House Republicans managed to get the HB 1, also known as the “Big Beautiful Bill” to the floor for a vote on Wednesday evening, much to the surprise of skeptics who thought the GOP caucus was too fractured to get it done.
In a 215-214 vote, the Big Beautiful Bill passed the chamber and will head to the Senate, where it is almost guaranteed to face a lot of opposition. But, for now, the House has accomplished what was once considered an impossible task. It survived after losing two Republican votes in Thomas Massie and Warren Davidson.
In what seemed to be a Herculean effort, House Speaker “Magic Mike” Johnson was able to get the various factions of the House GOP—the Freedom Caucus, the SALT Caucus, Main Street Republicans, and others—to come together for the vote. It took several rounds of meetings, including a lengthy White House meeting on Wednesday afternoon, to get the bill across the finish line.
There are several key components of the bill, which include some budget cuts and savings, though conservatives have continued to express a desire for steeper and more immediate cuts. One of the impediments to the bill initially was a desire from the SALT Caucus to get SALT deductions back on the table. It appears, according to reports, that they got at least some of what they wanted.