Megabill passes key procedural vote
The House passed the rule vote by a tally of 219-213. Pennsylvania Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick was the lone Republican to vote No with all Democrats.
The other four Republican No votes — Victoria Spartz, Thomas Massie, Keith Self, and Andrew Clyde — flipped to yes in the wee hours of the morning.
The House is currently debating the bill. Following one hour of debate, the House could vote on a motion to consider the legislation.
Emerging from a ceremonial office off the House floor at 3 AM, Speaker Johnson said he had the votes to pass the rule to advance the Trump-backed megabill.
“We'll be moving forward here shortly,” Johnson said about the procedural vote that had dragged on almost 6 hours Thursday morning.
“The group will go down, get the votes necessary to pass the rule, we'll proceed to debate, probably two to three hours for that. There's an hour allotted, but leader Jeffries gets a magic minute. I think he goes about an hour. Mine will be much shorter than that, and we will proceed to the final vote, and we'll be passing this bill I expect maybe round 8, 8:30 this morning,” Johnson told reporters.
-ABC's Arthur Jones II








