US Senate votes on ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ Act LIVE: Donald Trump says ‘Saw great victory today’

‘Big Beautiful Bill’ vote LIVE Updates: The United States Senate voted on President Donald Trump’s much touted tax and budget proposal, dubbed as the ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ Act today (late Saturday local time), according to reports.

‘Saw great, big victory’ says Donald Trump

After the Senate vote, which pushed through 51-49, Donald Trump took to social media to celebrate. “Tonight we saw a great victory in the Senate with the “’Great Big Beautiful Bill’”, he wrote.

Further, he credited Republican lawmakers for pushing the bill, adding: “Victory in the Senate wouldn’t have happened without the work of Senate Rick Scott, Senate Mike Lee, Senate Ron Johnson, and Senate Cynthia Lummis.”

Senate sits late to vote on Trump’Trump’s tax bill

Notably, this is the same contentious bill that led to the public falling out and making up between Donald Trump an billionaire Elon Musk after he moved out of the administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Earlier, US Vice President JD Vance arrived to cast his vote, which is reportedly the “tie-breaking” ballot, reports added.

The tally, 51-49, came after a tumultuous night that draggdragged for more than three hours as holdout senators huddled for negotiations, and took private meetings off the floor. In the end, two Republicans opposed the motion to proceed, joining all Democrats.

Donald Trump reportedly told Republicans to skip their holidays and deliver the bill by July 4. Senators were working through the weekend to pass the bill and send it back to the House for a final vote. Democrats are united against it.

‘Rare’ Saturday vote as Trump’s July 4 deadline approaches

Republicans are pushing forward with a “rare” Saturday process in order to pass the “tax bill”, which includes Donald Trump’s package of tax breaks, spending cuts and bolstered deportation funds, by his July Fourth deadline, according to an AP report.

The report added that Republicans are using their majorities in Congress to push aside Democratic opposition, but face some internal division. Not all are agreeable to the tax cuts towards food stamps, Medicaid and other programs in order to dole out Trump’s $3.8 trillion tax breaks, it added.

‘Strongly support critical bill’, says White House

In a statement before the voting process began, the White House said it “strongly supports passage” of the bill that “implements critical aspects” of the president’s agenda.

Donald Trump himself was at his golf course in Virginia; while Senate Majority Leader John Thune, Republican – South Dakota, wrote on X, “It’s time to get this legislation across the finish line.”

Elon Musk renews attack on tax bills, calls it ‘utterly insane’

Meanwhile, Elon Musk has renewed his criticim of Donald Trump’s tax plan in a scathing post on social media platform X. He called the bill “utterly insane and destructive.”

“The latest Senate draft bill will destroy millions of jobs in America and cause immense strategic harm to our country!” he added.

Criticism over hurry: Bill dropped ‘in the dead of the night’

New York’s Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer criticised the bill being tabled in a hurry, accusing the Republicans of dropping the bill “in the dead of night” and are rushing to finish the bill before the public fully knows what’s in it, AP reported.

Notably, the 940-page bill was near midnight on June 27 (Friday), and senators are expected to pull all-night debates and amendments before it is passed in a few days. The report added that Senate passage could be days away, and the bill would need to return to the House for a final round of votes before it could reach the White House.

Republicans hold narrow majorities in the House and Senate, and thus need almost every lawmaker to unite in order to beat opposition from Democrats.

Not all Republican onboard with ‘Big Beautiful Bill’

The point of contention for dissenting Republicans is that funding for Donald Trump’s bill is proposed from cuts to some services such as food stamps and Medicaid, and they feel the cuts go too far, the AP report said. Some others argue that the hit to national debt would be immense and are pushing for steeper cuts.

• R-North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis said he is concerned over fundamentals of the package and will not support the procedural motion to begin debate.
• R-Kentucky Senator Rand Paul opposes the measure to raise the nation’s debt limit by $5 trillion.
• R-Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson is pushing for deeper cuts, said he needed to see the final legislative text.
• R-Montana Senator Tim Sheehy said he would agree to proceeding to the bill only after being assured a provision for public lands sales he opposes would be taken out with an amendment.

Cuts to impact heathcare for over 10 million, food stamps for 3 million

As per the report, an estimate from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office showed that the House-passed version of Trump’s tax bill would cost around 10.9 million more people their healthcare, and at least 3 million food aid. Estimates on the Senate draft, which proposes steeper cuts, are not yet out from the CBO.

Top income-earners would see about a $12,000 tax cut under the House bill, while the package would cost the poorest Americans $1,600, the CBO said.

‘One Big Beautiful Bill’: What is proposed?

• Under the proposed bill, existing tax rates and brackets would be made permanent.
• It also introduce several temporary tax breaks aligned with Donald Trump’s campaign promises, such as eliminating taxes on tips, overtime pay, and certain automotive loans.
• Additionally, the Senate draft includes a new $6,000 deduction for older adults earning $75,000 or less annually.
• The child tax credit would also see an increase under the Senate version, rising from $2,000 to $2,200.
• A cap on state and local deductions, called SALT, would quadruple to $40,000 for five years. It’s a provision important to New York and other high-tax states, though the House wanted it to last for 10 years, reported AP.
• The bill would provide some $350 billion for Trump’s border and national security agenda, including $46 billion for the US-Mexico border wall and $45 billion for 100,000 migrant detention facility beds, as he aims to fulfil his promise of the largest mass deportation operation in US history.
• Money would go for hiring 10,000 new ICE aka Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, with $10,000 signing bonuses and a surge of Border Patrol officers, as well. The goal is to deport some 1 million people per year. 
• The homeland security secretary would have a new $10 billion fund for grants for states that help with federal immigration enforcement and deportation actions.
• The attorney general would have $3.5 billion for a similar fund, known as Bridging Immigration-related Deficits Experienced Nationwide, or BIDEN, referring to former Democratic president Joe Biden. To help pay for it all, immigrants would face various new fees, including when seeking asylum protections. 
• For the Pentagon, the bill would provide billions for ship building, munitions systems, and quality of life measures for servicemen and women, as well as $25 billion for the development of the Golden Dome missile defence system. 
• The Defence Department would have $1 billion for border security.

(With inputs from AP)