CBS Washington — President Trump is bringing pomp and circumstance to his signing of the “big, beautiful bill” on Friday, with a 4 p.m. Independence Day ceremony at the White House.
Some Republican members of Congress who voted to pass the legislation are expected to attend, as the president puts his signature on his sweeping domestic policy bill. The final bill hasn’t appeased all Republicans, but the president and Congress managed to pass it ahead of their self-imposed July 4 deadline.
The president watched coverage of the bill’s passage from the White House on Thursday. Mr. Trump took a victory lap during a speech in Iowa Thursday night, calling the first five months of his second term “a declaration of independence from a, really, national decline.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt called the legislation “an encapsulation of all of the policies that the president campaigned on and the American people voted on,” and said it’s a “victorious day for the American people.”
Following days of handwringing and negotiations, and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries breaking the record for the longest speech on the House floor, the House passed the legislation Thursday afternoon in a 218-214 vote. Republican Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick and Thomas Massie voted against the legislation, and no Democrats voted for it. GOP leadership and the White House spoke with Republican holdouts for hours to advance the bill early Thursday morning.