US Senate Republicans narrowly pass Trump’s ‘big, beautiful’ bill

After hours of stalemate, Republicans in the US Senate have narrowly passed Donald Trump’s mega-bill on tax and spending, meaning the proposed legislation has cleared one of its key hurdles.

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act passed with Vice-President JD Vance casting a tie-breaking vote after more than 24 hours of debate.

It now heads back to the House, or lower chamber, where it still faces more opposition. An earlier version was cleared by House Republicans by a single-vote margin.

Trump had given the Republican-controlled Congress a deadline of 4 July to send him a final version of the bill to sign into law.

“The bill as amended is passed,” Vance said on Tuesday afternoon, a moment that was met by applause among Senate Republicans, while Democrats sank into their seats and shook their heads in disapproval.

Disputes over the deficit, social programmes and spending levels had created challenges for Republicans, stalling progress and prompting Trump to concede it would be “very hard” to meet his deadline for passing the bill.

Despite efforts to galvanise the party, Senate Majority Leader John Thune lost three Republicans – Maine’s Susan Collins, North Carolina’s Thom Tillis and Kentucky’s Rand Paul – in the narrow vote. Collins, Tillis and Paul joined all Democrats in voting against the bill.

After days of negotiations, Republican leaders were finally able to secure the support of Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski, who had been withholding her support over concerns of the impact of cuts to Medicaid in her state.

Murkowski still appeared discontented with the bill, even after voting to support it, describing the process as “rushed” and under an “artificial timeline”.

“I struggled mightily with the impact on the most vulnerable in this country”, Murkowski said, adding the process was “probably the most difficult and agonising legislative 24-hour period” of her career.

“My hope is that the House is going to look at this and recognise that we’re not there yet,” she told reporters just outside the Senate floor, moments after the vote.

Murkowski’s support made the final Senate vote tally 50-50, and prompted Vance to step in to cast his tie-breaking vote.