While members of the U.S. House of Representatives were back in their home districts over the weekend getting ready for Independence Day parades, U.S. senators remained in Washington, D.C. On Saturday, the chamber voted 51-49 to invoke cloture on the One Big, Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), the piece of legislation that includes President Donald Trump’s tax and spending priorities.
Invoking cloture allowed senators to advance toward a time-limited debate on the measure, which commenced almost immediately. About 72 hours later, the upper chamber of Congress approved the bill.
Prior to that vote, though, senators offered several amendments to the OBBBA. But even before that, the Senate’s version of the OBBBA looked somewhat different than the legislation the U.S. House approved on the narrowest of margins – 215-214- in May. What are the differences between the Senate and the House versions of the bill, and what is likely to happen to the OBBBA now that it is headed back to the House for a final vote, potentially as early as later today?
Let’s take a look. But first, let’s look at how GOP Senate leaders got the OBBBA approved.
The March Toward Senate OBBBA Approval
As noted above, the Senate invoked cloture on the OBBBA by a two-vote margin. Normally, overcoming this procedural hurdle signals the bill has enough support to be approved by a bare majority of the chamber.
But several Republicans were still uncomfortable with the bill’s contents, including its cuts to Medicaid, the fact that it raised the debt ceiling, and the Senate’s acquiescence to the House on state and local tax deduction. (The House bill raised the current cap on deductions from $10,000 to $40,000. Senators originally wanted to keep the cap at $10,000, but eventually wrote the House increase into its initial version of the bill.) By Monday evening, at least a half-dozen GOP senators had said they were still unsure of how they would vote on final passage of the OBBBA.
Senate Republican leaders had no room to spare going into that final vote yesterday. Without any support from Democrats, the GOP majority could lose only three of its own and still get the bill past the finish line. Republican leaders knew they already had lost two GOP votes: Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who objected to Medicaid cuts, and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who said he could not support an increase in the debt limit.
By 8 a.m., Republican leaders had called Vice President J.D. Vance to Capitol Hill in case they needed him to cast a tie-breaking vote. Ultimately, Vice President Vance was needed. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) also provided a key vote of support. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) won her support by agreeing to change the legislation to reduce the impact of Medicaid and food stamp cuts in Alaska.
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), meanwhile, voted with Sens. Paul and Tillis, and every Democrat in the chamber, against the OBBBA. In a statement issued after the vote, Sen. Collins said she opposed the cuts to Medicaid and that “the tax credits that energy entrepreneurs have relied on should have been gradually phased out so as not to waste the work that has already been put into these innovative new projects.”
Those issues are just two of many that separate the Senate bill from what the House approved in May.
House And Senate OBBBA Drafts Differ Significantly
As the Brookings Tax Policy Center explained, “The House and Senate bills are broadly similar.” They both would extend the individual provisions of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), and they both would continue, and also enhance, several corporate tax provisions.
If the Senate had approved a bill identical to the House-approved legislation, the bill would have proceeded immediately to President Donald Trump’s desk for a vote. Of course, that outcome did not happen. There are differences. To start, the Senate version of the legislation includes steeper cuts to Medicaid. And while Senate tax writers agreed to raise the SALT cap, their version does so for only five years, compared to the House bill’s 10.
Other differences on the tax side include:
Tax on Tips. The House version of the bill would eliminate taxes on all tipped income for individual taxpayers who earn up to $160,000 a year. The Senate’s bill only eliminates the tax on tips totaling up to $25,000. The tax exemption begins to phase out for individuals who earn more than $150,000 annually.
Renewable energy tax credits. To earn credits, the House version says construction on these projects must start within 60 days of the bill’s enactment into law. The Senate version allows tax credits for wind and solar projects that are completed by 2027.
Medicaid provider taxes. The House version constrains how much states can tax providers in order to come up with revenue to support Medicaid. The Senate bill reduces the amount states can raise from six percent to 3.5 percent.
Another key difference between the two drafts is how they handle future funding for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). As readers may recall, the Federal Reserve supplies all of the CFPB’s funding. Under current law, annual transfers to the CFPB may not exceed an amount equal to 12 percent of the Fed’s operating expenses. The Senate bill would reduce that number to 6.5 percent while the House outline calls for a reduction to five percent. Notably, Senate Republicans originally had wanted to zero out CFPB funding, but the Senate parliamentarian ruled that idea out of order.
On Monday night, senators also approved a bipartisan amendment that eliminated a provision to restrict state-level regulation of artificial intelligence (AI) for 10 years. The House bill included a similar provision, which still remains in its version.
What Happens When The OBBBA Returns To The House?
Because the Senate version of the OBBBA differs from the House-approved bill, House lawmakers now have to vote on it again before it can reach President Trump’s desk for his signature.
A second successful vote in the House is far from guaranteed. Indeed, as The Associated Press reported yesterday, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has signaled more potential problems ahead, warning the Senate package could run into trouble in the lower chamber of Congress.
According to The Hill, as of Tuesday morning before the Senate vote, at least six moderate House Republicans had said they were planning to vote “no” on the Senate bill in its current form due to concerns about cuts to Medicaid and green-energy tax credits. “On the text chains, on the phone calls, everyone is complaining,” one moderate House Republican told the Washington, D.C.-based newspaper. “No one is happy with the Senate version. It’s amazing to a lot of us – how did it get so much f ing worse?”
Moderate holdouts include Reps. David Valadao (R-Calif.), Jeff Van Drew (R-N.J.), and Young Kim (R-Calif.).
House conservatives are also not fans of the Senate version of the OBBBA. They want larger spending cuts. In a post on social media, House Freedom Caucus (HFC) members criticized Senate Republican leaders, saying their version of the OBBBA would increase the national debt. “The House budget framework was clear: no new deficit spending in the One Big Beautiful Bill. The Senate’s version adds $651 billion to the deficit – and that’s before interest costs, which nearly double the total,” the group said. “That’s not fiscal responsibility. It’s not what we agreed to.”
Conservative holdouts include Reps. Chip Roy (R-Texas), Eric Burlison (R-Mo.), and HFC Chair Andy Harris (R-Md.). These Republicans have demanded that, instead of trying to force the Senate’s OBBBA draft through the House again today, both chambers recess and come to the negotiating table after the Independence Day recess. “[W]e should have the conversations we need to with the Senate,” said Rep. Roy (R-Texas). “[R]eview the bill, find where we can find savings, find where we can adjust what we’re doing on tax policy and make the map actually add up.”
Like House moderates and conservatives, the American public is wary of the OBBBA.
Morning Consult has been tracking voters’ sentiments on a daily basis. In its June 27-29 survey, 50 percent of voters said they oppose the bill and only 36 percent said they support it. Three-quarters of Democrats oppose it while 65 percent of Republicans support it.
Will lack of public support, and frustration among House Republicans ultimately sink the OBBBA’s chances of enactment before the Fourth of July? We won’t have to wait long to find out. The House returns could vote this afternoon.