Some residents told The Associated Press that SDF forces did not allow their cars through checkpoints to leave.

“We lived a night of horror. I still cannot believe that I am right here standing on my own two feet,” said Ahmad Shaikho. “So far the situation has been calm. There hasn’t been any gunfire.”

Syrian Civil Defense first responders have been disarming improvised mines that they say were left by the Kurdish forces as booby traps.

Residents who fled are not being allowed back into the neighborhood until all the mines are cleared. Some were reminded of the displacement during Syria’s long civil war.

“I want to go back to my home, I beg you,” said Hoda Alnasiri.

Associated Press journalist Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut contributed to this report.

Sandbag barriers used as fighting positions by Kurdish fighters, left inside a destroyed mosque in the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood, where clashes between government forces and Kurdish fighters have been taking place in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

Burned vehicles at one of the Kurdish fighters positions at the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood, where clashes between government forces and Kurdish fighters have been taking place in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

People flee the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood, where clashes between government forces and Kurdish fighters have been taking place in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

A Syrian military police convoy enters the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood, where clashes between government forces and Kurdish fighters have been taking place in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

Burned vehicles and ammunitions left at one of the Kurdish fighters positions at the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood, where clashes between government forces and Kurdish fighters have been taking place in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)