How Trump got his One Big Beautiful Bill Act passed
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 3 July 2025
⏱️ 30 minutes
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Summary
President Donald Trump is poised to sign the One Big Beautiful Bill Act into law, after the House and Senate passed the bill in two all-night sessions this week.
Trump and his allies consider its passage to be a big victory, but the bill, which extends Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, will also result in millions losing their health insurance — a cost that could leave fissures in the Republican Party.
Today on “Post Reports,” Colby Itkowitz sits down with congressional reporter Theodoric Meyer and the Post’s “Early Brief” newsletter author Dan Merica to discuss the consequences of the bill and how it could influence the 2026 midterm elections.
Today’s show was produced by Arjun Singh, and edited by Laura Benshoff with help from Emily Rauhala. It was mixed by Sam Bair.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | So the median age in Congress is 57, which is a bit older than me. |
| 0:08.3 | And I definitely cannot pull an all-nighter. |
| 0:11.1 | Like, I go to bed at 9.30. |
| 0:13.7 | Like, could you guys, I mean, I guess Theo, you have. |
| 0:15.9 | But, like, how do these Congress people stay up all night? |
| 0:19.5 | Sleep has played a large role in this bill's passage with it almost not passing the house |
| 0:25.4 | because of somebody's falling asleep off of the house floor. |
| 0:28.6 | Is that true? |
| 0:29.4 | Yes, you're referring to back when it first passed the house in May when Congressman Andrew Garberino, |
| 0:36.5 | Republican of New York, fell asleep and missed the vote. |
| 0:40.9 | The bill passed anyway. I saw that James Blair, who's the top White House aide, tweeted a few |
| 0:48.2 | hours ago that Congressman Garberino was awake this time around. |
| 0:57.6 | From the newsroom of the Washington Post, this is Post Reports. |
| 1:01.5 | I'm Cole Beakowitz, politics reporter, and host of Post Reports Weekly Politics Roundtables. |
| 1:07.1 | It's Thursday, July 3rd. |
| 1:09.2 | I'm joined this week by Theo Meyer, who covers the Senate for the Post. |
| 1:13.0 | Hey, Theo. |
| 1:13.6 | Hello. |
| 1:14.3 | And we're here with Dan Marica, politics reporter and co-anchor of the early brief newsletter. |
| 1:19.1 | Hey, Dan. |
| 1:19.6 | Thank you for having to me. |
| 1:22.4 | So we're talking about the push this week to pass President Donald Trump's signature tax and |
... |
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