Live updates: House passes Republican megabill and sends it to Trump; Hakeem Jeffries delays vote with record-breaking floor speech

Trump signed an executive order today that will increase foreign visitors' fees at national parks.

The order directs Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to charge higher entry fees and fees for recreation passes for nonresidents in parts of the National Park System where fees are required.

Revenue from the higher fees will go toward improving infrastructure and efforts to "enhance enjoyment of or access to, America’s Federal recreational areas," the order states.

Most national parks don't charge fees, according to the National Park Service — about 100 out of more than 400 don't.

Trump said today that he “didn’t make any progress” on a potential ceasefire in the Russia-Ukraine war when he spoke by phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“No, I didn’t make any progress with him today at all,” Trump told reporters when he was asked about any movement toward an agreement on the call.

“We had a call. It was a pretty long call. We talked about a lot of things, including Iran, and we also talked about, as you know, the war with Ukraine. And I’m not happy about that, I’m not happy,” Trump said.

Putin aide Yury Ushakov said in a readout of the call that the two leaders had a “frank and substantive” conversation and that Trump raised the possibility of an immediate ceasefire but that Putin did not agree. Putin said Russia “will pursue its stated objectives” in the conflict, and it continues to look for a political resolution to the conflict through negotiations, Ushakov added.

Read the full story here.

Trump said the Republican Party is "united like never before" in a Truth Social post praising the party for narrowly passing a massive bill to fund much of his agenda, including the extension of his 2017 tax cuts, and billions of dollars to enact his border policies.

Trump had given Republicans a July 4 deadline to pass the bill. House Republican leadership rescheduled a planned recess this week to meet the self-imposed deadline.

"Thank you to Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, and all of the wonderful Republican Members of Congress who helped us deliver on our Promises, and so much more. Together, we can do things that were not even imagined possible less than one year ago," Trump wrote in the post.

Trump invited all members of Congress to the bill's signing ceremony, scheduled to take place tomorrow afternoon at the White House.

Vice President JD Vance worked alongside Trump to win over GOP holdouts ahead of final passage of the "Big, Beautiful Bill," with both leaders meeting skeptical House Republicans at the White House throughout the day leading up to the vote, a source familiar with Vance's involvement said.

Vance continued to work the phones ahead of the vote to begin debate on the legislation, which began late last night and extended into the early morning, calling multiple House GOP holdouts to make the administration’s case for them to support the bill.

Trump, too, stayed up late to speak to lawmakers, holding a group call at 1 a.m. ET with House Republican leadership and Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Tim Burchett of Tennessee and Victoria Spartz of Indiana. Burchett and Spartz ultimately voted for the bill, while Massie opposed it.

A White House official said Trump did not threaten primary challenges to earn votes on the Republican megabill.

“The president didn’t threaten to primary one as part of earning their vote. The membership well understands the President’s political power, and ultimately, they want his political power to be used for their benefit,” a senior White House official said. “For those he chooses not to [endorse], we’ll let the process play out.” 

Back in June, Trump’s team started a group to unseat Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky. Massie was one of the two House Republicans who voted against the GOP domestic policy bill today.

Trump called Massie “not MAGA” and a “simple minded ‘grandstander’” on Truth Social last month.  

Trump also threatened to meet with potential primary challengers to Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., who voted against advancing the bill Saturday night. Tillis later said he would not seek re-election.  

Trump told reporters today that he did not make any promises, specific agreements or deals with House Republicans during the final push to pass his massive agenda bill.

Johnson has said Trump was actively involved in the process and spoke to several House Republican lawmakers to assuage their concerns. But both Johnson and now Trump have rejected some Republicans' assertions that Trump brokered deals with them to secure their support.

"No deals, no deals," Trump said before he boarded Air Force One to Des Moines, Iowa. "What I did is, we talked about how good the bill is. I mean, that's a deal, I guess, when you think about it."

A group of five Democratic state legislators said today they were denied entry by Florida officials to the new immigration detention center in the Everglades known as “Alligator Alcatraz.”

State Sen. Shevrin Jones told NBC News that lawmakers were informed they would be denied entry due to “safety reasons” but they weren't provided details about the safety concerns or whether migrants in the facility were subject to those same concerns.

Jones said that when legislators called representatives from the Florida Department of Emergency Management, “they hung up on us after pressing them for questions.”

In a joint statement following their attempted visit, Jones, state Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith, and state Reps. Anna V. Eskamani, Angie Nixon and Michele Rayne said the denial of access was "unlawful," and that according to state law they are granted "full access to inspect any state-operated facility."

House Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Harris, R-Md., defended his decision to support Trump's agenda bill after having previously opposing it, arguing he got "significant agreements" from the Trump administration to secure his support without disclosing what the agreements were.

"When we looked at this entire package, the significant agreements we got with the administration in the last 24 hours made this package a much, much better package than the bill was," Harris said.

Harris was among the last Republicans to vote to begin debate on the "Big, Beautiful Bill" early this morning, bristling at changes to the legislation in the Senate that increased its overall deficit impact by nearly $1 trillion, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

The Supreme Court today allowed Trump to move ahead with plans to send eight convicted criminals to South Sudan, a move that had been blocked by a federal judge who accused the administration of defying his instructions.

In an order, the court clarified its decision on June 23 that made it easier for the United States to deport migrants to “third countries” to which they have no previous connections.

The Supreme Court said in the unsigned order that its earlier ruling applied to the eight men, who are being held in a U.S. facility in Djibouti.

Two of the court’s liberal justices — Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson — dissented.

Read the full story here.

Senate Majority PAC, the main Democratic super PAC involved in Senate races, has new poll data testing support for Trump’s sweeping tax and spending legislation as Democrats look to make the measure a top issue in next year’s midterm elections.

Nearly 60% of registered voters surveyed were at least somewhat familiar with the legislation, according to the online survey of 4,097 voters conducted by Blue Rose Research yesterday and today, shared first with NBC News. The survey had a margin of error of plus or minus 1.4 percentage points. 

The survey finds voters initially opposed to the bill, 43% to 35%, before being informed of its contents. That gap widened, to 55% opposing and 35% supporting, after voters were told the measure “would extend tax cuts for individuals and corporations, increase funding for the military and border security, and raise the federal borrowing limit, also known as the ‘debt ceiling.’ To offset these costs, the bill proposes reductions in funding for programs such as Medicaid and food assistance, along with other cuts to government services.”

The judge presiding over the criminal case against Kilmar Abrego Garcia in Tennessee today directed both sides to stop making public statements about the case after defense lawyers argued the government was depriving him of his right to a fair trial by making inflammatory comments. 

Attorneys for Abrego — who was erroneously deported and later hit with human smuggling charges — had asked U.S. District Judge Waverly D. Crenshaw to hand down the order, arguing the government had been routinely violating a local rule barring comments that could be prejudicial.

A relatively underappreciated constituency is raising the alarm about Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” — gamblers.

Tucked into the nearly 900-page legislation is a change to how gambling losses are taxed that some professional and amateur bettors say could crush the industry.

The provision, only a few paragraphs, would limit what gamblers can deduct from their yearly taxes to 90% of their losses starting in 2026. Currently, bettors can deduct the entirety of their losses, up until their winnings.

What a number of gambling aficionados pointed out on social media was that by limiting the tax deduction to 90% of losses, gamblers could actually owe taxes in years when they netted losses on their bets.

Read the full story here.

Former President Joe Biden called the Republican megabill “cruel” and “reckless” on social media. The bill rolls back some of his signature policy achievements, such as clean energy tax credits. 

“It slashes Medicaid and takes away health care from millions of Americans. It closes rural hospitals and cuts food assistance for our veterans and seniors. It jacks up energy bills. And it could trigger deep cuts to Medicare while driving up the deficit by $4 trillion. All of this to give a massive tax break to billionaires,” Biden said.  

The House has adjourned for the week. The chamber has also canceled all votes next week, according to a whip notice sent to members. 

The next time the House votes will be July 14. 

The House was originally supposed to be in recess this week, but that changed with the votes today and yesterday. 

Democrats are launching a counter-messaging initiative to the megabill that just passed Congress.  

Over the next two months, more than three dozen members of the Progressive Caucus will hold “Accountability Summer” events targeting Republican members who voted for the bill, a source familiar with the plans said.  

“The events will include press conferences outside rural hospitals and nursing homes in GOP districts that will be hit by Medicaid cuts,” the person said.  

Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., one of two "no" votes on the House megabill, dodged questions from NBC on his decision.

Fitzpatrick ran onto the subway and ignored questions about his vote and whether he would run for re-election

The Pennsylvania lawmaker said “Hi, how are you?” but proceeded to not answer questions.

Fitzpatrick released a statement after the vote, naming amendments to Medicaid from the Senate bill as one of the reasons why he voted against it.

“However, it was the Senate’s amendments to Medicaid, in addition to several other Senate provisions, that altered the analysis for our PA-1 community,” wrote Fitzpatrick. “The original House language was written in a way that protected our community; the Senate amendments fell short of our standard.”

Shortly after the House passed the GOP's signature domestic policy package, Speaker Mike Johnson signed the bill, sending it to the president's desk.

In brief remarks shortly before he signed it, Johnson said the bill, which codifies several key parts of Trump's 2024 campaign agenda, addressed Republican campaign promises from last year.

"We had a vision for what we wanted to do as a group. We believed in the election last fall," the speaker said, pointing to the fact that Republicans earned majorities in the House and Senate alongside control of the White House last year.

“We did not want to waste that opportunity," he added.

Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin today warned that Americans will "die" because of the GOP domestic policy bill's provisions.

“This massive scheme to steal from working families, children, and seniors will devastate communities in blue and red states alike. We know the numbers: 17 million Americans will lose health care, over 5 million will lose food assistance, and millions will lose their jobs. But we must also know the stories: Had this bill passed when I was growing up, I would not be here today," he said in a statement.

Martin said that lawmakers' constituents will "starve, lose critical medical care, lose their jobs — and yes, some will die as a result of this bill."

"Democrats are mobilizing and will fight back to make sure everybody knows exactly who is responsible for one of the worst bills in our nation’s history,” he added.

Two House Republicans voted against the GOP domestic policy bill: Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa.

Massie stated throughout the legislative process that he would vote against the bill. Trump has feuded with Massie and the president's allies have launched an effort to primary the congressman next year.

Fitzpatrick, a moderate, also voted no on the procedural vote to advance the measure.

The House just passed the GOP domestic policy bill by a vote of 218-214. It now goes to Trump's desk for his signature.

Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin had a "frank and substantive" call today, during which they discussed the conflict in the Middle East and the war in Ukraine, according to a readout of the discussion provided by Putin aide Yury Ushakov.

The two leaders discussed the tense situation in the Middle East "in detail," Ushakov said.

"The Russian side emphasized the importance of resolving all disputes, disagreements, and conflicts exclusively through political and diplomatic means," he said. "It was agreed to continue contact on these matters through the foreign ministries, defense ministries, and presidential aides."

Republicans are in a very good mood here in the House chamber. Many are lining up to shake Johnson’s hand and take photos with him. A lot of smiles and laughter.

The House has finished debate after more than 29 hours and has moved on to the final vote for the GOP domestic policy bill.

This takes just a simple majority to pass. If all members are present, Republicans can afford to lose only three defections.  

Johnson attacked Jeffries for his speech in comments on the House floor and jokingly put a giant binder on his lectern to mock Jeffries.

"You know, Ronald Reagan said one time that no speech should be longer than 20 minutes. And unlike the Democrat leader, I'm going to honor my colleagues' time and be a little more brief than that," he said.

"I just want to say something that many of us learned when we were children. We were taught, you know, it takes a lot longer to build a lie than to tell the simple truth," he said.

Jeffries just finished his marathon speech on the House floor after speaking for 8 hours and 44 minutes, flanked by his Democratic colleagues who frequently applauded and chanted his name.

“And so as I take my seat, I just want to say to the American people that no matter what the outcome is, on this singular day, we’re going to press on,” Jeffries said.   

His Democratic colleagues cheered, embracing him after his speech concluded.

Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass., then yielded back the time.

WASHINGTON — House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., broke the record for the longest House floor speech ever today, delivering marathon remarks blasting Republicans and delaying the passage of their sweeping tax and spending bill.

During his speech, which kicked off just before 5 a.m. and was ongoing more than eight and a half hours later, the Democratic leader slammed the GOP bill, often referencing a series of binders as he read notes from Americans who he said would be harmed by Medicaid and SNAP benefit cuts.

The previous record for longest House floor speech was in 2021, when then-Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., spoke for 8 hours and 32 minutes in opposition to Democrats’ Build Back Better plan.

Read the full story here.

Republican Conference Chairwoman Rep. Lisa McClain, of Michigan, said GOP holdouts were persuaded to vote in favor of the bill after being assured that “actual tax savings would be done and we would continue to do more savings.” 

“So they wanted to speak with the president and they wanted to get some assurances from the president that we’re not done, that this process is still going to continue through rescission and through other reconciliations, and obviously they got those assurances to the point where they feel that they will be voting yes on the big beautiful Bill,” McClain said on Fox News this morning.

This morning, a procedural vote was held, resulting in 219-213. Only one Republican, Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, joined the Democrats in dissent.

Johnson told NBC News that he doesn’t think the GOP holdouts who eventually voted to advance the bill “caved,” but that they “genuinely needed time to digest.”

“I think a lot of them genuinely, a lot of members, genuinely needed time to digest what the Senate sent over," Johnson said. "We didn’t have it for that long, and they deserve that amount of time to go through it and figure out the meaning and how it would be applied, and ask questions to the administration regarding that."

"They talked to some Cabinet secretaries and even some attorneys and some agencies, and you know, they got a good grasp of what it was that they were voting on," he added. "That’s [an] important part of the process."

After passing the six-hour mark, Jeffries said his marathon speech against the GOP bill will continue.

“So as I conclude this section of this particular presentation, and we still got some ground to cover, we’re going to continue as House Democrats to take our sweet time on behalf of the American people, because the issues are too significant to ever walk away from,” he said.  

After he referenced the Declaration of Independence, he added, “Perhaps I may even enter it into the record later on today.”

Trump is expected to hold a bill signing ceremony for his sweeping domestic policy package tomorrow — July Fourth — according to three GOP sources who have been invited to the event and plan to attend. 

The House is expected to pass the package later today.

The timing of the White House event is still fluid, but is expected to be later in the day tomorrow. Trump is scheduled to return from Iowa around 1 a.m., so an early morning event is unlikely.

Trump currently has a military families picnic on his public schedule at 5 p.m. tomorrow, followed by a Fourth of July celebration with fireworks at 9 p.m.  

Jeffries' speech, which kicked off just before 5 a.m., was ongoing more than six hours later. In the speech, which cannot prevent passage of the bill but can delay it, the Democratic leader slammed the GOP bill, often referencing a series of binders as he read notes from Americans who he said would be harmed by Medicaid and SNAP benefit cuts. 

Jeffries has shown no signs of slowing down, noting that he was taking his “sweet time on behalf of the American people.”

“What is contemplated in this one big, ugly bill is wrong. It’s dangerous, and it’s cruel, and cruelty should not be either the objective or the outcome of legislation that we consider here in the United States House of Representatives,” Jeffries said, arguing that it was “cruel” to cut Medicaid.

Read the full story here.

The Supreme Court turned away an appeal brought by Montana officials seeking to revive a state law that requires minors seeking abortions to obtain the consent of their parents.

The state argued that the measure, which was enacted in 2013 but never went into effect because of litigation, should be upheld based on the right of parents to make health care decisions involving their children.

Read the full story here.

The Supreme Court waded into the legal fight over state laws that ban transgender athletes from competing in girls' and women’s school and college sports, taking up cases from West Virginia and Idaho.

The court will hear cases involving two transgender students, Becky Pepper-Jackson and Lindsay Hecox, who challenged bans in their states.

Both won injunctions that allow them to continue to compete in sports. Pepper-Jackson, now 15, takes puberty blocking medication, while Hecox, a 24-year-old college student, has received testosterone suppression and estrogen treatments.

Read the full story here.

Trump said in a post to Truth Social that he would speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin at 10 a.m. today.

NBC News reported earlier this week that the Pentagon had paused weapons shipments to Ukraine amid concerns over the U.S. stockpile.

The House minority leader has opened another binder in his now more than four-hour speech.

Jeffries is at around the halfway mark to the longest House floor speech, a record held by former Republican leader Kevin McCarthy, of California.

Jeffries has spent the hours slamming the GOP bill and reading notes from people who he says will be harmed if the bill is signed into law.

The president spent most of the night working the phones with lawmakers as he tried to get his signature spending bill over the finish line, according to a senior White House official.

Currently, there is no Marine sentry outside the West Wing, indicating the president is not inside the Oval Office. 

There is a celebratory vibe inside the West Wing, according to the official, as staff prepare for a long day. The president is set to meet with former Hamas hostage Edan Alexander and his family later today before heading to Iowa for a rally kicking off the one-year countdown to America’s 250th birthday.

The president and first lady Melania Trump are expected to meet today with Edan Alexander and his family in the Oval Office, the White House said.

Alexander was released in May after being held hostage by Hamas for 584 days. He is believed to be the last living U.S. citizen held captive in Gaza. 

“The President and First Lady have met with many released hostages from Gaza, and they greatly look forward to meeting Edan Alexander and his family in the Oval Office tomorrow," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement yesterday.

Jeffries has been delivering floor remarks for more than three hours, using the unlimited speaking time granted to the House leaders.

After nearing the end of the binder he was reading from, he picked up another. Jeffries began his speech just before 5 a.m.

The record for the longest House floor speech is eight hours and 32 minutes, set by then-Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., in November 2021 in opposition to then-President Joe Biden's Build Back Better plan. Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., held the record before that for an eight-hour and seven-minute speech in 2018.

Only House leaders have unlimited speaking time on the floor.

A Capitol facilities worker wheels a bin full of empty pizza boxes from Speaker Johnson’s office last night.

Trump is scheduled to travel to Des Moines, Iowa, today to deliver remarks at an event kicking off the one-year countdown to America's 250th anniversary.

The event will take place at the Iowa State Fairgrounds, a venue Trump last visited two years ago during the Republican presidential primary.

“Iowa voted for me THREE TIMES, because they love my Policies for our Wonderful Farmers and Small Businesses, and they LOVE AMERICA! This will be a very special event, honoring our Great Country, and our Brave Heroes who fought to keep us FREE,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post Tuesday.

His visit comes as he has two pending lawsuits against the state's most-read newspaper, The Des Moines Register, and its most well-known pollster, Ann Selzer. Trump sued both of them over a poll last year that showed Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris leading in Iowa shortly before Election Day. Trump ultimately won the state.

House Minority Leader Jeffries has shown no signs of slowing down during his floor speech, which has now gone on for more than two hours.

Jeffries has been reading notes from people who could be affected by the bill as he continues his critique, and said he would be taking his "sweet time."

"It appears, Mr. Speaker, that I'm about halfway through the stories as it relates to Medicaid," he said.

Reading from a binder, Jeffries is highlighting the stories of people across the country who rely on Medicaid, and he appears to be about halfway through the binder.

A super PAC promoting Vivek Ramaswamy for governor in Ohio has raised $17 million since January — a figure that the group shared first today with NBC News.

The money collected by VPAC: Victors not Victims is separate from the $9.7 million that Ramaswamy’s campaign this week announced it has raised since launching in February. 

Taken in tandem, the massive haul puts the Trump-backed Ramaswamy at a substantial financial advantage in the still-developing race. Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost suspended his bid for the GOP nomination in May, after the state’s Republican Party issued an early endorsement of Ramaswamy. And rumblings that Lt. Gov. Jim Tressel might enter the primary have yet to lead to an actual campaign from the former Ohio State football coach. 

Ramaswamy, a biotech entrepreneur who briefly ran against Trump for president in 2024, worked with Elon Musk earlier this year to launch Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency. But Ramaswamy left before the agency was up and running to focus on the gubernatorial race.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., argued that the bill was “cruel” in floor remarks that began about an hour and a half ago.

“What is contemplated in this one big, ugly bill is wrong. It’s dangerous, and it’s cruel, and cruelty should not be either the objective or the outcome of legislation that we consider here in the United States House of Representatives,” Jeffries said.

"But it is cruel to take away Medicaid from the American people,” he added.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projected that the bill would result in 11.8 million people losing health insurance over the next decade.

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., is expected to speak for roughly an hour on the floor against the Republicans’ bill.

Speaker Johnson Mike Johnson, R-La., said he expected the House will on the GOP’s domestic policy package “around 8-8:30 this morning,” if not sooner.

Asked how he was able to win over the Republican holdouts, Johnson told reporters, “There was just a lot of patience and listening to everyone’s concerns and making sure that their, their concerns were addressed.”

Johnson said he’s talked to Trump “multiple times today, tonight, this morning.”

“I mean, he was up engaged as late as 1 am. He may still be up for all I know. He doesn’t really sleep a lot,” he said.

When asked about the self-imposed July 4 deadline for passage and whether Johnson was disappointed to again be sorting out legislation overnight, he said: “I’m not disappointed. I mean, again, this is part of the process. It’s, when you’re doing a big, comprehensive piece of legislation, you’re going to expect a lot of, a lot of extra time, a lot of questions and a lot of deliberation over it. We factored that in, but we’re still going to meet the deadline.”

The House advance the Trump agenda bill on a 219-213 vote after most of the Republican holdouts flipped their votes to support the rule.

Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., was the only Republican to vote with all Democrats against the procedural motion.  

The House is now debating the bill and will soon vote on final passage.

The House has now held the rule vote open for more than three hours.

And Trump is continuing to express his displeasure with the GOP holdouts on Truth Social: “FOR REPUBLICANS, THIS SHOULD BE AN EASY YES VOTE. RIDICULOUS!!!”

With the House rule vote to advance the GOP’s domestic policy bill nearing the three-hour mark, Trump took to Truth Social to pressure the party’s holdouts.

“What are the Republicans waiting for??? What are you trying to prove??? MAGA IS NOT HAPPY, AND IT’S COSTING YOU VOTES!!!” Trump wrote.

Five Republicans have now voted “no” on the procedural vote after Thomas Massie of Kentucky changed his initial vote. Eight Republicans have yet to vote.