Three Republican Senators bucked the president and voted against the president's massive spending bill. Vice President JD Vance broke the tie to send the legislation back to the House — where Speaker Mike Johnson said that the Senate "went a little further" than his chamber would have liked.

In the end, after hours of cajoling, Murkowski got to “yes” by securing several Alaska-specific wins, including by making the bill’s cuts to Medicaid and federal food assistance less severe in her state. She told reporters afterward that she hoped the House would fix the problems in the bill, but few people, including me, took that seriously.