House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) commandeered the chamber floor early Thursday morning to deliver a marathon speech hammering away at the GOP’s tax and spending cut bill, stalling a final vote on the sprawling package full of President Trump’s legislative priorities.
The Republican bill is almost 900 pages long, and Jeffries bashed House GOP leaders for allotting only one hour of debate on its contents before the final vote, split into 30-minute segments between the two main committees of jurisdiction. The Democratic leader said he wanted to compensate for what he considers a dearth of discussion, warning Republicans at the outset that he was going to “take my sweet 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.”
He’s doing just that.
Jeffries took the House floor at 4:53 a.m. EDT Thursday for what is referred to as his “magic minute,” which empowers leaders in both parties to speak in the chamber for as long as they want during legislative debates.
As of 9:30 a.m., Jeffries was still speaking — crossing the four-hour mark and sparking speculation that he may try to break the record for longest speech on the House floor.
Live updates: Jeffries’s ‘magic minute’ enters fifth hour as House on verge of passing Trump megabill
That accolade belongs to former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) who, when he was minority leader in 2021, spoke on the House floor for 8 hours and 32 minutes in an effort to stall a vote on the Democrats’ social spending and climate package, known as Build Back Better.
It remains unclear when Jeffries plans to stop his speech. Just after 9 a.m., the Democratic whip’s office sent out a notice that simply said the speech was “ongoing,” without disclosing when it was slated to come to a close.
At the start of the speech, dozens of Republicans had joined Democrats in the chamber, expecting a short speech, including Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), who was waiting to deliver his own remarks. But as Jeffries continued without any signs of stopping, Republicans started leaving the floor.
By 9 a.m., their side of the chamber was a ghost town, with just a handful of members filling in and out to listen to the remarks.
Jeffries focused much of his marathon speech reading letters from people around the country who had written in with anecdotes about how federal programs like Medicaid had helped their families. Jeffries’s message was not subtle: The spending cuts featured in the bill would erode many of those same benefits, he warned, and “people will die” as a result.
Jeffries also made a point to identify what part of the country the letter-writers hailed from — and name which Republican lawmakers represented them. The list largely featured the vulnerable GOP lawmakers facing tough reelection contests in next year’s midterms.
As Jeffries stalled the vote, other Democrats took the opportunity to press voters to call their GOP representatives to urge them to kill the bill.
“Call. Your. Representative. Now,” Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) wrote on the social platform X.
Jeffries’s marathon speech came as a bit of a surprise on Capitol Hill. A day earlier, a source close to Jeffries’s office had asserted that the address would last roughly one hour.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
