The House minority leader, Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, says he will take his “sweet time” in speaking on the floor to delay passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. As Democratic leader, he has the right to speak on the floor for as long as he likes. 

After a grueling legislative process that took more than a year, the House is set to pass a bill that includes more than $4 trillion in tax cuts, hundreds of billions of dollars in additional military, border, and immigration spending, and major reforms to the social safety net that will result in additional costs for states and the loss of health insurance for millions of Americans. 

Mr. Jeffries says he is not prepared to let Republicans pass it without a potentially lengthy delay. 

When bills are brought to the floor, limits are set on how much time each party gets to debate the legislation. Both Republican and Democratic leadership then divides time between individual members, who will take a few minutes or even just a few seconds to voice their opinions. 

The speaker, the majority leader, and the minority leader are the only individuals allowed to hold the floor for an unlimited amount of time. Speaker McCarthy currently holds the record, having spoken on the floor for more than eight hours and 30 minutes. 

Shortly after taking the podium just before sunrise on Thursday, Mr. Jeffries took out a thick binder filled with letters from individuals from across the country who will be affected by the cuts to Medicaid and food stamps. Most of the letters were sent in from districts represented by Republicans. 

“Medicaid matters and it must be preserved!” Mr. Jeffries declared on the House floor, leading his fellow Democrats to give him a standing ovation. 

Later in his speech, he made clear that he was not prepared to yield the floor any time soon, as Republicans had hoped. 

“I feel the obligation … to stand on this House floor and take my sweet time to tell the stories of the American people,” Mr. Jeffries said, as his fellow Democrats rose to their feet to applaud him. 

“And that’s exactly what I intend to do — take my sweet time on behalf of the American people, on behalf of their healthcare, on behalf of their Medicaid, on behalf of their nutrition assistance, on behalf of veterans, on behalf of farmers, on behalf of children, on behalf of seniors, on behalf of people with disabilities, on behalf of small businesses, on behalf of every single American!” Mr. Jeffries said. 

“I’m on this House floor after 6 a.m. and I’m planning to take my sweet time!” he declared as his colleagues cheered. 

As Mr. Jeffries was reading the letters from Americans on Medicaid, Speaker Johnson and a small group of other Republicans were at the back of the House chamber, chatting and joking about something. One Democrat, Congressman Troy Carter, pointed toward the House speaker and yelled to the presiding officer, demanding that his Republican colleagues be quiet. 

“This is disrespectful!” Mr. Carter shouted in a hushed chamber. 

The presiding officer then said that the House should be in order — the parliamentary equivalent of telling everyone to be quiet.  

Republicans are on the cusp of passing the bill whenever Mr. Jeffries yields the floor. Up until the early hours of Thursday morning, it was unclear if the lower chamber could pass the bill after the Senate made its changes earlier this week — including harsher cuts to Medicaid, more deficit spending, and an extension of the availability of green energy credits. 

The Senate was only able to pass the legislation by one vote thanks to Senator Murkowski, who won a number of special carve-outs for her state, including certain tax benefits for the whaling industry and a break for SNAP recipients in states with high payment error rates, such as Alaska. 

There was high drama on the House floor for nearly a full day straight, as conservatives and moderates alike held Republican leadership hostage over their objections to the bill. The House began considering the bill at 9 a.m. on Wednesday.

During an amendment vote that began Wednesday afternoon, Mr. Johnson was forced to hold the vote open for nearly seven-and-a-half hours — the longest vote in House history — as he tried to get conservatives to fall in line. 

After that amendment was adopted, Republicans moved on to a vote on the “rule” for the big beautiful bill, which is a procedural item that allows the House to begin debate. The vote on the rule began at about 9:30 p.m. on Wednesday and did not conclude until about 3:30 a.m. on Thursday. 

Over the course of that rule vote, several Republicans withheld their support or even voted against it. Congressman Thomas Massie, who voted yes on the rule, switched his vote to no after a brief conversation with the majority whip, Congressman Tom Emmer. He later switched his vote to yes. 

A moderate from a district that was won by Vice President Harris last year, Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick, also voted no. Conservative hardliners like Congresswoman Victoria Spartz, Congressman Keith Self, and Congressman Andrew Clyde also voted against the rule, though all of those lawmakers flipped their votes to yes before the vote ended.