House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) took control of the House floor early Thursday and launched into a marathon speech to block a final vote on the GOP’s massive tax and spending cut bill packed with President Trump’s priorities.
The bill is nearly 900 pages long. Jeffries slammed Republican leaders for giving lawmakers just one hour of debate—split into two 30-minute sessions—to discuss it before voting. He said that was far too little time.
“It had been my hope, Mr. Speaker, that we’d be able to have a robust debate, passionate support, or passionate opposition in connection with this bill. That hundreds of members on both sides of the aisle could participate in, and instead we have a limited debate where the relevant committees of jurisdiction have been given 15 minutes each on a bill of such significant magnitude as it relates to the health, the safety, and the well-being of the American people,” Jeffries said.
“And because that debate was so limited, I feel the obligation, Mr. Speaker, to stand on this House floor and take my sweet time to tell the stories of the American people. And that’s exactly what I intend to do — take my sweet time.”
Jeffries started speaking at 4:53 a.m. Thursday, using his party leader “magic minute” to talk as long as he wants during the debate. By 9:30 a.m., he had been speaking for more than four hours—leading to speculation he might try to break the record for the longest House floor speech. If he keeps going for one more hour, he’ll surpass former Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s 2021 record.
No one knows when Jeffries will stop. Just after 9 a.m., the Democratic whip’s office said only that the speech was “ongoing,” with no end in sight.
At the start, many Republicans stayed in the chamber, including Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) who was waiting to speak next. But as Jeffries kept going, GOP members began leaving. By 9 a.m., the Republican side was mostly empty, with only a few members coming and going to listen.
Much of Jeffries’s speech involved reading letters from people around the country sharing how federal programs like Medicaid helped their families. Jeffries warned the bill’s spending cuts would strip away those benefits and said bluntly that “people will die” because of it.
He also made a point to mention where the letter writers were from and named the Republican lawmakers who represent those districts—many of them vulnerable Republicans facing tough reelection fights next year.
While Jeffries stalled the vote, other Democrats urged voters to call their GOP representatives to kill the bill.
“Call. Your. Representative. Now,” Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) tweeted.
Jeffries’s marathon speech caught many on Capitol Hill off guard. Just a day before, a source close to Jeffries had said the speech would last about an hour. Instead, he’s shown no sign of stopping.
