By Kate Scanlon, OSV News
WASHINGTON (OSV News) — Senate Republicans on July 1 passed their version of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which would enact key provisions of President Donald Trump’s legislative agenda on taxes and immigration, without any Democratic support and losing three members of their ranks.
The House would need to approve the Senate’s changes to the bill before it could reach the president’s desk for his signature. Trump has sought to do so by Independence Day, July 4.
Catholic leaders have alternately praised and criticized various provisions in the legislation.
A June 26 letter to senators from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops praised the provision that would strip funds from Planned Parenthood — now limited to just one year — while opposing others that they said would raise taxes “on the working poor while simultaneously giving large tax cuts to the wealthiest.” The letter added, “Because of this, millions of poor families will not be able to afford life-saving healthcare and will struggle to buy food for their children. Some rural hospitals will likely close.” The bishops called these provisions “unconscionable and unacceptable.”
The same day 20 U.S. Catholic bishops signed onto an interfaith effort urging the Senate to reject the bill, citing cuts to nutrition assistance and Medicaid, and its impact on immigrants among other concerns, calling it “draconian” and a “moral failure.”
The Senate worked through the previous weekend as Republican leadership sought to meet Trump’s deadline and secure enough support from their members, while Democrats used a Senate procedure to require the bill to be read in its entirety out loud by the clerk in the chamber, a process that took nearly 16 hours.
Sens. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Susan Collins, R-Maine, broke with other members of their party to reject the bill, meaning that Vice President JD Vance had to break the tie, resulting in a 51-50 vote. Its passage came after Republicans secured the vote of Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, a late holdout.
“The thing that will bankrupt this country more than any other policy is flooding the country with illegal immigration and then giving those migrants generous benefits. The OBBB fixes this problem. And therefore it must pass,” Vance, a Catholic, argued on X prior to the bill’s passage, adding, “Everything else — the CBO score, the proper baseline, the minutiae of the Medicaid policy — is immaterial compared to the ICE money and immigration enforcement provisions.”
Tillis, one of the Republicans who voted against proceeding to debate on the bill, said in comments on the Senate floor that he opposed the legislation because it “will betray the very promise” the president made when he pledged not to cut Medicaid benefits.
“I did my homework on behalf of North Carolinians, and I cannot support this bill in its current form,” Tillis added in a statement. “It would result in tens of billions of dollars in lost funding for North Carolina, including our hospitals and rural communities. This will force the state to make painful decisions like eliminating Medicaid coverage for hundreds of thousands in the expansion population, and even reducing critical services for those in the traditional Medicaid population.”
Trump suggested on social media that he would seek a primary challenge to Tillis over his vote, but Tillis announced his intention to retire from the upper chamber. He reportedly told Trump of his decision before the primary threat. The North Carolina Senate race next year will be a key battleground state as Republicans seek to maintain their majority.
At a June 30 press briefing, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tillis is “just wrong” and “the president and the vast majority of Republicans who are supportive of this legislation are right.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., told reporters after the vote, “This vote will haunt our Republican colleagues for years to come.”
“This bill is so irredeemable that one Republican literally chose to retire rather than vote ‘yes’ and decimate his own state,” Schumer said in apparent reference to Tillis.
Collins said in a July 1 statement shared on X that while she supports some provisions in the bill like “extending the tax relief for families and small businesses.” But she said her vote against the bill “stems primarily from the harmful impact it will have on Medicaid, affecting low-income families and rural health care providers like our hospitals and nursing homes.”
“The Medicaid program has been an important health care safety net for nearly 60 years that has helped people in difficult financial circumstances, including people with disabilities, children, seniors, and low-income families,” Collins said. “Approximately 400,000 Mainers — nearly a third of the state’s population — depend on this program.”
Mercy Sister Mary Haddad, president and CEO of the Catholic Health Association of the United States, said in a statement that the legislation was a moral failure, citing its cuts to safety-net programs like Medicaid and SNAP.
“As a nation, we have a moral responsibility to care for those in need — especially our children, the elderly, and people living in poverty,” Sister Haddad said. “It is shameful that Congress has once again prioritized the interests of the wealthy over the needs of millions of vulnerable Americans.”
“Let’s be clear: no amount of tinkering changes the underlying, fundamental flaws of H.R. 1 and its devastating impact,” she added. “This bill inflicts deep harm on essential community health and social safety-net programs, threatening the survival of rural hospitals and long-term care facilities. It places additional financial strain on already overburdened health care providers and state budgets. By protecting the most vulnerable among us, we build a healthier, more just society for all. This bill does the opposite.”
A provision in the Senate’s version of the bill would eliminate funds to health providers who also perform abortions — but just for one year.
“Republicans gave the green light to defund Planned Parenthood — a cruel, backdoor abortion ban,” Schumer wrote on X. “We forced Senate Republicans to drop their defund Planned Parenthood provision from ten years down to just one, but this will still wreak havoc on health care for millions.”
But Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, said in a statement, “Congress took a major step toward ending the forced taxpayer funding of the Big Abortion industry — a crucial victory in the fight against abortion, America’s leading cause of death, and an industry that endangers women and girls.”
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated the day before the bill’s Senate passage that the bill would increase the deficit by nearly $3.3 trillion from 2025 to 2034.
A provision that would have blocked states from regulating artificial intelligence for a decade was defeated 99-1. The issue of AI, and its regulation for the common good, is a significant social concern raised by Pope Leo XIV.
House Republican leadership — Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., and Conference Chairwoman Lisa McClain, R-Mich. — said in a joint statement they were eager to meet Trump’s July 4 deadline.
“The American people gave us a clear mandate, and after four years of Democrat failure, we intend to deliver without delay,” they said in a statement. “Republicans were elected to do exactly what this bill achieves: secure the border, make tax cuts permanent, unleash American energy dominance, restore peace through strength, cut wasteful spending, and return to a government that puts Americans first. This bill is President Trump’s agenda, and we are making it law. House Republicans are ready to finish the job and put the One Big Beautiful Bill on President Trump’s desk in time for Independence Day.”
Johnson will have a small margin to secure enough support from his members to send the bill to the president’s desk. Some members of his party have been critical of changes the Senate made to their version of the bill.
Kate Scanlon is a national reporter for OSV News covering Washington. Follow her on X @kgscanlon.
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