The Senate can now proceed to debating and amending the bill, with final passage coming as soon as Monday.

The vote represents a major step forward for Trump’s agenda, and keeps intact Republicans’ goal of sending it to President Donald Trump’s desk by July 4. But first, the Senate will acquiesce to a late Democratic request that clerks read every page of the legislation, adding an additional 15 or so hours before a final vote.

The demand is the latest complication for Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD), who was forced to delay a vote for days after the parliamentarian, a nonpartisan arbiter of Senate rules, struck dozens of provisions from the megabill.

Senate Republicans have since reworked the major provisions and on Friday released updated text for the bill, but the floor reading compounds what is expected to be a messy and drawn-out process.

“This bill is going to create a lot of pain. Tonight is going to be a long night,” Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) told the Washington Examiner. “But this is going to be an even longer season for the American people.”

The maneuver is reminiscent of Johnson forcing an out-loud reading of the American Rescue Act in 2021, which at the time sparked backlash from the Democratic majority.

“Members of my caucus are doing everything they can, using the procedures of the Senate, to create a better product,” Warnock said.

After the bill is read in its entirety, senators will be able to avail themselves of 20 hours of debate, half of which Republicans could yield back. The Senate will then undergo a marathon voting session that could require leadership to update the legislation live on the floor.  

“It could be very interesting on the floor. I think this will not be your typical vote-a-rama, from what I hear,” said Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO). “It sounds to me like it’s going to be an unusually fluid process.”

Thune notched a major victory Saturday morning when Hawley, previously withholding support because of the bill’s Medicaid reforms, said he would vote in favor of final passage, and leadership seemed to be making headway with the other holdouts thanks to the updated bill text.

Hawley cited a more generous, $25 billion stabilization fund for rural hospitals and the reauthorization of his Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, which would provide compensation for nuclear contamination victims.

But that bartering went sideways as Thune called the procedural vote, with three Republicans voting against it — the maximum leadership could lose with Vance in toe.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), one of the chamber’s centrists, withheld her vote as she huddled on the Senate floor with GOP leadership and Vance, before finally voting “yes” on the motion. The negotiations then shifted to a bloc of fiscal hawks searching for a path to further spending cuts. Vance joined the holdouts for another round of talks that cleared the way for the motion to pass.

The vote capped off a tumultuous week of revisions and cajoling over Trump’s agenda, a hodge-podge of tax, border, and defense priorities. It was not clear what Murkowski got in exchange for her support, but she had already won language Friday easing new cost-sharing requirements for food stamps.

REPUBLICANS RELEASE UPDATED SENATE TEXT AHEAD OF ‘BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL’ VOTE

The protracted standoff has laid bare GOP divisions and infuriated Trump after a day of trying to corral the holdouts, both over the phone and at his Virginia golf course.

He trained his ire on Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), in particular — threatening a primary challenge after Tillis voted against the procedural motion. The other Republican to oppose the procedural vote was Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY).

Zach Halaschak contributed to this report.