One Big Beautiful Bill Act

The proposed One Big Beautiful Bill Act, also referred to as OBBBA, OBBB, BBB or OB³, is a budget reconciliation bill in the 119th United States Congress. OBBBA passed the House of Representatives on May 22, 2025, in a largely party-line vote of 215–214–1.

The House-passed OBBBA would extend the major provisions of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which are set to expire at the end of 2025. It would reduce non-military government spending and would significantly cut spending on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Medicaid through stricter eligibility requirements. It would also allocate an additional $150 billion for defense spending; scale back many of the Inflation Reduction Act's clean-energy tax credits; extend the state and local tax (SALT) deduction cap, which is also scheduled to expire in 2025; and increase the SALT deduction cap from $10,000 to $40,000.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has estimated that OBBBA would add $2.4 trillion to the national debt of the United States by 2034 and would cause 10.9 million Americans to lose health insurance coverage. It contains a number of other provisions, including a ten-year limitation on state AI legislation and restrictions on the ability to hold federal officials in contempt for failure to comply with judicial orders.

Following the House passage of OBBBA, the bill moved to the Senate for consideration. Senate Majority Leader John Thune has set a goal of passing the Senate's version of OBBBA by July 4, 2025.

Background

Following the 2024 United States elections, in which the Republican Party retained the House of Representatives and won the Senate, Republicans began negotiations on passing then-president-elect Donald Trump's domestic policies. In a meeting with Senate Republicans in December 2024, Senate majority leader John Thune outlined an approach involving initial legislation on border security, energy production, and the military while reserving tax policy. Trump, in contrast, advocated for a singular bill to resolve an impending lapse in tax cuts implemented in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in 2017, though the strategy faced risks from defecting members.

In January 2025, Republicans met in Fort Lesley J. McNair; at the meeting, speaker of the House Mike Johnson stated that Trump sought "one big, beautiful bill" to enact his policies. To more easily pass the bill, Republicans chose to use the reconciliation process, which allows them to avoid the 60-vote Senate filibuster (since they hold 53 seats out of 100 in the Senate). It requires the House and the Senate to pass identical instructions before passing the actual reconciliation bill.

House Concurrent Resolution 14

Initially, on February 21, 2025, the Senate approved S. Con. Res. 7 by 52–48. This was intended to be the first of two reconciliation instruction bills. The resolution allows for a future reconciliation bill containing $175 billion for immigration and border enforcement and increases the military budget by $150 billion. The resolution would not extend the 2017 Trump tax cuts. Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky was the only Republican to oppose the resolution. Initially, the Senate intended to allow the House to pass reconciliation instructions first. However, at the time of the bill's passage, the House faced opposition to its one-bill approach from fiscally conservative members.

On February 25, 2025, the House of Representatives approved H. Con. Res 14 by a 217–215 vote. The resolution would allow Republicans to pass a budget containing tax cuts while reducing federal spending. The resolution would also allow Congress to raise the debt limit by $4 trillion. The resolution was briefly pulled due to opposition from fiscally conservative Republicans Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Tim Burchett of Tennessee, Warren Davidson of Ohio, and Victoria Spartz of Indiana. However, leadership convinced all but Massie to support the resolution, and the vote happened as scheduled. Initially, some moderate Republicans also expressed opposition over the possibility that the resolution would necessitate cuts to Medicare and Medicaid. Massie was the only House Republican to vote against the resolution.

In the early hours of April 5, 2025, the Senate approved an amended version of H. Con. Res 14 by a 51–48 vote. Unlike the House budget resolution, the Senate budget resolution calls for $4 billion in spending cuts; this amount is significantly lower than the $1.5 trillion in cuts called for by the House. The Senate resolution also calls for a $5 trillion raise in the debt limit ($1 trillion more than the House resolution). The House and the Senate resolutions would each extend Trump's 2017 tax cuts. Republican Senators Susan Collins of Maine and Rand Paul of Kentucky joined all Democratic senators in opposing the resolution. After the vote, ''Reuters'' reported that non-partisan analysts believe that the resolution, if enacted as currently written, would add $5.7 trillion to the national debt of the United States over the next 10 years. Republicans argue that the extension of the 2017 tax cuts, which expire at the year's end, should not be counted as new debt, which means that only $1.5 trillion would be added to the national debt over the next 10 years.

The House had to pass the Senate's amended resolution to continue the reconciliation process. House Republican leadership intended to vote on the resolution on April 9. However, the resolution was pulled due to opposition from 12 fiscally conservative Republicans. The resolution passed the following morning in a 215–214 vote after the Senate pledged also to seek at least $1.5 trillion in cuts. Fiscally conservative Republicans Thomas Massie and Victoria Spartz were the only members of their party to vote against the resolution.

One Big Beautiful Bill Act

In the House of Representatives

Except for the tax portion of the legislation, the text of OBBBA was revealed by House Republicans on April 28, 2025. The tax portion of the bill was unveiled on May 12, 2025.

The defense portion of the bill would allocate an additional $150 billion in defense spending. Much of the funding would go to uncrewed drones, including kamikaze drones, uncrewed aircraft systems, drone boats, and underwater drones.

The border security portion of the bill would allocate $70 billion for border security, including $46.5 billion for barriers on the border, $5 billion for improvements to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) facilities, $4.1 billion to hire additional Border Patrol and CBP officers, $2.7 billion to improve border surveillance, $2 billion for CBP staff, and $1 billion for inspection technology, creating the capacity to deport up to one million people each year.

The education portion of the bill would increase eligibility requirements for Pell Grants, introduce Workforce Pell Grants targeted at trade school students, end Federal Direct subsidized loans for undergraduate students, and eliminate the United States Secretary of Education's ability to regulate based on gainful employment.

The healthcare portion of the bill would, for the first time, add work requirements for Medicaid recipients. It would also require Medicaid recipients above the federal poverty line to pay more fees for coverage, add new verification requirements, increase the number of times states must check the eligibility of their Medicaid expansion recipients, prohibit Medicaid from being used for gender-affirming care for adults and children (the Crenshaw Amendment) starting in 2027, prohibit Medicaid from funding nonprofits that provide abortion care, make it harder for undocumented immigrants to use Medicaid, and ban pharmacy benefit managers from using spread pricing. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that OBBBA would cause 7.8 million people to lose Medicaid coverage. CBO further estimates that four million people would lose health insurance due to OBBBA's ACA cuts, and that an additional 4.2 million people would lose marketplace coverage due to the legislation's failure to extend the premium tax credit enhancements that were initially part of the American Rescue Plan and extended by the Inflation Reduction Act.

The tax portion of the bill would increase the child tax credit to $2,500 through 2028 and $2,000 after that, add a new tax deduction for tips and overtime, raise the state and local tax deduction (SALT) cap to $30,000 from $10,000, create a "money accounts for growth and investment" (MAGA) savings account for parents which would give $1,000 per child, create a 5% tax on remittances, increase the United States debt ceiling by $4 trillion, raise taxes on endowments of private universities, and allow the United States Department of the Treasury to revoke tax-exempt status for nonprofits the department determines support terrorism. After the bill was revealed, Republican Representatives Elise Stefanik, Mike Lawler, Nick LaLota, and Andrew Garbarino of New York, Representative Young Kim of California, and Representative Tom Kean Jr. of New Jersey announced they would oppose the bill if the SALT cap were not raised further. On May 20, 2025, these Republican holdouts agreed with Speaker Johnson to increase the SALT cap to $40,000 for taxpayers making less than $500,000. The nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates the increase in the SALT cap would overwhelmingly benefit the wealthiest households. The OBBBA would also extend corporate and individual tax cuts passed in 2017 during Trump's first term in office and cancel many green-energy incentives passed by President Joe Biden under the Inflation Reduction Act.

The welfare portion of the bill saw Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) cuts, which would make 5% of the benefit costs and 75% of the administration costs the responsibility of the states. It comes with an increased cost to the state for benefits if the error rate crosses 6%.

OBBBA would prohibit the Secretary of Health and Human Services from implementing, minimum staffing standards for long term care facilities, and transparency in Medicaid institutional reporting, and from streamlining the eligibility determination, enrollment, and renewal processes for Medicaid, Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and the basic health program. According the Medicare Rights Center, the bill "traps people with Medicare in red tape" by prohibiting the application of the Streamlining Medicaid Eligibility & Enrollment Rules. until 2035:

Before OBBBA was passed, it contained a provision which would prevent federal courts from using appropriated funds to enforce findings of contempt of court for non-compliance with any court injunctions or court-issued temporary restraining orders, if no bond is posted by plaintiffs. Section 70302 of OBBBA bars the enforcement of judicial contempt violations as follows:

No court of the United States may enforce a contempt citation for failure to comply with an injunction or temporary restraining order if no security was given when the injunction or order was issued pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 65(c), whether issued prior to, on, or subsequent to the date of enactment of this section.

Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 65(c) allows a preliminary injunction to become effective, essentially, when a bond (security) is posted of an amount that the district court determines adequate.

OBBBA includes a 10-year moratorium on state-level enforcement of any law or regulation regulating artificial intelligence (AI).

On May 16, 2025, the House Budget Committee blocked OBBBA from advancing in a 21-16 vote. Four fiscally conservative Republicans (Reps. Chip Roy of Texas, Ralph Norman of South Carolina, Andrew Clyde of Georgia, and Josh Brecheen of Oklahoma) voted against the bill, along with all Democratic committeemembers. Republican Lloyd Smucker of Pennsylvania changed his vote from yes to no so that he would be allowed to bring a motion to reconsider the bill at a later time. However, on May 18, 2025, the Budget Committee voted to advance the bill in a 17–16 vote. Reps. Roy, Norman, Clyde, and Brecheen changed their votes to present after House Republican leadership agreed to make Medicaid work requirements--previously scheduled to begin in 2029--kick in sooner and decrease future subsidies for clean energy. Despite this, the four Republicans said they would not support the bill's final passage unless more changes were made.

Late on May 21, 2025, after negotiations between Speaker Johnson, President Trump, and members of the Freedom Caucus, Republicans modified OBBBA to ensure its passage on the floor. The modified bill would remove suppressors from National Firearms Act regulation, thereby eliminating the current $200 tax levied on the manufacture or transfer of those items; would no longer allow for the sale of public lands in Nevada and Utah; would cut a proposed tax on overseas remittances from 5 percent to 3.5 percent; would stop payments to Affordable Care Act plans that pay for abortions outside of cases involving rape, incest, or danger to the life of a mother; would increase the rollback of renewable energy incentives; and would move up Medicaid work requirements to start at the end of 2026 instead of the beginning of 2029.

On the morning of May 22, 2025, the United States House of Representatives passed OBBBA by a vote of 215–214–1, mostly along party-lines. Fiscally conservative Republicans Thomas Massie and Warren Davidson broke from their party to vote against the bill, while Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Harris of Maryland voted present. Republican Reps. David Schweikert of Arizona and Andrew Garbarino of New York did not vote on the measure. House Democrats unanimously opposed OBBBA.

According to the CBO, OBBBA would add $2.619 trillion to the federal government's $36.2 trillion debt over the next 10 years.

On June 10, 2025, Republicans announced that they would amend OBBBA through a procedural rule. The amendments to OBBBA removed a crackdown on the pandemic-era employee retention tax credit, removed $2 billion allocated for Pentagon military intelligence programs, removed $500 million allocated for missile development, removed a policy that would have ended SNAP assistance for some households that are also eligible for other assistance, and removed a provision to allow mining around the Boundary Waters wilderness. The changes were made in order to abide by the Byrd Rule in the Senate. By using a procedural rule to amend the bill, Republicans voting against amendments would also be voting against consideration of other, unrelated bills. The rule passed by a 213–207 vote, with Thomas Massie being the only present Republican to vote against the rule.

Democratic reaction

The narrow passage of OBBBA led to internal backlash and division in the Democratic Party. Three elderly Democratic representatives (Raúl Grijalva of Arizona, age 77; Sylvester Turner of Texas, age 70; and Gerry Connolly of Virginia, age 75) died in the first five months of 2025. If any of the three had been alive when the vote was taken, the result of the vote could have been different. Thus, the vote "quickly reignited an intraparty debate about gerontocracy and aging politicians clinging to power".

In the Senate

Following the House passage of OBBBA, the bill moved to the Senate for consideration.

The Republican-led Senate is expected to amend the bill. Fiscally conservative Republican Senators (nicknamed " deficit hawks") such as Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Rick Scott of Florida, Mike Lee of Utah and Rand Paul of Kentucky, have pushed for deeper spending cuts. Moderate Republicans such as Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Jerry Moran of Kansas, along with populist Josh Hawley of Missouri, have expressed concerns about Medicaid cuts. Other moderates such as John Curtis of Utah and Thom Tillis of North Carolina, along with Murkowski and Moran, have also expressed concerns over the end of green energy tax credits. Defense hawks such as Mike Rounds of South Dakota are opposed to spectrum auction provisions in the bill.

Democrats in the Senate will look to use the Byrd Rule, which prevents reconciliation from being used to pass "extraneous" measures in bills which increase federal spending in the Senate, in order to strip certain provisions from the bill. Democrats argue that the extension of Trump's 2017 tax cuts, a proposed 10-year ban on state level AI regulations, language that limits the power of federal court to enforce contempt of court citations, a provision to end a tax on the manufacturing of gun silencers, a provision to defund Planned Parenthood, a provision banning Medicaid from funding gender-affirming care for people of all ages and a provision to streamline permits for fossil fuel projects, violate the Byrd Rule.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune has set a goal of passing the Senate's version of OBBBA by July 4, 2025. As of mid-June 2025, Senate negotiations on OBBBA remain in progress.

On June 16, 2025, the Senate announced initial changes to the House version of the OBBBA from the Senate Finance Committee. These were considered the most contentious changes for Republicans. The Senate version includes more significant cuts to the Medicaid provider tax, which helps states fund their Medicaid costs, from 6% to 3.5% by 2031. The Senate also adds Medicaid work requirements for adults with dependent children older than 14, who were previously exempt for such requirements in the House version. The Senate also decreases the state and local tax deduction from $40,000 to $10,000 for household with incomes up to $500,000. However, Senate Majority Leader John Thune noted that this number was a placeholder and that SALT negotiations were ongoing. The Senate bill also includes a larger debt ceiling increase, $5 trillion instead of $4 trillion. The Child Tax Credit is also slightly decreased from $2,500 to $2,200. The Senate also reduces the number of rollbacks to green energy tax credits.

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (HSGAC), led by Senator Rand Paul, added provisions for new federal government hires to have the option to receive Title 5 benefits and to be subject to a 10-percentage point increase in FERS (Federal Employees Retirement System) contribution rates or to be hired as at-will, forgo protections vested with current federal employees, and pay the lower contribution rate of a 5-percentage point increase in FERS. HSGAC also added a 10% fee for any federal employee paycheck deductions that would go to covered organizations or tax exempt organizations in general as defined by the Internal Revenue Code (IRC). This is considered to be addressing employee contributions to labor unions.

On June 20, 2025, the Senate Parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough, ruled that several provisions from the Senate committees on Banking, Environment and Public Works, and Armed Services violated the Byrd Rule and could not be included in a 50-vote reconciliation bill. The bill will no longer be able to include a funding cap on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, $1.4 billion in pay cuts to Federal Reserve staff, a $293 million cut in funding for the Office of Financial Research, the elimination of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, a repeal of portions of the Inflation Reduction Act, a repeal of the Environmental Protection Agency's "multipollutant emissions standards" for certain vehicles built after the 2026 model year, and a provision to cut funding for the Department of Defense if spending requests are not made on time.

Trump–Musk feud

The bill is credited with starting a public feud between Elon Musk and Donald Trump.

Reception

Support

According to the White House's website, whitehouse.gov, 266 organizations, companies, and individuals have expressed public support for the bill, including AT&T, Comcast, 3M, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, the National Retail Federation, the National Taxpayers Union, and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem.

Opposition

Moody's, which rates bonds, was the final of the three credit rating agencies to downgrade U.S. debt from AAA, citing efforts to pass the bill.Ben Werschkul (May 19, 2025
Moody's downgrade rattles stocks but not Republicans pushing Trump's 'big beautiful bill’
Yahoo Finance. Accessed May 28, 2025.

Polling indicates that an overwhelming majority of Americans oppose its provisions to ban state regulation of artificial intelligence. The provision was seen as irresponsible by researchers who believe that artificial superintelligence is imminent. Others feared that it would prevent regulation of AI-generated child pornography and deepfakes, make certain privacy laws obsolete, and further centralize power in the federal government.

''The Atlantic'', CNBC, ''The New York Times'', and '' Vox'' argued that the bill would create the largest upward transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich in American history, with ''Fortune'' and CNN nicknaming it the "Reverse Robin Hood Bill" (since Robin Hood is known for " robbing the rich to give to the poor"). Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) mockingly called the bill the "We're All Going to Die Act", alluding to comments made by Republican Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA) at a town hall.

Public health and policy researchers at Yale University and the University of Pennsylvania sent a letter to Senate leaders warning that cuts to health programs in the bill would lead to over 51,000 preventable deaths annually.

Elon Musk, the then-''de facto'' head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), denounced the bill as a massive spending bill; he later called it a "disgusting abomination." Senators Rand Paul (R-KY) and Mike Lee (R-UT) backed Musk's criticism over the bill, with Lee writing that "the Senate must make this bill better". Republican opposition to the bill has been associated with the libertarian faction of the party. As Rand Paul backed Musk's criticism of the bill, others have criticized Paul's Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee proposals for requiring new federal employees to be required to pay greater FERS contribution rate if they opt for Title 5 benefits while those who are at-will employees and who can be their employment terminated for any cause would pay a lower FERS contribution rate. The concern is that the increase in the number of at-will federal employees could allow the president to eliminate a large number of employees for any reason. John Hatton the staff vice president for policy and programs at National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association (NARFE) warned about the following:

It would tax retirement benefits, creating a 5% pay cut for somebody under the system, while also undermining the merit-based civil service by having an additional 5% cut if you decide to retain those merit-based civil service protections. Those protections don’t exist for the purpose of the employee — they exist to protect against politically based firings of federal employees.

American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) National President Everett Kelley stated that:

This so-called reconciliation bill is in fact a big retaliation bill—retaliation against AFGE and other unions for successfully standing up for our members and fighting this administration’s illegal attempts to obliterate our federal agencies and the patriotic civil servants who run our federal programs. These provisions represent a direct assault on federal employees and their labor unions and will make it that much harder for federal agencies to recruit and retain the qualified employees they desperately need to serve the American public.

See also

* Bush tax cuts
* Omnibus spending bill
* Tax reform

References

{{Second presidency of Donald Trump

Proposed legislation of the 119th United States Congress
Second presidency of Donald Trump
United States federal reconciliation legislation