Senate Republicans may have left Washington touting President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” but the long path to that legislative triumph began about 18 months ago — well before the GOP reclaimed unified control of government.
The $3.3 trillion package, packed with Trump’s key policy goals on border security, energy independence, and defense, was the result of months of strategy, negotiation, and internal wrangling. At its heart was an extension — or in some cases, a permanent renewal — of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. That was the real engine behind Republicans’ drive to push the legislation across the finish line.
Yet after Trump signed the bill into law, Senate Republicans had hardly any time to savor the win. They immediately pivoted to a $9 billion clawback effort while continuing to fight Democratic resistance to Trump’s nominees.
The Road to Reclaiming the Agenda
It all started quietly, long before the 2024 elections delivered the GOP the White House and both chambers of Congress. In a key moment of planning, then-Senate Republican Conference Chair John Barrasso of Wyoming hosted a policy retreat where GOP senators began mapping out what their legislative agenda could look like under a second Trump administration. Some time later, Trump himself huddled with Republican senators to strategize.
“With President Trump in the White House, we discussed how Republicans will get America back on track,” Barrasso said. “That starts with helping families escape the pain of Democrat high prices, unleashing American energy, stopping Democrat tax increases, and securing the Southern Border. Republicans are united.”
By January, the real work was underway. Big-picture ideas were translated into actual legislation. Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota made the unconventional choice to move forward with the Senate’s own budget framework, instead of waiting for the House. That forced the House GOP to speed up its process and get in step with the Senate.
For a large chunk of 2025, senators waited as their House counterparts fine-tuned their version of the bill. Behind the scenes, Thune and GOP leaders like Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma were doing the groundwork to ensure the legislation could be shaped into something viable in the Senate.
When the House’s version finally arrived in the upper chamber in early June, the clock started ticking. The goal: to deliver a final bill to Trump by July 4 — a deadline designed more to build momentum than to reflect any legal requirement.
Policy Fights, Last-Minute Deals
One of the biggest internal battles came over Medicaid cuts, particularly a proposed change to the provider tax rate. That proposal ignited fierce pushback from lawmakers concerned about rural healthcare. Eventually, a $50 billion rural hospital fund was created as a compromise, but some senators remained uneasy.
“I think it was a huge mistake,” said Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri. “I think this has been an unhappy episode here in Congress, this effort to cut Medicaid.” He added, “If you want to be a working class party, you’ve got to get delivered for working class people. You cannot take away health care from working people.”
Even as the bill moved toward final passage, Republican unity wasn’t a given. A faction of fiscal conservatives led by Sens. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Rick Scott of Florida pushed for deeper Medicaid cuts. Sen. Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming joined their behind-the-scenes talks. “It saved a lot of money,” she said to Fox News Digital. “And so I was anxious to see us use the opportunity… to really save some money.”
The final stretch was hectic. In a flurry of late-night negotiations, Republican leaders moved between Thune’s office and the Senate floor, working to secure votes from senators like Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. With Susan Collins of Maine and Thom Tillis of North Carolina potentially leaning no, every vote mattered.
“Sometimes it’s got to be put on a clock, because at some point the argument has to come to an end,” Mullin said when speaking with Fox News Digital. “And that’s why we had to do some of it on the floor. We had to, we had to force the hand.” Only three Republicans — Sens. Rand Paul, Collins, and Tillis — opposed the measure. After that, it moved to the House, where the GOP staged their own push to get it over the finish line.
Selling the Win
Now, with the bill signed and lawmakers back in their districts, Republicans are working to sell it as a major win — especially the parts that extend tax relief. Tillis, one of the GOP dissenters, acknowledged the tensions to Fox News Digital but emphasized what the party achieved.
“The shame of the Medicaid provision is that the vast majority of the bill is supported,” he said. “I think we have to remind them the problem with the tax bill is they’re not going to see a cut, but if we hadn’t done it, they would have seen a historic increase.”
He added, “We need to remind them of what we’re doing is continuing what we started, and the economy that we created, it was able to withstand COVID. And I firmly believe if we hadn’t passed it, we’d have been in a different posture.”
