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President Donald Trump arrives to speak at the Iowa State Fairgrounds during the kick off of a yearlong buildup to the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, in Des Moines, Iowa, on July 3, 2025. (Madalina Kilroy/The Epoch Times)

The House of Representatives on July 3 passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act to implement President Donald Trump’s agenda, sending it to the president’s desk.

The bill cleared the House in a 218–214 vote, following an all-night session as Republicans scrambled to win over holdouts who had derailed an earlier attempt to advance the 940-page measure.

The bill will head to Trump’s desk ahead of a self-imposed July 4 deadline. He is expected to sign it at 5 p.m. ET on Friday. The legislation enacts many of Trump’s domestic policy initiatives, including tax cuts, boosting spending for the border and defense, and phasing out clean energy tax credits.

The passage marks a major victory for Republican leadership and Trump, who had to contend with a diverse group of holdouts who objected to the Senate’s version of the bill for various reasons, including its effect on the deficit and deeper cuts to Medicaid.

Ultimately, two Republicans—Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.)—joined all Democrats to vote against the bill.

To delay the vote, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) used a procedural tool known as the “magic minute” to speak for a record-breaking 8 hours and 44 minutes in protest of the bill. He said the legislation was an “unprecedented assault” on the social safety net.

Speaking after Jeffries, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) jokingly put a big binder on his lectern, a reference to what the Democratic leader was reading from during his hours-long speech.

“This day is a hugely important one in the history of our nation,” Johnson said.

Trump, speaking to reporters after the bill’s passage, touted its tax cuts and extra funding for defense and the border.

“It’s going to make this country into a rocket ship,” the president said at Joint Base Andrews before boarding a flight to Iowa for an event.

🔎 What’s Inside? These are the key provisions in the One Big Beautiful Bill.

🫏 Democratic leaders and union officials are preparing to make the Trump bill a centerpiece of their 2026 midterm strategy. 

🎙️ Our congressional reporter, Nathan Worcester, spent 31 hours on Capitol Hill covering the passage of the bill. Tune in to Constitution Avenue for his on-the-ground account of what went down on the floor.

More Politics:

To boom or not to boom?

That is the question coordinators of big community events face nowadays in planning Independence Day festivities.

The tradition of shooting off booming fireworks annually to celebrate America’s birthday goes back as far as the nation itself.

Still, some celebration planners now prefer the newfangled buzz of twinkling drones darting through quiet skies to form intricate, animated shapes, such as a rotating Statue of Liberty, a soaring eagle with flapping wings, waving American flags, or a trio of saluting service members.

Many cities and towns have chosen in recent years to eschew explosions in favor of drones for an array of reasons.

On Independence Day in 2024, Ocala, Florida, presented a $71,000 drone show of nearly 10 minutes for its festivities, rather than opting for less-expensive fireworks.

The decision to offer the Patriotic Skies drone show came out of concern about how fireworks affect the environment, veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder, and creatures terrified by the blasts, a news release explained.

The area, known for rolling hills dotted with horse farms, bills itself as the Horse Capital of the World. Horses startle easily and can become sick or injure themselves when stressed. (More)

More U.S. News:

U.S. trade officials have made transshipping—the tactic of rerouting goods through a third country to disguise the origin of the products—a focal point of trade negotiations with Asian markets.

President Donald Trump announced a trade agreement with Vietnam on Wednesday. While the White House has yet to release the details of the deal, Trump confirmed that it features a 20 percent tariff on many Vietnamese exports entering the United States and a 40 percent levy for transshipping.

For example, if China were to sell its merchandise through products exported by Vietnam to the United States, Hanoi would be hit with a 40 percent tariff.

Vietnam maintains a robust manufacturing base and has benefited from the U.S.–China trade strife, but the issue of transshipment has been prevalent in the Southeast Asian market.

The practice involves shipping bulk quantities of Chinese goods, such as apparel and electronics, to Vietnam. These items are then relabeled, repackaged, or minimally processed to appear as if they were made in Vietnam. This allows China to bypass the U.S. tariff regime.

Peter Navarro, a White House trade adviser, has expressed concern that China is dodging U.S. tariffs by exploiting Vietnam for transshipment purposes.

“How does that work? Vietnam sells us $15 for every $1 we sell them, and about $5 of that is just Chinese product that comes into Vietnam,”  Navavarro told Fox in April. “They slap a made in Vietnam label on it, and they send [it] here to evade the tariffs.” (More)

More World News:

Photo of the Day: A child plays with an airplane kite during an air base open day following a military exercise held at the Sultan Iskandar Muda Air Force Base in Blang Bintang, Aceh province, Indonesia, on July 3, 2025. (Chaideer Mahyuddin/AFP via Getty Images)

📸 Day in Photos: Sandstorm in Afghanistan, Military Exercise in Indonesia, and Invasion of Lovebugs (Look)

🇺🇲 American Thought Leaders: Former Trump lawyer John Eastman opens up about why he’s not backing down in fight against indictments, disbarment. (Watch)

✍️ Opinion:

🎵 Music: Star-Spangled Banner (Listen)

🍿 Film: ‘Great Scott!’ It was 40 years ago the DeLorean in ‘Back to the Future’ drove onto our screens. (Read)

🎆 (Sponsored) Enjoy the Independence Day watchlist with your family and friends

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A detail from “Writing the Declaration of Independence, 1776,” early 20th century, by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris. The oil painting depicts (L–R) Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson. 

On July 4, 2026, we Americans celebrate the semiquincentennial of the Declaration of Independence, a document whose proclamation of “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness” remains as profound a statement on the human condition now as it was then. 

In the 250 years since its unanimous passage by the Second Continental Congress, the ideas that “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights” and that governments derive “their just powers from the consent of the governed” have served as the guiding lights of the United States through wars, turmoil, setbacks, and change.

It’s easy to forget that these noble words were born of battle and bloodshed, that countless thousands of patriots, from the dead on Lexington Green to the mothers and wives on the home front, gave them life. Those 15 months from April 1775 to July 1776 also proved to be the baptism of fire that would bring to the fore the leaders of this new independent nation.

Diverse as they were in personality and background, three notable figures, George Washington, Abigail Adams, and Thomas Jefferson, offer examples of leadership in three distinct arenas in this forge of wartime during which the principles of the Declaration were hammered out.

This Independence Day of 2025, as we enjoy our holiday activities—barbecues, picnics, fireworks—let’s take a moment, look to the Founders for inspiration, and renew that vow made in the last sentence of the Declaration of Independence: “And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.” (More)

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Have a wonderful day.

—Ivan Pentchoukov, Madalina Hubert, and Kenzi Li.

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