US President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” which is a package of tax breaks, spending cuts and bolstered deportation funds is eyeing a passage in the House by July 4 deadline as the Senate Republicans released the latest version of the 940-page bill, which is being touted as the centrepiece legislation of the president’s second-term agenda.
The latest draft of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, released early on Saturday, has some notable differences from the earlier version which was passed in the House of Representatives in May by a single vote. Senators have been working through the weekend to pass the bill and send it back to the House for a final vote as Trump told Republicans to skip holiday vacations and deliver the bill by July 4.
Republican leaders hold a narrow majority in the House and Senate and would require a complete unity in their group for the bill to be passed. However, criticism of the bill by GOP cheerleaders, like Elon Musk have given a headache to the Trump administration and the passage of the bill.
What are the changes made in latest version of the bill?
Key changes have been made in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, latest draft of which has been released on Saturday. The changes include increased cuts to Medicaid, increased proportion of tax deduction for older Americans under Social Security taxes, increasing the deduction limit for state and local taxes (SALT).
Reforms have also been added to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). It is a government programme utilised by over 40 million Americans who are low-income. The new reform requires states to contribute more to the programme. The Senate version of the bill includes a provision that would allow Americans to deduct tips and overtime from their taxes.
The Senate version has recommended phasing out clean energy tax credits, a former President Joe Biden-era federal law, more slowly. The Senate, for instance, has extended the runway for businesses that manufacture wind and solar farms to keep getting benefits from tax credits.
Why is the bill being criticised?
President Trump’s aide and billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk heavily criticised the “big, beautiful bill” and said that he was “disappointed to see the massive spending bill, which increases the budget deficit”. Musk, who was heading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) tasked with cutting state spending, had said the bill would undermine all the work done by DOGE.
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The bill attracted criticism from Democrats and a few GOP leaders as it would lead to $1 trillion in cuts to benefits aimed at supporting struggling households, including a health insurance scheme for low-income families, Medicaid among others.
What’s the final cost?
In the latest 940-page version of the bill, if all the existing tax breaks are kept and the new ones are added, Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” is expected to cost $3.8 trillion over the decade, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) said in one of its analyses. The CBO further estimates that the House-passed package would add $2.4 trillion to the nation’s deficits over the next decade.
According to the Senate GOP view, the tax provisions would cost $441 billion. Democrats, while criticising the bill, said this is the “magic math” that obscures the true costs of GOP tax breaks. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget has put the Senate tally at $4.2 trillion over the next decade, reports PBS.
What happens next?
The Senate must agree with the latest version of the bill before sending it to the floor for a vote. Since the bill has made some key changes to the original bill that was passed in the House of Representatives, the bill is poised to return to the House for another round of vote where it will face further challenges.
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Republicans in the House have expressed their grievances with the bill and the GOP requires complete support from the Republican leaders in the House and Senate, for the bill to pass due to a razor thin majority in both the houses.
