On The Cusp: House Democrats Stall ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ For Hours After GOP Votes To Advance

Overnight, most of the Republican holdouts on the ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ relented, flipping their support to advance the legislation to a final vote on the House floor after several deals were cut with President Trump. Earlier in the morning, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) kept the procedural vote open for almost six hours – which once passed would kick off debate before final passage. 

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), however, decided to throw a massive tantrum that’s been going on for more than five hours in what’s known as the “magic minute,” a privilege for party leaders in the chamber that allows them to speak for as long as they want. According to Fox News, Jeffries was seen arriving with multiple binders – one of which he read from for around three hours. If the rest of the binders also contain portions of his speech, we could be waiting for a while.

If Jeffries speaks until at least 1:26 p.m. he’ll break the record for the longest floor speech held by former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who spoke for 8 hours and 32 minutes, according to Punchbowl News‘ Jake Sherman.

The move comes after the House burned the midnight oil to advance the $3.3 trillion ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ to its final phase in Congress.

The GOP holdouts were convinced to flip after President Trump promised them that he would use his executive powers to vigorously enforce certain provisions for green energy tax credits.

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) was a one-man rollercoaster for the GOP leadership. Massie railed against the bill all week. He initially voted for the rule. But then at 11:30 p.m., Massie entered a mostly empty House chamber and switched his vote from yes to no.

However, Massie – who Trump has personally targeted for defeat in 2026 – switched again back to yes when all the hardliners flipped. The GOP leadership hopes that Massie will vote for final passage later this morning. And he has made clear that he would like Trump to stop attacking him. -Punchbowl

“He did a masterful job of laying out how we could improve it, how he could use his chief executive office, use things to make the bill better,” Rep. Ralph Norman of South Carolina told CNBC. 

This comes after multiple Republicans were seen in the West Wing on Wednesday to cut deals as Trump pressed them into voting yes on the bill. 

Norman said he would be a ‘nay’ on the Senate-passed version of the bill, only to flip and support it after his meeting with Trump - who promised to use his office to stringently enforce energy tax credit phase-outs.

“President Trump is going to use his powers to — like on the subsidies, to make sure that it’s a lot of these subsidies won’t remain in effect, you know, from here on out,” said Norman. 

Trump, meanwhile, says he plans to sign his signature tax and spending bill tomorrow morning at a White House ceremony, Punchbowl’s Sherman posted on X.

NEW — I am now told that this signing ceremony will be at 5 p.m. tomorrow.

Seems like it’s a moving target https://t.co/JJu017sA6w

— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) July 3, 2025

In response to the GOP’s advancing the bill, Trump said on Truth Social that it was a “great night.” 

“What a great night it was. One of the most consequential Bills ever,” he wrote, adding “The USA is the ‘HOTTEST’ Country in the World, by far!!!“

The core of the BBB permanently extends and expands the 2017 Trump tax cuts, introducing new deductions for tip income and overtime pay, while providing significant tax relief for Social Security recipients.

It reinstates full and immediate expensing for business equipment and R&D, delivers new construction write-offs for manufacturers, and boosts incentives for domestic semiconductor production. High-income Americans and owners of pass-through entities also stand to benefit from expanded deductions, and the bill raises the state and local tax deduction cap for upper-middle-class households. But these tax changes are offset by historic spending cuts—chiefly, nearly $1 trillion in reductions to Medicaid and SNAP.

The legislation also scales back Affordable Care Act subsidies and imposes stricter eligibility checks, drawing ire from hospitals and health advocates. Meanwhile, clean energy and EV sectors face deep setbacks as tax credits are repealed and renewable subsidies curtailed.