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Voting for over 24 hours, senators donned fluffy blankets in the frigid chamber, gobbled fast food and recorded behind-the-scenes tours of the Capitol as Republicans struggled to pass their sweeping policy bill.
July 1, 2025, 10:44 a.m. ET
As the sun rose over another steamy day in Washington on Tuesday, senators donned fluffy blankets and pullover sweatshirts to gird against the frigid temperatures inside the United States Senate chamber.
They had been there all night debating and voting on consequential legislation carrying President Trump’s domestic agenda, including large tax reductions and cuts to social programs that could affect Americans’ lives and the nation’s fiscal health for years to come. But as the debate rolled into a third day, the bleary-eyed lawmakers could barely keep track of what they were doing.
Not long after 7 a.m., Senator John Kennedy, Republican of Louisiana, said he would withdraw an amendment he had offered — “whatever the hell the number was,” he added with a chuckle, drawing laughter from his equally exhausted colleagues.
The Senate began its so-called vote-a-rama, a marathon of rapid-fire votes that precedes the passage of budget-related measures, on Monday morning around 9:30. More than 45 votes later, dawn broke on Tuesday with no definitive word of when senators would vote on final passage of the measure — though they had passed a different milestone, setting a record for the most active such vote-a-thon in history.
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It came after Senator John Thune, Republican of South Dakota and the majority leader, worked through the night to secure enough votes from his party to pass its 940-page bill and send the legislation to the House in time to deliver it to Mr. Trump by July 4, as the president has demanded. He appeared on the floor in the early morning hours sipping a red beverage — reportedly an Emergen-C immune booster — drawing a challenge from Democrats who charged him with violating the Senate rule that the only permissible drinks on the floor are water or milk.
