'Big Beautiful Bill' Passed By House: What It Means In CA

President Donald Trump's controversial One Big Beautiful Bill Act, also known as the "Big Beautiful Bill" was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives by a razor-thin margin.

The tight roll call, 218-214, came at a potentially high political cost, with two Republicans dissenting to join the Democrats on the issue. GOP leaders worked overnight and the president himself leaned on a handful of skeptics to drop their opposition.

“It wasn’t beautiful enough for me to vote for it,” said Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky. Also voting no was Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, who said he was concerned about cuts to Medicaid.

The bill now goes to the desk of President Trump to be signed into law after House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries made history with the longest speech ever heard on the floor, more than eight and a half hours, delaying the vote. The president is expected to sign it into law Friday.

The bill, filled with cuts to taxes and programs such as Medicaid, claims that it will save California families in a median-income home with two kids an average of between $9,200 and $16,000 in take-home pay, according to the White House.

Democratic House leaders called the bill ruinous to the budget and the biggest wealth transfer in American history, benefiting billionaires at the expense of the working class.

A consequence of the bill's passage is that millions of people in California are now at risk of losing their health insurance, nursing home care and food stamps, policy experts and the bill's opponents warn.

An estimated 1.7 million residents are expected to become uninsured, according to the policy research group KFF — including 1.4 million who could lose coverage due to Medicaid changes and 250,000 affected by modifications to the Affordable Care Act.

Nationwide, it is estimated that 10 million people will lose health insurance.

California Democrats united against the big ‘ugly bill’

Democrats were united in opposing the bill, denouncing it as a tax giveaway to the wealthy funded at the expense of the working class and society’s most vulnerable — a move they labeled “trickle-down cruelty.”

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has staunchly opposed Trump's bill, previously called it Trump's "big bullshit bill," and dubbed it one of the most "destructive bills in U.S. history."

On Thursday, Newsom tweeted: "17 million people just lost health care. 18 million kids just lost school meals. 3 million Americans just lost food assistance. And $3.5 trillion was added to the deficit. All for a tax cut for Trump’s billionaire donors. The ultimate betrayal."

Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi also took aim at Republicans just after the bill's passage.

"House Republicans just voted to take Medicaid and food from 20 million Americans to fund tax breaks for billionaires," she wrote on X. "We must win in 2026, take back the House with Speaker Hakeem Jeffries and replace every GOP representative who voted for this abomination!"

Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) chimed in on X, also calling the bill a betrayal.

"In one fell swoop, they destroyed access to health care, shut down hospitals, upended clean energy, massively expanded their secret police & took food away from kids," he wrote on X. "All to cut taxes for the rich. It’s one of the biggest betrayals of Americans in the history of our country."

Meanwhile, California Republican Sen. Marie Alvarado-Gil celebrated the bill's passage and called Thursday "OBBB Day."

"Enough of the theatrics. Americans are far-due real action," she wrote on X.

Rep. Robert Garcia, who was recently elected top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, slammed the bill in a statement just after its passage and said that Oversight Democrats were able to block some of the "worst provisions that would have gutted critical government services."

He went on to dub the bill a "cruel disaster."

"It's immoral and completely out of step with what the American people elected us to do," he wrote. "Republicans are driving up costs, putting lives at risk, and making it harder for families to get by in Trump's expensive economy."

Officially titled the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act," the sweeping legislation bundles a range of Trump Administration priorities — tax cuts, new border security funding, and changes to public assistance programs — into a single package. Its passage marks a major landmark win for Trump.

“You get tired of winning yet?” said House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., invoking Trump as he called the vote.

“With one big beautiful bill we are going to make this country stronger, safer and more prosperous than ever before,” he said. Republicans celebrated with a rendition of the Village People's “Y.M.C.A.,” a song the president often plays at his rallies, during a ceremony afterward.

It was a long-shot effort to compile a lengthy list of GOP priorities into what they called his “one big beautiful bill,” at nearly 900 pages. With Democrats unified in opposition, the bill will become a defining measure of Trump's return to the White House, aided by Republican control of Congress.

At its core, the bill aims to extend roughly $4.5 trillion in tax cuts first passed under Trump in 2017. This includes allowing workers to deduct tips and overtime pay, and a $6,000 deduction for most older adults earning less than $75,000 a year.

To help offset the revenue loss, Republicans proposed tightening eligibility for Medicaid and food stamps by adding work requirements for many recipients. The package includes $1.2 trillion in cutbacks to the Medicaid health care and food stamps, largely by imposing new work requirements, including for some parents and older people, and a major rollback of green energy tax credits.

In addition to millions losing health coverage, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office says the bill will add a staggering $3.3 trillion to the national debt over the next 10 years.

“This was a generational opportunity to deliver the most comprehensive and consequential set of conservative reforms in modern history, and that’s exactly what we’re doing,” said Rep. Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, the House Budget Committee chairman.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.