Mass. Rep. Trahan’s ‘Les Miz’ moment on Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ | Bay State Briefing

In the early hours of last Thursday morning, as U.S. House Republicans got ready to send President Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” over to the Senate, a Massachusetts lawmaker stepped into the breach, all Henry V-style, to try to stop it.

That lawmaker, U.S. Rep. Lori Trahan, D-3rd District, offered what’s known as a “Motion to Recommit,” a parliamentary Hail Mary that would have sent the bill back to committee rather than allowing the eventual 215-214 vote to approve it.

This was Trahan, who helms the House Dems’ messaging effort, getting her “Les Miz” moment to defend the barricades against legislation that she and her fellow Democrats believe will gut the social safety net and cause the national debt to skyrocket.

In addition to its other provisions, the GOP-authored bill is a “targeted attack on Planned Parenthood, one of the most trusted providers of reproductive health care in our country,” Trahan said during a brief floor speech. “No one should lose access to basic care just because of where they go to get it.”

Trahan later offered her procedural motion, which failed, with every Republican voting against it, her office said in a statement.

Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., may have won a battle on Thursday, but they still have to win the war by getting the bill through the U.S. Senate and onto the Resolute Desk.

Lawmakers on the other side of Capitol Hill were already talking about significant rewrites to the bill within hours of the House vote, according to Politico.

The messages, however, were contradictory. Budget hawks were looking for bigger savings, while others were looking to blunt the House’s attack on Medicaid and preserve green energy incentives, Politico reported.

And as of last week, it looked like U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., was spoiling for that fight.

“Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are popping champagne because House Republicans JUST passed Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill,’ the Cambridge lawmaker posted to X.

“This bill is a BIG tax handout for billionaires, paid for by ripping health insurance from 14 MILLION people. We must stop this from passing the Senate,” she continued.

Warren’s colleague, U.S. Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., meanwhile, was doing a bit of Capitol Hill math.

“The question now: How many Senate Republicans will vote to cut Medicaid, SNAP and Pell? How many millions of people will they take health care, food and education from — all to pay for tax breaks for the ultra wealthy?" he posted to X.

The answer, according to Politico, is three.

That’s how many GOP votes Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-Texas, can afford to lose and still pass the bill on a party-line vote.

Thune wants to get the bill through the Senate by July 4, saying the Independence Day deadline is the “goal and the aspiration,” but will depend on “what does it take to get to 51?” That’s a reference to the number of votes it takes in the Senate to win a simple majority.

It also gives the bill’s opponents a deadline to work on any GOP lawmakers who might be wobbly on the bill and extra time to cue up their copy of “Do You Hear the People Sing?”