The United States Senate commenced a debate on Saturday over President Donald Trump’s ambitious “One Big Beautiful Bill,” a legislative proposal designed to cement key aspects of his domestic agenda while enacting significant cuts to social welfare programmes.
The bill aims to extend Trump’s expiring first-term tax cuts, which are estimated to incur a cost of $4.5 trillion, and bolster border security measures. However, the package has created deep divisions within the Republican Party, particularly among those eyeing the 2026 midterm congressional elections.
Critics within the party are concerned about the bill’s provisions, which would reportedly strip healthcare from millions of low-income Americans and add over $3 trillion to the national debt.
The Senate officially began debate late Saturday, following a delay caused by Republican holdouts that drew President Trump’s ire on social media.
Senators narrowly approved the motion to begin debate with a 51-49 vote, hours after it was initially called, with Vice President JD Vance reportedly engaging in negotiations with dissenting members of his party.
Ultimately, two Republican senators joined all 47 Democrats in opposing the motion to open debate.
President Trump has pressed his party to pass the bill and send it to his desk for signature by July 4, the US Independence Day.
Democrats, staunchly opposed to the legislation and the broader Trump agenda, have vowed to obstruct the debate. Their initial tactic involved insisting that the entire, roughly 1,000-page bill be read aloud to the chamber, a process estimated to take 15 hours.
“Republicans won’t tell America what’s in the bill,” stated Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer. “So Democrats are forcing it to be read start to finish on the floor. We will be here all night if that’s what it takes to read it.”
Should the bill pass the Senate, it would return to the House of Representatives for approval, where Republicans can afford to lose only a handful of votes and face significant internal opposition.
The proposed legislation includes controversial measures to offset the $4.5 trillion cost of Trump’s tax relief, largely through drastic cuts to Medicaid, the health insurance programme for low-income Americans. These Medicaid cuts are particularly divisive among Republicans, as they are projected to threaten numerous rural hospitals and leave an estimated 8.6 million Americans without healthcare.
The spending plan would also roll back many tax incentives for renewable energy that were established under the previous administration.
The bill has drawn sharp criticism from prominent figures, including Elon Musk, a key Trump ally who recently had a public disagreement with the President over his stance on the bill.
Musk labelled the current proposal “utterly insane and destructive,” arguing that “it gives handouts to industries of the past while severely damaging industries of the future.”
Independent analysis suggests the bill would lead to a historic redistribution of wealth, shifting resources from the poorest 10 per cent of Americans to the wealthiest.
Polling indicates the bill is broadly unpopular across various demographic, age, and income groups.
For the bill to become law, both the Senate and the House must agree on the same text.
