Facing intense pressure, House must now decide if Trump’s bill is good enough

After nearly 24 hours of debate – starting yesterday morning and stretching overnight – the US Senate approved Donald Trump’s massive tax-cut and spending bill

Passing by the narrowest of margins, the bill contains key parts of the agenda he campaigned on last year.

Trump celebrated its passage during a visit to a migrant detention facility in Florida. “It’s a great bill,” he said. “There is something for everyone.”

But in fact, while lawmakers may have got “something” they wanted, they had to make concessions to achieve that.

Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski said she worked hard to ensure the bill provided for her state and ultimately voted for it, but was still unhappy. She called the process “rushed”.

“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.

In a game of political ping-pong, the bill now returns to the House, which passed its version of the bill weeks ago.

If the narrow Republican majority in that chamber gives final approval, perhaps as early as Wednesday, the legislation can be presented to the president for his signature.

But it may be a tough pill for some House Republicans to swallow.

It includes massive new funding -$70bn – for Trump’s immigration priorities. It boosts defence spending and makes the tax cuts Republicans passed in Trump’s first term permanent. To offset this loss, it cuts funding for Biden-era environmental programmes and Medicaid, the health insurance programme for low-income Americans.