House Republicans worked through the night on Wednesday to consolidate support from wary members for the party’s massive and controversial megabill that President Donald Trump and his supporters have dubbed the One Big Beautiful Bill. But the final vote for the $4.5 trillion in tax cuts was delayed for hours by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who utilized a quirk of the chamber’s rules to deliver an hourslong speech from the House floor denouncing the bill and warning of its impacts.
Jeffries took the floor at 4:53 a.m., taking advantage of the chamber’s so-called magic minute, which allows House leaders to speak for an unlimited period of time during debate rather than be restrained by the typical time limits enforced on members. By 1:26 p.m., Jeffries had beaten the record for the longest House floor speech, set by former Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who spoke for eight hours and 32 minutes in 2021 in an attempt to delay then-President Joe Biden’s signature Build Back Better legislation.
From the start, Jeffries said he planned to take his “sweet time” to tell the stories of the people who will be harmed by the bill, reading from a thick binder. The leader said that the steep cuts made to Medicaid and health-care access will result in the closures of medical facilities and likely cause the deaths of tens of thousands of Americans, calling it a “crime scene.”
“You’re ripping health care away from millions of Americans, Mr. Speaker. Ripping food away from children and veterans and seniors. Raising the cost of utilities, of paying your energy bill by hundreds of dollars. Stripping away millions of jobs all across America. And what is all of this being done for? To provide massive tax breaks to billionaires all across this country. We are better than that in the United States of America,” he said.
In his seventh hour of speaking, Jeffries showed no signs of stopping and acknowledged that it’s the president’s goal to sign the bill on Friday, July 4.
“Still got a little more time. Donald Trump’s deadline might be Independence Day; that ain’t my deadline,” Jeffries said. “You know why, Mr. Speaker? We don’t work for Donald Trump. We work for the American people.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson, who worked furiously to get his caucus onboard with the bill, told reporters that he was ready to bring the bill to a vote as soon as Jeffries leaves the floor. “The sooner we get this done, the better,” Johnson said, per the Washington Post. “If Hakeem Jeffries would stop talking, we could deliver relief for the American people.”
C-SPAN aired Jeffries’s speech from the moment he began, including an ongoing ticker showing how long he had been speaking for and reminding viewers how close he was to making history in the House. Jeffries’s remarks quickly prompted comparisons to his Senate colleague Cory Booker, who spoke for 25 hours in a marathon speech on the Senate floor opposing the Trump administration’s policies. Ultimately, Jeffries spoke for eight hours and 44 minutes, wrapping up his remarks with a reference to Martin Luther King Jr.
“Dr. King said that ‘If you can’t fly, run. If you can’t run, walk. If you can’t walk, crawl. But at all times, press on — and keep pressing,’” he said to the applause of his Democratic colleagues. “So as I take my seat, I just want to say to the American people that no matter what the outcome is on this singular day, we’re going to press on.”
