House advances Trump agenda bill, setting up a final vote

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., is expected to speak for roughly an hour on the floor against the Republicans' bill.

Speaker Johnson Mike Johnson, R-La., said he expected the House will vote on the GOP's domestic policy package "around 8-8:30 this morning," if not sooner.

Asked how he was able to win over the Republican holdouts, Johnson told reporters, "There was just a lot of patience and listening to everyone’s concerns and making sure that their, their concerns were addressed."

Johnson said he’s talked to Trump “multiple times today, tonight, this morning.”

“I mean, he was up engaged as late as 1 am. He may still be up for all I know. He doesn’t really sleep a lot,” he said.

When asked about the self-imposed July 4 deadline for passage and whether Johnson was disappointed to again be sorting out legislation overnight, he said: “I’m not disappointed. I mean, again, this is part of the process. It’s, when you’re doing a big, comprehensive piece of legislation, you’re going to expect a lot of, a lot of extra time, a lot of questions and a lot of deliberation over it. We factored that in, but we’re still going to meet the deadline.”

The House advance the Trump agenda bill on a 219-213 vote after most of the Republican holdouts flipped their votes to support the rule.

Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., was the only Republican to vote with all Democrats against the procedural motion.

The House is now debating the bill and will soon vote on final passage.

The House has now held the rule vote open for more than three hours.

And Trump is continuing to express his displeasure with the GOP holdouts on Truth Social: "FOR REPUBLICANS, THIS SHOULD BE AN EASY YES VOTE. RIDICULOUS!!!"

With the House rule vote to advance the GOP's domestic policy bill nearing the three-hour mark, Trump took to Truth Social to pressure the party's holdouts.

"What are the Republicans waiting for??? What are you trying to prove??? MAGA IS NOT HAPPY, AND IT’S COSTING YOU VOTES!!!" Trump wrote.

Five Republicans have now voted "no" on the procedural vote after Thomas Massie of Kentucky changed his initial vote. Eight Republicans have yet to vote.

House Speaker Mike Johnson told Fox News' Sean Hannity tonight that he plans to keep a procedural vote open "as long as it takes" to address any questions from lawmakers about the Trump agenda bill.

Republicans can afford to lose only three votes to advance the legislation to a final vote. There are currently four "no" votes from Republicans. Members can change their positions while the vote remains open.

Johnson said he has spoken to three of those Republicans and is trying to "find the fourth one." Earlier tonight, Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., left the chamber after he voted against the procedural measure.

"I think they're open for conversation," Johnson said of the four holdouts. "Everybody wants to deliver this agenda for the people, and we're going to give them every opportunity to do that."

After Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., delivered a surprising “no” vote on the rule, some of his Republican colleagues scrambled to find him on the floor — most likely to try to get him to change his vote.

But Fitzpatrick bolted out of the chamber and could not be found.

When NBC News informed Rep. Dusty Johnson, R-S.D., that Fitzpatrick appeared to have run off, Johnson replied: “Smart.”

Johnson then tried to reach Fitzpatrick by phone, but so far he has been unsuccessful.

Four Republicans are in the no column right now on the measure to advance Trump's agenda bill to floor debate before a vote on final passage.

Johnson has been in an animated discussion with one of the holdouts, Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., on the floor for several minutes. Members can change their votes up until the moment the gavel comes down.

The other current "no" votes are Reps. Keith Self, R-Texas, Victoria Spartz, R-Ind., and Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa.

The House is voting now on the rule for the reconciliation bill. It needs to be adopted so the House can move to debate the bill itself.

The vote takes a simple majority to pass. Every member is here today and participated in the previous vote.

If all members vote, Republicans can afford to lose only three defections. Members can, of course, choose not to vote or to vote present. That would change the math.

If the rule is adopted, the House will move to an hour of debate on the bill itself.

The House said it will start voting on the rule for the package at 9:30 p.m.

Trump said on social media that Republicans were united ahead of a vote on the rule for his megabill tonight.

"It looks like the House is ready to vote tonight. We had GREAT conversations all day, and the Republican House Majority is UNITED, for the Good of our Country, delivering the Biggest Tax Cuts in History and MASSIVE Growth," he wrote on Truth Social.

The House is holding its longest vote in modern congressional history, surpassing the record set in November 2021.

This procedural vote, which started just after 2 p.m., has been open for more than seven hours. House Republican leaders just advised that the next vote, on the House rule for debating the Big Beautiful Bill, will take place at 9:30 p.m.

On Nov. 5, 2021, Democrats held open a vote on a GOP motion to adjourn for seven hours and six minutes as they tried to round up support for the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and Build Back Better.

The current vote has surpassed that seven-hour, six-minute length.

A federal judge in Iowa today denied Trump’s request to dismiss his federal lawsuit against pollster Ann Selzer and The Des Moines Register newspaper.

U.S. District Judge Rebecca Goodgame Ebinger noted in her ruling that Trump still has an appeal pending in the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals over his lawsuit stemming from a pre-election poll that found Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris leading in Iowa, which Trump ended up winning in November.

“Trump must first dismiss the appeal before voluntarily dismissing the district court case,” Ebinger wrote. “Giving effect to a notice of voluntary dismissal, for all practical purposes, would result in a dismissal of Trump’s appeal—which is procedurally improper.”

Trump has filed a motion for dismissal his appeal, which does not have the consent of Selzer and the Register.

Trump’s trade war risks reigniting next week when a pause on sweeping tariffs is set to expire, potentially driving up costs for businesses and raising prices for consumers.

While Trump and administration officials recently indicated the deadline might be pushed back, Trump told reporters yesterday that he wasn’t planning an extension and is informing countries of their new tariff rates. He said it has been harder than planned to make trade deals with a number of foreign governments because they are “spoiled from having ripped us off for 30, 40 years.”

“We’re going to determine a number just very simply, write them a nice letter,” Trump said aboard Air Force One. “Probably one page or a page and a half at the most, and it’s going to be essentially, ‘Congratulations. It’s going to be an honor to allow you to go and do business in the United States of America,’ because it really is an honor to be able to do that.”

Trump said today that he had reached a trade agreement with Vietnam in which U.S.-based companies will have to pay a 20% tariff on Vietnamese goods and a 40% tariff on goods routed through Vietnam from other countries. Vietnam agreed to not to charge any tariffs on U.S. goods.

Read the full story here.

The military leaders who came to the Oval Office to discuss the new F-47 stealth fighter jet had a few surprises in store. At one point in their sit-down with Trump, Mark Zuckerberg, the Meta chief executive, walked in unexpectedly. Worried that he didn’t have security clearance, officials asked Zuckerberg to wait outside, two people familiar with the meeting said.

A young aide also came in during the meeting, showed Trump something on her laptop computer and left. Trump’s cellphone rang a couple of times.

Expecting more privacy in the meeting with the commander in chief, some of the officials came away mystified and a bit unnerved. They quietly discussed among themselves whether the visitors and calls might have compromised sensitive information, with one asking whether they should be concerned about “spillage.”

Trump affectionately refers to the Oval Office as “Grand Central Terminal” because of all the comings and goings, a senior White House official said. One of the people familiar with the winter meeting about the plane used another term: “bizarro world.”

Read the full story here.

Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, said this evening that he will vote in favor of Trump's megabill after having opposed the sweeping legislative package.

"This bill isn’t perfect, but it’s the best we’ll get & includes major wins," Davidson wrote on X, citing border security, tax policy, work requirements for food stamps and Medicaid, among other provisions that he said he supported in the measure.

Davidson was one of two Republicans who voted against the bill in May when the House first passed it in a 215-214 vote. He joined Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and all Democrats present in rejecting it.

A procedural vote in the House has now been open for four hours as Republican leadership and the White House try to get conservative holdouts on board with the One Big Beautiful Bill.

House Freedom Caucus members were huddled in a room off the chamber for a while and were joined briefly by White House Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought. Other conservative lawmakers have been in and out of Speaker Mike Johnson’s office.

The vote started just after 2 p.m. The previous vote in the series took an hour.

Upon conclusion of the current vote, the House would then vote on the rule for the bill — a key step that's needed to start debate on the legislation itself. After an hour of debate, the House would then vote on final passage.

Thomas Massie of Kentucky, the lone House Republican who has consistently opposed Trump’s deficit-raising “big, beautiful bill,” said he sleeps well at night.

"I have raised $400,000 from 4,500 donors in the last 10 days for taking this principled stand. So my life hasn’t been difficult at all,” Massie told NBC News in the Capitol today, adding that he’s “not concerned” that Trump and his allies might come after him politically.

He said they’re trying to send a message to other Republicans.

“They’re whipping this horse, because I’m out of the barn, to keep the other horses in the barn,” he said.

Rep. Victoria Spartz, R-Ind., said today that she plans to vote against a measure that would allow the House to begin debate on the "Big Beautiful Bill" but that she'll back the bill if it comes to a vote on final passage.

“I’ll vote for the bill, since we need to make it happen for our economy & there are some good provisions in it. However, I will vote against the rule due to broken commitments by @SpeakerJohnson to his own members,” Spartz wrote on X.

Yesterday, Spartz wrote on X that the Senate version of the massive funding bill violated “the minimum fiscal framework” agreed to by House lawmakers by upward of half a trillion dollars. She argued that Johnson previously committed “not to put any bill on the floor that violates" the framework.

Spartz is among the House Republicans taking issue with the bill over its expected impact on the national debt.

Speaker Mike Johnson, who said he is stepping out briefly to pick up his wife, did not commit to timing for moving forward with the GOP megabill but said he is "hopeful" the House can get across the finish line tonight.

“Making progress. I mean, good conversations, and I think we can, I’m hopeful we can proceed tonight, get this done,” he told reporters.

The House has yet to begin a floor vote on the rule for debating the legislation. A separate vote has stalled, and House Republican leaders have kept the vote open for more than three hours.

North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein today urged his state's House delegation to "press pause" and reconsider Trump's megabill, which he said poses significant threats to Medicaid, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and energy and manufacturing tax credits.

"This bill has moved at a breakneck pace, leaving North Carolinians without ample time to provide feedback on the devastating impacts this would have on our state," Stein, a Democrat, wrote in a letter to the North Carolina lawmakers.

"I urge you to press pause on this bill because of the immediate and long-term threats it poses to the health and well-being of North Carolinians and the economic stability of our state," he added.

Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., joined two other Senate Republicans and all Democrats in voting against the bill when it narrowly passed the Senate. Tillis later said he would not seek re-election next year.

Rep. Greg Murphy, R-N.C., told NBC News NOW in an interview today that he has "not yet made a decision" on the bill and that voting on it "is threading a difficult needle."

Undecided House Republican says voting on Trump bill is ‘threading a difficult needle’

19:04

Several House Republicans who previously had concerns about the Trump-backed GOP spending bill have come around to supporting the measure and are defending their positions. 

Rep. Derrick Van Orden, R-Wis., acknowledged he doesn’t love everything about the bill but said he thinks overall it’s a good product. 

“Am I happy about everything? No, but there’s a difference between compromise and capitulation. We’re not capitulating. We’re compromising,” he told reporters. 

Van Orden then pushed back against a reporter’s suggestion that Republicans will just do whatever Trump asks of them. 

“The president of the United States didn’t give us an assignment. We’re not a bunch of little b----es around here, OK? I’m a member of Congress. I represent almost 800,000 Wisconsinites,” he said. 

Trump and first lady Melania Trump are expected to meet with Edan Alexander and his family in the Oval Office tomorrow, according to the White House.

Alexander, 21, was released last month after having been held hostage by Hamas for 584 days, an experience he described as "complete hell." He was the last living U.S. citizen held captive in Gaza. He was born in Tel Aviv but raised in New Jersey, and he had returned to Israel to serve in the army when the militant group attacked his base on Oct. 7, 2023, his parents have told NBC News.

Trump met with eight released hostages from Gaza in March, according to the White House.

“The President and First Lady have met with many released hostages from Gaza, and they greatly look forward to meeting Edan Alexander and his family in the Oval Office tomorrow,” press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.

At least two House Republicans who are expected to support the GOP domestic policy bill haven't arrived at the Capitol yet, and that is part of the reason a vote on an amendment is being held open — at least, that is what GOP leaders are telling members. 

Rep. Dan Meuser, R-Pa., has experienced travel delays, according to his spokesperson, who said, “Congressman Meuser experienced significant and unexpected travel issues, but yes, he will be here today to vote on the rule.”

Eight Republicans didn't vote on a procedural vote earlier today, though it's unclear whether that happened because they weren't at the Capitol.

Rep. Joe Neguse, D-Colo., just asked Rep. Steve Womack, R-Ark., whether it's permitted for GOP leadership to tell their members they can leave the House floor while a vote is still open.

Womack, who is presiding over the House floor, told Neguse that House rules state only that a vote has to be open for a minimum of five minutes and that there is no prescribed maximum.

For now, a procedural vote on the rule remains open, with nine Republicans who have not yet voted. All Democrats have cast their votes against the procedural step.

The House is at a standstill at the moment, with the second vote of this series now having been open for an hour. 

The first vote took an hour, and this one is on track to last longer than that, meaning members have been on the floor for more than two hours. The third vote in this series is supposed to be the rule vote to proceed to debate the reconciliation bill. 

Johnson left the floor and went back to his office on the phone. Several of the key holdouts are in Johnson’s other office (the ceremonial one) just off the floor. 

At this point, we have no timing on when the rule vote will happen. Votes can be held open as long as GOP leadership wants.

Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., said on X that a two-hour meeting he and other conservative House Republicans had with Trump at the White House this afternoon was "very productive."

"The president was wonderful as always, informative, funny, told me he likes seeing me on TV, which is kind of cool," he said in a video clip in his post about their meeting over the GOP domestic policy bill.

"Big day today, folks," he continued. "Hopefully we get this thing worked out. The president answered all of our questions, was very informative. JD Vance was there. This was a very good day."

After more than an hour, the House has finished the first vote of the vote series. This was just a normal procedural vote and was scheduled for 15 minutes, but it took an hour. 

Several Republicans were missing for most of the vote.

The House is now on the second vote of the series. The next vote will be on the rule.

The procedural vote in the House to advance the Senate-passed One Big Beautiful Bill Act is stuck at 204-212 and is being kept open.

Sixteen Republicans haven’t voted.

Democrats have full attendance and are unanimously voting no.

The House is starting a vote series now for a rule for reconciliation. The rule itself will be the third vote of the series. 

The Rules Committee left off an important line about considering the previous question as ordered, so the rule has to be amended to include that line before the House votes on the rule. 

All of these votes require just simple majorities. If all Republicans and Democrats are here, Republicans can afford only three defections. 

If the rule is adopted, the House will begin an hour of debate on the actual GOP-led domestic policy bill afterward.

House Democrats are delaying a vote on the rule for the GOP domestic policy bill by repeatedly offering that amendments be made in order.

Congressional Black Caucus members began asking to make amendments in order and then other Democrats joined in.

While these amendments won't be entertained, it could still slow down the process. The House still needs to finish debate on the rule before moving to a vote on the rule.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y.; Minority Whip Katherine Clark, D-Mass.; and Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., vowed to try to prevent passage of the GOP agenda bill during a news conference outside the Capitol with rank-and-file members.

Democrats will “show up” and “do everything” they can to stop the bill from passing, Jeffries said. 

“That’s what we are going to do, show up today, show up tomorrow, show up this week, show up next week, show up this year, show up next year, show up until we end this national nightmare in the United States of America and continue our march toward a more perfect union,” he said. 

Clark echoed Jeffries and warned that there is “no freedom” in the budget reconciliation bill. 

“So it’s especially shocking that the Republicans are rushing to sign this cruel bill by the Fourth of July,” Clark said. “The largest cut to health care in our history, the largest transfer of wealth from working families to the billionaire class, a bill that makes Americans sicker and poorer, a bill that takes food from the hungry. There is no freedom in this bill.”

Trump announced today that he has struck a trade deal with Vietnam that will see import duties on goods brought to the U.S. directly from that country rise to 20% — and to 40% for any "transshipment" of goods sent there as an attempted work-around from tariffs being charged to other countries, especially China.

In a Truth Social post, Trump said that in return for accepting those duties, Vietnam had agreed to open its entire market, duty free, to U.S. goods.

That may prove a heavy price to pay. U.S. goods exports to Vietnam totaled just $13.1 billion in 2024, compared with $136.6 billion worth of imports. Some of that likely included goods rerouted by China in order to avoid paying U.S. duties. In April, Vietnam pledged to crack down on illicit transshipments.

Major tech firms including Apple, Google, Meta and Samsung all source devices, like smartphones and virtual reality headsets, from Vietnam. Apple has said it has created more than 200,000 jobs there.

House Republican leaders are moving rapidly to try to pass the party’s massive domestic policy package after the Senate approved it, launching a full-court press and enlisting the help of Trump to sway a broad group of holdouts.

Speaker Johnson can only afford three defections to pass the legislation through his narrow majority, presuming all members attend and Democrats vote against it. Johnson privately huddled just off Capitol Hill with members of the hard-line House Freedom Caucus, who are demanding deeper spending cuts.

Read the full story here.

Trump has filed his latest emergency application at the Supreme Court over his attempt to fire members of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, an independent federal agency.

The administration wants the justices to block a Maryland-based federal judge’s ruling that reinstated three members of the commission, all of whom had been appointed by President Joe Biden.

Under existing law, members can only be removed for “neglect of duty or malfeasance,” but Trump has gone ahead and fired members anyway, as he has done at other agencies with similar restrictions.

The Supreme Court in May allowed him to do so in cases involving the firing of National Labor Relations Board and the Merit Systems Protection Board members, casting aside precedent dating back to 1935 that upheld removal protections.

Solicitor General D. John Sauer said in the new filing that the judge’s ruling has “sown chaos and dysfunction” at the agency, with the reinstated members moving to undo actions that the commission took after they were initially fired.

Day camp providers and schools are warning that a Trump administration funding freeze could wreck summer for low-income American families and wipe out some after-school programming next year.

The administration is withholding more than $6 billion in federal grants for after-school and summer programs, English language instruction, adult literacy and more as part of a review to ensure grants align with Trump’s priorities.

Read the full story here.

The House is now moving to an hour of floor debate on the rule for the GOP domestic policy bill after dealing with a separate procedural vote for more than an hour.

After this hour of debate, the House will vote on the rule for the GOP measure, which will likely take place around noon.

In addition to a White House visit from conservative House members, Trump is meeting today with the Republican Main Street Caucus, whose members are moderate-leaning, to discuss the GOP agenda bill, a Republican lawmaker familiar with the plans said.

Speaker Johnson, meanwhile, is huddling with the hard-line House Freedom Caucus to discuss their issues with the bill, according to a GOP aide. 

Trump is expected to meet with conservatives at the White House around 11 a.m. ET.

Hamas weighed in on the possibility of a ceasefire with Israel in Gaza, saying in a statement that it was weighing a proposal it had received from mediators Egypt and Qatar.

"Our mediator brothers are making intensive efforts to bridge the gap between the parties, reach a framework agreement, and begin a serious round of negotiations," the group said.

"We are acting with a high sense of responsibility and are conducting national consultations to discuss the proposals we have received from our mediator brothers, with the aim of reaching an agreement that guarantees an end to the aggression, the withdrawal (of Israeli forces), and urgent relief for our people in the Gaza Strip," the statement added.

The comments come after Trump said on Truth Social yesterday that Israel "agreed to the necessary conditions" for a ceasefire.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly called for the eradication of Hamas, which led the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel that sparked the war in Gaza, as well as the return of all hostages still held in the enclave.

The House is taking a procedural vote now, which will provide a sense of how many members are currently present in the Capitol.

Once this vote is done, the House is expected to debate a rule for floor consideration of the bill before voting on the rule in the 11 a.m. hour.

Democrats could offer more motions to delay the timing of any final passage vote as the day goes on.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court today formally struck down an abortion ban from 1849 that had technically retaken effect after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned federal abortion rights.

In a 4-3 decision that came down along ideological lines, the court’s liberal majority affirmed a lower court ruling that overturned the 176-year-old ban and left in place a more recent law in Wisconsin allowing most abortions until about the 20th week of pregnancy.

Read the full story here.

Rep. Nancy Mace, a South Carolina Republican, arrived at Capitol Hill this morning wearing pajamas after an overnight drive in a van with staffers from her state.

Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., expressed concern in a post on X this morning over the Trump administration's decision to halt weapons shipments to Ukraine.

"I will be aggressively looking into this matter and will be demanding accountability," he wrote. "We must build up our own Defense Industrial Base here in the U.S. while simultaneously providing the needed assistance to our allies who are defending their freedom from brutal invading dictators. To not do both is unacceptable."

NBC News reported yesterday that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered a pause in a shipment of missiles and ammunition to Ukraine because of concerns over the U.S. military's stockpiles.

House Republican leaders are advising members that the chamber will vote on the rule for floor consideration of the Senate-passed domestic policy bill in the 11 a.m. hour. 

House Majority Whip Tom Emmer’s office also said it expected a vote on a Democratic procedural motion in the 9 a.m. hour. That vote could be on a Democratic motion to adjourn, which would force a House vote and slow things down. 

If the House adopts the rule on the bill, then lawmakers can debate the legislation for an hour and move to final passage. Democrats could continue to offer procedural motions to slow things down, making the timing of a passage vote unclear. 

Conservative holdouts are headed to the White House at 11 a.m. to discuss the legislation with Trump. Republicans can afford just three defections if every member is present, and attendance is being closely monitored because of flight cancellations and delays due to severe weather.

A federal judge in New York yesterday blocked the Trump administration from ending temporary legal status for more than 500,000 Haitians who are already in the United States.

District Court Judge Brian M. Cogan in New York ruled that moving up the expiration of the temporary protected status, or TPS, by at least five months for Haitians, some of whom have lived in the U.S. for more than a decade, is unlawful.

Read the full story here.

Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., who voted against the GOP domestic policy bill in the House Rules Committee late last night, told NBC News that he and a group of Republican holdouts are going to the White House at 11 a.m. to discuss the bill with Trump and his team. 

Norman, like many House conservatives, is unhappy with the changes the Senate made to the bill.

“I’m sure he’s going to be mad,” Norman said of Trump. “But I don’t know what to tell him.”

Norman could not give an example of what would change his mind to vote yes on the package in its current form. He made clear he would not be swayed by promises of future reconciliation packages.

“The only thing driving this is the tax cuts,” he said. “Once that goes away, how are we going to get anything passed?” 

Paramount has agreed to pay $16 million to settle a lawsuit brought by Trump that had alleged an interview that aired on CBS’ “60 Minutes” last year with Kamala Harris, his Democratic opponent for the presidency, was deceptively edited.

The agreement in principle, proposed by a mediator, includes plaintiffs’ fees and costs and — except for fees and costs — will be allocated to Trump’s future presidential library, Paramount Global said in a statement late yesterday. Paramount is the parent company of CBS.

Paramount agrees to pay $16 million to settle Trump's '60 Minutes' lawsuit

01:17

Read the full story here.

Trump said yesterday that Israel has “agreed to the necessary conditions” to finalize a ceasefire deal in the Israel-Hamas war.

“My Representatives had a long and productive meeting with the Israelis today on Gaza. Israel has agreed to the necessary conditions to finalize the 60 Day CEASEFIRE, during which time we will work with all parties to end the War,” Trump said on Truth Social.

“The Qataris and Egyptians, who have worked very hard to help bring Peace, will deliver this final proposal,” he added. “I hope, for the good of the Middle East, that Hamas takes this Deal, because it will not get better — IT WILL ONLY GET WORSE.”

Read the full story here.

There was no evidence of the onetime rivalry between Trump and Gov. Ron DeSantis yesterday as they came together in a common cause: opening an immigrant detention center in the swampy heart of Florida.

Trump and his top deputies visited the Everglades, where Florida officials delivered a win for his anti-immigration agenda and positioned the state on the forefront of his crackdown.

The facility, which Republican leaders dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” is set to house 3,000 detainees and took just eight days to construct.

“It might be as good as the real Alcatraz,” Trump told reporters yesterday. “It’s a little controversial, but I couldn’t care less.”

Read the full story here.

The House is expected to turn to the Trump-backed GOP agenda bill today after the Senate narrowly passed the sweeping domestic policy package yesterday following a marathon overnight session that spanned more than 24 hours and saw votes on dozens of amendments.

The House Rules Committee advanced the legislation in a 7-6 vote overnight after a 12-hour meeting. Freedom Caucus members Ralph Norman, R-S.C., and Chip Roy, R-Texas, sided with Democrats in opposing the measure. 

The bill now heads to the floor this morning for an hour of debate on the rule starting as early as 9 a.m.

Read the full story here.