U.S. Vice President JD Vance broke a 50-50 tie in the Senate on Tuesday after a marathon voting session, and U.S. President Donald Trump’s reconciliation package, which he calls the “big, beautiful bill,” passed the upper chamber.
“Almost all of our great Republicans in the United States Senate have passed our ‘One Big, Beautiful Bill,’” the president stated. “It is no longer a ‘House bill’ or a ‘Senate Bill.’ It is everyone’s bill.”
Trump said that the American people will be the biggest winners and that the bill will result in “permanently lower taxes, higher wages and take-home pay, secure borders and a stronger and more powerful military.”
“Additionally, Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security benefits are not being cut, but are being strengthened and protected from radical and destructive Democrats by eliminating waste, fraud and abuse from those programs,” the president stated.
The Orthodox Union praised the bill for adding back in some of the school choice elements, under the Educational Choice for Children Act, that the Senate parliamentarian axed.
“This is a groundbreaking moment for school choice and for Jewish families who strive to provide their children with a strong, values-based education,” stated Nathan Diament, executive director of the Orthodox Union Advocacy Center.
“We’re profoundly grateful to Sens. Bill Cassidy, Tim Scott, Ted Cruz and Majority Leader John Thune for fighting to secure this measure and push it over the finish line in the Senate,” Diament stated.
The bill, which must pass the House, creates “the largest and most promising federal school choice program ever enacted by Congress,” according to the Orthodox Union. That includes a “100% federal tax credit for donations to scholarship-granting organizations, up to $1,700 per donor,” no national cap on annual credits and a “permanent program with no sunset date,” the OU said.
The version that the parliamentarian removed called for a $5,000 cap, some 200% more than what the Senate passed.
It also contains an “annual opt-in process requiring each state’s governor, or designated official, to submit eligible scholarship-granting organizations to the federal government,” according to the OU.
“This victory shows what’s possible when we keep pushing, but it’s only the beginning,” Diament stated. “We won’t rest until every Jewish child can access an affordable Jewish education.”
“School choice is the civil rights issue of the 21st century. Every child, regardless of race or wealth or ethnicity, deserves access to an excellent education,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said on the Senate floor.
“This tax credit provision will unleash billions of dollars every single year for scholarships for kids to attend the K-12 school of their choice,” Cruz said. “Sadly, every Democrat in this body will oppose these scholarships, because they’re more beholden to teacher union bosses than they are dedicated to fighting for kids.”
Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) joined Democrats in voting against the bill. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), who is Jewish, claimed that Tillis, who recently announced he won’t seek reelection, opted to do so due to the bill.
“This bill is so irredeemable that one Republican literally chose to retire rather than vote ‘yes’ and decimate his own state,” Schumer stated. “He was one of the very few willing to say aloud what many Republicans think in private: that this bill is an impossible sell to people back home.”
The Republican Jewish Coalition praised the bill’s Senate passage and called it “a major step forward in providing school choice for millions of American families and expanding educational freedom.”
“Instead of the one-size-fits-all educational system that has remained largely unchanged for over a century, a diverse marketplace of schooling models tailored to families’ needs will flourish,” it said.