Latest news with #spendingpackage
Yahoo
17-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Congress passed its big tax bill. What are the next fights on Capitol Hill?
WASHINGTON – Republicans in Congress spent the first half of the year focused on one goal: Passing President Donald Trump's sweeping tax cut and spending package. Mission accomplished. Now lawmakers will turn to other items on their to-do list that they've been pushing off as they turn their attention to a variety of pressing topics. The list includes possibly imposing new sanctions against Russia, directing the Pentagon on its global defense mission, funding the U.S. government and addressing Elon Musk's efforts to cut spending on NPR, PBS and the U.S. Agency for International Development during the early days of the new GOP administration. But nothing is easy in the narrowly divided House and Senate, where Republicans can lose only three votes in both chambers to achieve a majority. In the Senate, 60 votes are needed for most legislation in order to clear the filibuster. Here's what's coming next on Capitol Hill: Codifying DOGE cuts Earlier this summer, Trump asked Republicans in Congress to claw back $9.4 billion of federal funding to reflect a portion of the cuts made by the Department of Government Efficiency task force. The move would strip funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funds NPR and PBS, and from foreign aid agencies such as the U.S. Agency for International Development and the World Health Organization. If lawmakers don't act on it by July 18, the request will expire and the funding will stay in place. Republicans won't need Democratic votes to get it through the Senate, as it only requires a majority vote and Republicans control the chamber 53-47. However, some Republican senators are pushing for changes to the package to preserve funding for AIDS prevention and it is unclear whether it can get the votes to pass. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer sent a letter to his fellow Democrats calling the GOP plan a "toxic proposal" that, if passed, amounts to Republicans bypassing the traditional bipartisan spending process with "grave implications" for the balance of power. Avoiding a government shutdown Congress must pass annual appropriations bills to keep the government running. If they fail to do so, the government will shut down. That means most federal employees will be temporarily out of work, national parks would close, and some services like federal food inspections would be interrupted. The deadline to fund the government is Sept. 30. Because lawmakers don't meet in August, that leaves only six working weeks to get it done. Doing it the traditional way – both the House and Senate considering 12 spending bills on different subjects, stitching them together, and passing it with a bipartisan vote – is unlikely. Instead, lawmakers will probably need another funding extension with bipartisan support to keep the government running. That won't be easy: Democrats are furious with Republicans' plan to claw back existing funding and are under pressure from their base to push back on GOP rule. The political backlash Schumer faced from his left over the decision to help pass the last funding extension hasn't been forgotten. Expect some dealmaking close to the deadline – or a government shutdown. More party-line spending bills? As Republicans sought to pass Trump's tax bill, fiscal conservatives in both the House and Senate put up a fight over the more than $3.4 trillion the law is expected to add to the federal debt. In order to get them on board, some lawmakers say Republican leadership told them they would pursue a second and potentially third party-line package to pursue deeper spending cuts before this Congress concludes at the end of 2026. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisconsin, told reporters July 8 that he has "a fair amount of confidence" based on conversations with Trump and GOP leadership "we will have a second bite of the apple." But getting another party-line bill done will be a challenge, as narrow margins in both chambers already made it difficult for Republican leaders to muscle Trump's tax bill through. Directing defense policy Approving the National Defense Authorization Act is an annual must-do for Congress. Lawmakers use the bill to shape federal defense policies and authorize spending in the Department of Defense. Once House and Senate lawmakers have finalized their proposals, they will work across the Capitol to reach a compromise between both chambers. The Republican tax bill included $150 billion for defense, but the Pentagon has asked Congress for $1 trillion. The NDAA will likely dredge up new policy fights, from anti-drone systems to making it harder for the United States to withdraw troops from Europe. Russia sanctions A group of bipartisan lawmakers led by Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, has been pushing a bill to implement sanctions on Russia in order to discourage Russian President Vladimir Putin's war against Ukraine. Senate Majority Leader John Thune said July 9 that he plans to bring the bill up for a vote before the end of the month. House Speaker Mike Johnson has also expressed interest in putting sanctions on Russia and has said he's open to holding a vote on the bill. It must pass both chambers in order to be signed into law. The proposal would impose stiff tariffs on countries that buy Russian energy, and would likely give the president broad power to decide when to enforce the sanctions. Trump has previously called the legislation "harsh" and expressed skepticism that it would work, but he has since softened on the bill as his frustration with Putin rises. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: The next major battles on Capitol Hill
Free Malaysia Today
11-07-2025
- Business
- Free Malaysia Today
S&P 500, Nasdaq end at record highs after US-Vietnam trade deal
Wall Street ended higher despite a jump in Treasury yields, highlighting concern as Congress debated Donald Trump's massive spending package. (AP pic) NEW YORK : The S&P 500 and Nasdaq ended at fresh records Wednesday after President Donald Trump announced a trade deal with Vietnam, offsetting weak hiring data. The session began in a dreary fashion after payroll firm ADP said the US private sector lost 33,000 jobs in June, adding to worries ahead of Thursday's critical government jobs data. But markets greeted Trump's announcement that he reached a deal with Vietnam. 'Little by little, we are coming to agreements,' said Sam Stovall of CFRA Research. This 'should be regarded as positive.' The broad-based S&P rose 0.5% to 6,227.42, its third all-time high in the last four sessions. The tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index gained 0.9% to 20,393.13, also a record, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average was unchanged at 44,484.42. The strong performance in stocks came in spite of a rise in US Treasury yields that suggests unease in the bond market as Congress weighs Trump's massive tax and spending package that has been projected to swell US debt. 'It's driven a wedge between stocks and bonds,' said Jack Ablin of Cresset Capital Management. 'Equity markets are applauding the tax cuts… bond markets are concerned about the long-term effects.' Among individual companies, Tesla rose 4.7% as the company reported a 13.5% drop in second quarter auto sales. However, the figures were not as bad as some experts expected. Some apparel stocks rose after Trump's deal with Vietnam meant goods would be subjected to a 20% tariff instead of an even bigger 46% levy threatened by Trump. Ralph Lauren gained 0.9% and Gap and Lululemon Athletica both won 0.5%.
The Guardian
04-07-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Trump expected to sign tax-and-spending bill in win for administration
Donald Trump is expected to sign his sweeping spending package into law on Friday during a Fourth of July picnic at the White House, setting up significant cutbacks on federal safety-net programs and increasing funds for aggressive immigration enforcement. Trump has touted the legislation's passage as a 'birthday present for America', speaking before a crowd at a campaign-style rally in Iowa on Thursday evening, even as Democrats expressed their displeasure at the spending package. After months of deliberations, the bill passed by a single vote in the Senate and later passed the House with a 219 to 213 vote on Thursday, with only two Republicans voting against it. The sweeping legislation accomplishes what rightwingers have pushed for, for decades, as the Guardian explained this week, and provides Trump a huge legislative win. The bill, once signed into law, will significantly cut taxes, building on the 2017 tax cuts during Trump's first term. Although temporary tax exemptions for tips, overtime pay and car loan interest are included, research from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities shows that the bill is skewed to the rich, with the wealthiest in the US benefiting the most from the tax relief. Additionally, the law, once signed by Trump, will add new restrictions to Medicaid, which provides healthcare to low-income and disabled people, and Snap, also known as food stamps, which helps low-income people afford food. Researchers estimate that the Medicaid cutbacks will leave as many as 11.8 million people without healthcare, while 8 million people will lose their Snap benefits. Critics say that the Medicaid cuts will have massive ripple effects on healthcare nationwide. 'This is highway robbery,' the Democratic senator Raphael Warnock posted on X, formerly known as Twitter. 'The bill Republicans just passed steals from you to give to the rich.' Proponents of the bill say that the Medicaid and Snap changes are designed to root out waste and abuse. Additionally, the spending package will allocate $170m to immigration enforcement, a monumental amount of money that will help support the Trump administration's push to engage in 'mass deportations'. 'This disgraceful, anti-immigrant budget hands the Trump administration a blank check to further ramp up its shameful efforts to terrorize American communities and separate families,' said Nicole Melaku, the executive director of the National Partnership for New Americans, an immigrants' rights organization. 'Instead of safeguarding people's access to healthcare and wellness, the bill gives tax cuts to big corporations and funnels billions of dollars to hire more immigration agents, build more immigration jails and deny people their fair day in court.' Already, the Trump administration has engaged in widespread attacks on immigrant communities, by increasing resources to immigration enforcement operations. 'This budget promises to supercharge US Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests that disappear community members, leave children parentless and threaten constitutional and due-process rights for all of us,' said Meg McCarthy, executive director of the National Immigrant Justice Center, alegal organization. A recent Guardian analysis shows that undocumented immigrants without any criminal history have been arrested at an exponentially increasing rate, after top White House officials instructed agents to increase arrests. Trump temporarily walked back some of Ice's aggressive immigration enforcement actions after complaints from leaders in the farming and hospitality industries: last month, the Trump administration engaged in a short-lived pause on raids at farms, restaurants and hotels. But at Thursday's event, Trump again brought up the idea of pausing large-scale enforcement on farms. 'If a farmer is willing to vouch for these people in some way, Kristi, I think we're going to have to just say that's going to be good, right?' Trump said to the secretary of homeland security, Kristi Noem. 'We don't want to do it where we take all of the workers off the farms.' In addition to tax cuts, restrictions on Medicaid and Snap and the aggressive supercharging of immigration enforcement, the bill seeks to end green energy incentives created under Joe Biden, seen as a further blow against efforts to combat the climate crisis. The US budget deficit will increase with this bill, leading to opposition by some Trump allies. The non-partisan congressional budget office estimates the bill will add $3.3tn to the country's debt through 2034, leading to clashes with some rightwingers. One of the two Republicans who voted against the bill, Thomas Massie, said he opposed the spending bill 'because it will significantly increase US budget deficits in the near term, negatively impacting all Americans through sustained inflation and high interest rates'. Elon Musk, the rightwing billionaire who established the federal government's office tasked with slashing federal spending during the first few months of the Trump administration, has also publicly called out the spending bill. Days before Congress passed the bill, Musk repeated his call for the creation of a new political party to oppose the Republicans and Democrats.
Al Jazeera
03-07-2025
- Business
- Al Jazeera
Trump's ‘One Big Beautiful Bill' passes the US House of Representatives
After nearly 29 hours of debate, the United States House of Representatives have passed the 'One Big Beautiful Bill', an enormous tax cut and spending package that represents a pillar of President Donald Trump's agenda. The lower house of the US Congress voted by a margin of 218 to 214 in favour of the bill on Thursday. All 212 Democratic members of the House opposed the bill. They were joined by Representatives Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, who broke from the Republican majority. After the bill's passage, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, the top Republican, applauded his fellow party members. 'I believed in this vision. I believed in the group. I believe in America,' Johnson said to applause. The bill now heads to the White House for Trump to sign it into law. The Republican president had called on his fellow party members to pass the legislation before July 4, the country's Independence Day. As a result of the new legislation, the US will lift its debt ceiling — the amount the federal government is allowed to borrow — by $5 trillion. The bill also pours tens of billions of dollars into immigration enforcement, one of Trump's top priorities, and it will also cement the 2017 tax cuts that Trump championed during his first term as president. To pay for those expenditures, the bill scales back social initiatives like Medicaid — government health insurance for low-income households — and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), otherwise known as food stamps. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the bill will increase the number of people without health insurance by 17 million over the next 10 years. It also projected that the country's deficit — the amount of money the US owes — would climb by about $3.3 trillion over the same period. Democratic lawmakers had slammed the bill as a massive redistribution of wealth from the poor to the rich, noting that the tax cuts will mainly benefit the wealthiest earners. Republican supporters like Trump have countered that the bill will fuel growth and cut waste and fraud in programmes like Medicaid. Yet, not all conservatives initially backed the 'One Big Beautiful Bill' as it wound its way through the chambers of Congress. There were several Republican holdouts who feared how the Medicaid cuts would impact low-income and rural communities, and some fiscal conservatives objected to the increase in the national debt. 'FOR REPUBLICANS, THIS SHOULD BE AN EASY YES VOTE,' Trump said in a social media post on Wednesday night. 'RIDICULOUS!!!' Even Trump's erstwhile ally, billionaire Elon Musk, has publicly opposed the bill over provisions he described as 'pork'. A record-breaking speech In the lead-up to Thursday's vote, Democrats attempted to stall, with the stated aim of allowing voters more time to contact their local representatives in protest. The face of that effort was Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who exercised a privilege known as the 'magic minute' that allows party leaders to speak as long as they want from the House floor. Jeffries stretched that privilege into an hours-long appeal to Republicans to stand up against what he described as Trump's harmful policies. He started at around 4:53am local time (8:53 GMT) and ended past 1:39pm (17:39 GMT). It was the longest speech ever delivered on the House floor, approximately eight hours and 44 minutes. 'I'm here to take my sweet time on behalf of the American people,' Jeffries told the House, his voice wavering at points during the speech. He directed his remarks to the speaker of the House, a leadership role normally occupied by Johnson. 'Donald Trump's deadline may be Independence Day. That ain't my deadline,' Jeffries said. 'You know why, Mr Speaker? We don't work for Donald Trump. We work for the American people.' Jeffries warned that the 'One Big Beautiful Bill', which he dubbed the 'One Big Ugly Bill', 'hurts everyday Americans and rewards billionaires with massive tax breaks'. The legislation, he added, was simply reckless. He called his colleagues across the aisle to 'show John McCain-level courage', dropping a reference to the late Republican senator from Arizona, known for standing up to Trump on the question of healthcare. McCain has often been cited as a symbol of bipartisanship in Congress, and Jeffries urged his Republican colleagues to reach across the aisle. 'We acknowledged the election of President Donald Trump, offered to work with our colleagues on the other side of the aisle whenever and wherever possible in order to make life better for the American people,' Jeffries said. 'But the route, Mr Speaker, that has been taken by House Republicans is to go it alone and to try to jam this One Big Ugly Bill — filled with extreme right-wing policy priorities — down the throats of the American people.' In a poll last week from Quinnipiac University, for example, just 29 percent of respondents indicated they were in favour of the legislation, while 55 percent were against it. Jeffries later added, 'We're not here to bend the knee to any wannabe king,' comparing resistance to Trump to the US's revolutionary war era. When he finally said he would yield back the floor, Democrats exploded into applause, chanting his name: 'Hakeem! Hakeem! Hakeem!' Republicans rally in final stretch In order to reach Thursday's vote, the House had remained in session overnight, as part of a marathon session. But in the minutes before the dramatic vote took place, Speaker Johnson himself briefly spoke to the House, rallying Republicans to show a unified front. He also took a jab at Jeffries's record-breaking speech, 'It takes a lot longer to build a lie than to tell the simple truth.' 'We've waited long enough. Some of us have literally been up for days now,' Johnson continued. 'With this One Big Beautiful Bill, we are going to make this country stronger, safer and more prosperous than ever before, and every American is going to benefit from that.' He added that the 'One Big Beautiful Bill' would make programmes like Medicaid 'stronger with our reforms'. Still, at the final hurdle, two Republicans did break away from their party caucus to vote against the 'One Big Beautiful Bill'. One of the nay-votes, Representative Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, released a statement saying he had previously voted to 'strengthen Medicaid'. The Senate version of the 'One Big Beautiful Bill', he argued, did the opposite. 'The original House language was written in a way that protected our community; the Senate amendments fell short of our standard,' Fitzpatrick wrote. 'I believe in, and will always fight for, policies that are thoughtful, compassionate, and good for our community.' Massie, meanwhile, had been a consistent holdout from the start. His sticking point, he said on social media, was the increase to the national debt. 'I voted No on final passage because it will significantly increase U.S. budget deficits in the near term, negatively impacting all Americans through sustained inflation and high interest rates,' he wrote. A months-long process It has been a long road for Republicans to reach Thursday's vote, stretching back months. The House first passed the 'One Big Beautiful Bill' on May 22, in another overnight vote. In that May vote, the legislation passed by the narrowest of margins, with 215 voting in favour and 214 against. Representatives Massie and Warren Davidson of Ohio joined a unified Democratic front in voting against the bill at that time, and Maryland's Andy Harris voted 'present'. Two more Republicans missed the vote entirely. That propelled the bill to the Senate, where it faced another uphill battle. The 100-seat chamber has 53 Republicans and 47 Democrats and left-leaning independents. To avoid facing a Democratic filibuster, Republicans subjected the 'One Big Beautiful Bill' to the Byrd Rule, which allows legislation to pass with a simple majority. But in order to comply with the Byrd Rule, Republicans had to strike provisions that had little to no budget impact or increased the deficit outside of a 10-year window. Still, the revised Senate version of the bill faced a nail-biter of a vote. On July 1, after another all-nighter, the vote was 50 to 50, with three Republicans siding with the Democrats. Vice President JD Vance cast the tie-breaker to advance the bill. Democrats did, however, notch a small symbolic victory, with Senator Chuck Schumer knocking the name 'One Big Beautiful Bill' off the final piece of legislation. It was the Senate's version of the bill that the House voted on Thursday. At least one Republican senator, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, has expressed distaste for the legislation since voting for its passage. 'It is the people of Alaska that I worry about the most, especially when it comes to the potential loss of social safety net programs — Medicaid coverage and SNAP benefits — that our most vulnerable populations rely on,' she wrote in a statement earlier this week. 'Let's not kid ourselves. This has been an awful process — a frantic rush to meet an artificial deadline that has tested every limit of this institution.' The bill is expected to be signed into law on July 4 at 5pm US Eastern time (21:00 GMT) at a White House ceremony.
Al Jazeera
03-07-2025
- Business
- Al Jazeera
US House of Representatives passes Trump's ‘One Big Beautiful Bill'
After nearly 29 hours of debate, the United States House of Representatives have passed the 'One Big Beautiful Bill', an enormous tax cut and spending package that represents a pillar of President Donald Trump's agenda. The lower house of the US Congress voted by a margin of 218 to 214 in favour of the bill on Thursday. All 212 Democratic members of the House opposed the bill. They were joined by Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania. The bill now heads to the White House for Trump to sign it into law. The Republican president had called on his fellow party members to pass the legislation before July 4, the country's Independence Day. As a result of the new legislation, the US will lift its debt ceiling — the amount the federal government is allowed to borrow — by $5 trillion. The bill also pours tens of billions of dollars into immigration enforcement, one of Trump's top priorities, and it will also cement the 2017 tax cuts that Trump championed during his first term as president. To pay for those expenditures, the bill scaled back social initiatives like Medicaid — government health insurance for low-income households — and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), otherwise known as food stamps. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the bill will increase the number of people without health insurance by 17 million over the next 10 years. It also projected that the country's deficit — the amount of money the US owes — would climb by about about $3.3 trillion over the same period. Democratic lawmakers had slammed the bill as a massive redistribution of wealth from the poor to the rich, noting that the tax cuts will mainly benefit the wealthiest earners. Republican supporters like Trump have countered that the bill will fuel growth and cut waste and fraud in the programmes like Medicaid. Yet, not all conservatives backed the 'One Big Beautiful Bill' as it wound its way through the chambers of Congress. There were several Republican holdouts who feared how the Medicaid cuts would impact low-income and rural communities, and some fiscal conservatives objected to the increase in the national debt. 'FOR REPUBLICANS, THIS SHOULD BE AN EASY YES VOTE,' Trump said in a social media post on Wednesday night. 'RIDICULOUS!!!' Even Trump's erstwhile ally, billionaire Elon Musk, has publicly opposed the bill over provisions he described as 'pork'. A record-breaking speech In the lead-up to Thursday's vote, Democrats attempted to stall, with the stated aim of allowing voters more time to contact their local representatives in protest. The face of that effort was Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who exercised a privilege known as the 'magic minute' that allows party leaders to speak as long as they want from the House floor. Jeffries stretched that privilege into an hours-long appeal to Republicans to stand up against what he described as Trump's harmful policies. He started at around 4:53am local time (8:53 GMT) and ended past 1:39pm (17:39 GMT). It was the longest speech ever delivered on the House floor, approximately eight hours and 44 minutes. 'I'm here to take my sweet time on behalf of the American people,' Jeffries told the House, his voice wavering at points during the speech. He directed his remarks to the speaker of the House, a role occupied by Republican Mike Johnson. 'Donald Trump's deadline may be Independence Day. That ain't my deadline,' Jeffries said. 'You know why, Mr. Speaker? We don't work for Donald Trump. We work for the American people.' Jeffries warned that the 'One Big Beautiful Bill' — which he dubbed the 'One Big Ugly Bill' — 'hurts everyday Americans and rewards billionaires with massive tax breaks'. The legislation, he added, was simply reckless. He called his colleagues across the aisle to show 'show John McCain-level courage', dropping a reference to the late Republican senator from Arizona, known for standing up to Trump on the question of healthcare. McCain has often been cited as a symbol of bipartisanship in Congress, and Jeffries urged his Republican colleagues to reach across the aisle. 'We acknowledged the election of President Donald Trump, offered to work with our colleagues on the other side of the aisle whenever and wherever possible in order to make life better for the American people,' Jeffries said. 'But the route, Mr Speaker, that has been taken by House Republicans is to go it alone and to try to jam this One Big Ugly Bill — filled with extreme right-wing policy priorities — down the throats of the American people.' In a poll last week from Quinnipiac University, for example, just 29 percent of respondents indicated they were in favour of the legislation, while 55 percent were against it. Jeffries later added, 'We're not here to bend the knee to any wannabe king,' comparing resistance to Trump to the US's revolutionary war era. When he finally said he would yield back the floor, Democrats exploded into applause, chanting his name: 'Hakeem! Hakeem! Hakeem!' A long road to the vote In order to reach Thursday's vote, the House had remained in session overnight, as part of a marathon session. But in the minutes before the dramatic vote took place, Speaker Johnson himself briefly spoke to the House, rallying Republicans to show a unified front. He also took a jab at Jeffries's record-breaking speech: 'It takes a lot longer to build a lie than to tell the simple truth.' 'We've waited long enough. Some of us have literally been up for days now,' Johnson continued. 'With this One Big Beautiful Bill, we are going to make this country stronger, safer and more prosperous than ever before, and every American is going to benefit from that.' He added that the 'One Big Beautiful Bill' would make programmes like Medicaid 'stronger with our reforms'. It has been a long road for Republicans to reach Thursday's vote, stretching back months. The House first passed the 'One Big Beautiful Bill' on May 22, in another overnight vote. In that vote, the legislation passed by the narrowest of margins, with 215 voting in favour and 214 against. Representatives Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Warren Davidson of Ohio joined a unified Democratic front in voting against the bill at that time, and Maryland's Andy Harris voted 'present'. Two more Republicans missed the vote entirely. That propelled the bill to the Senate, where it faced another uphill battle. The 100-seat chamber has 53 Republicans and 47 Democrats and left-leaning independents. To avoid facing a Democratic filibuster, Republicans subjected the 'One Big Beautiful Bill' to the Byrd Rule, which allows legislation to pass with a simple majority. But in order to comply with the Byrd Rule, Republicans had to strike provisions that had little to no budget impact or increased the deficit outside of a 10-year window. Still, the revised Senate version of the bill faced a nail-biter of a vote. On July 1, after another all-nighter, the vote was 50 to 50, with three Republicans siding with the Democrats. Vice President JD Vance cast the tie-breaker to advance the bill. Democrats did, however, notch a small symbolic victory, with Senator Chuck Schumer knocking the name 'One Big Beautiful Bill' off the final piece of legislation. It was the Senate's version of the bill that the House voted on Thursday. At least one Republican senator, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, has expressed distaste for the legislation since voting for its passage. 'It is the people of Alaska that I worry about the most, especially when it comes to the potential loss of social safety net programs — Medicaid coverage and SNAP benefits — that our most vulnerable populations rely on,' she wrote in a statement earlier this week. 'Let's not kid ourselves. This has been an awful process — a frantic rush to meet an artificial deadline that has tested every limit of this institution.'
