Senate Republican leadership secured the narrow passage of President Donald Trump’s “One Big, Beautiful Bill” by brokering a last-minute deal between hard-line fiscal conservatives and moderates like Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), who demanded key concessions on energy and rural healthcare.  

Vice President JD Vance cast the tiebreaking vote after three Republicans, Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME), Thom Tillis (R-NC), and Rand Paul (R-KY), broke ranks to oppose the bill. In the chaotic final stretch of the vote-a-rama, GOP leaders zeroed in on Murkowski, working to address her concerns about the bill’s financial effect on Alaska. 

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Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD), along with Majority Whip John Barrasso (R-WY), Finance Committee Chair Mike Crapo (R-ID), and Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK), spent several hours in and out of discussions with Murkowski as they worked to lock in her support.

“I think we were operating under a timeline that was, that was basically an artificial timeline. And I think, rather than taking the deliberative approach to good legislating, we rushed to get a product out,” Murkowski said, speaking to reporters after the bill’s final passage. 

When asked about the “behind the scenes” getting Murkowski to a “yes” vote, Thune said he didn’t “want to characterize” the process.

“I think that she, obviously, came to her conclusion. She, as you know, is a very independent thinker and studies the issues really, really hard and well. And I’m just grateful that, at the end of the day, she concluded what the rest of us did, most of the rest of us did, that this was the right direction for the future of our country.”

The Alaska senator called her decision on the bill “probably the most difficult and agonizing 24-hour legislative period that I’ve encountered, and I’ve been here quite a while.” Still, she pointed to several key concessions she secured, including greater SNAP flexibility for Alaska and additional funding for rural hospitals, support she described as “very key.” She also championed removing a proposed solar and wind project tax and reaffirmed her support for extending the Trump-era tax cuts enacted in 2017. 

“I had to look on balance, because the people in my state are the ones that I put first,” Murkowski said. “We do not have a perfect bill by any stretch of the imagination. My hope is that the House is going to look at this and recognize that we’re not there yet.”

Murkowski said she’s pressed both the White House and Republican leadership to send the bill to conference, rather than rushing it through the House this week. Trump signaled Tuesday that he may be open to flexibility on his self-imposed July 4 deadline for passing the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, before Senate Republicans passed their version of the bill. 

“I’ve urged the White House that I think that more process is needed to this bill, because I would like to see a better outcome for people in this country,” she said.

The filibuster-proof bill, opposed by Democrats, would extend Trump’s 2017 tax cuts and introduce new tax breaks, including exemptions for tips and overtime pay. It also allocates roughly $320 billion in additional military and border enforcement funding, while slashing key safety net programs like Medicaid and food assistance. The bill raises the federal debt ceiling by $5 trillion, enough to carry the government beyond the 2026 midterm elections.

Despite Senate leaders’ promises to deepen spending cuts, the final version of the bill may ultimately raise overall expenditures. Concessions made to secure support from key holdouts, such as boosted funding for rural hospitals and carve-outs from safety-net program cuts, resulted in the CBO projecting that the Senate version will add some $3.3 trillion to deficits over the next decade.

The CBO’s $3.3 trillion number doesn’t measure the bill against current policy. Instead, CBO assumes Congress would have allowed for a $4.5 trillion tax increase by letting Trump’s 2017 tax cuts expire at the end of this year.

Using the current policy baseline, the CBO found that the legislation would reduce the deficit by $508 billion.

Republican leaders huddled with staunch deficit hawks such as Sens. Rick Scott (R-FL), Ron Johnson (R-WI) and Mike Lee (R-UT), who had pushed for deeper spending cuts, including a proposal to reduce the federal government’s share of Medicaid funding for enrollees covered under the 2010 healthcare law’s expansion. However, recognizing the amendment had no path to passage, they ultimately chose not to bring it to the floor. 

Johnson framed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act as a necessary response to what he called the fiscal and security crises left behind by former President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats. He argued the bill prevents a $4 trillion tax hike and a debt default, while boosting border security and defense spending.

“While the bill is a step forward, we have only just begun the difficult task of reducing spending, and there is still a long way to go,” Johnson said in a post on X after final passage of the bill on Tuesday. 

Johnson added, “A rigorous effort will soon be announced to review every program and every line of the federal budget, looking for ways to reduce spending to a reasonable pre-pandemic level. I look forward to being fully involved in that effort to put America on a path to fiscal sustainability.”

Scott praised the bill as an important step toward advancing Trump’s agenda while also acknowledging its flaws, including spending provisions he found surprising given the nation’s $37 trillion debt.

“That is the imperfect process of bringing elected individuals together to pass a bill that works for their states. I have been warning my colleagues for years about the dangers of massive deficit spending and debt for the American people, and we have our work cut out for us to ensure Congress fully understands this,” Scott said in a statement. 

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), who had criticized the bill’s proposed changes to the medical provider tax, ultimately backed the legislation after it was amended to include a $50 billion fund for rural hospitals. In a statement, Hawley pledged to “do everything in my power to reverse future cuts to Medicaid,” arguing that “if Republicans want to be the party of the working class, we cannot cut health insurance for working people.”

Hawley also secured the inclusion of the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, a program that had expired last year and would now offer support to Missourians affected by radioactive waste exposure in the St. Louis region.

WHAT MADE IT INTO THE SENATE’S FINAL ‘BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL’ AND WHAT DIDN’T

In the end, Murkowski’s vote sealed the deal for Republicans and handed Trump a key legislative victory in the Senate. She framed her decision as one rooted in pragmatism, choosing to weigh the bill’s potential harms against the tangible gains she was able to secure for Alaska.

“We have two options here, right?” she told reporters. “Kill it, and it’s gone, and there is a tax impact coming forward that’s going to hurt the people in my state.”

“Kill it, and the provisions that are going to be very helpful for economic development in my state would no longer be available,” she continued. “Kill it, the provisions that we got to soften the impact on Medicaid recipients, on our hospitals, particularly our small community hospitals, that would all be gone.”