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shadowkat1. I feel I need to explain in detail how a Bill becomes a Law in the United States. Since a lot of people think now that the Senate passed the Big Beautiful (more like Butt-Ugly) Bill - it will now go to the House and voila, signed into Law. Uh, no, this is not how it works, folks.
But wait, another lawyer did it for me! To the tune of I'm only a Bill, just a little old bill...via School House Rock, which oversimplified it.
How A Bill Becomes a Law by Anne P. Mitchell

First and foremost: In order for a bill to be sent to the president to be signed into law the House and the Senate MUST pass *identical* versions of the bill!  This is what we are seeing happen right now with the budget bill, the House originally passed their version and sent it to the Senate. The Senate made massive changes to it, then voted on that changed version just now, so now it goes back to the House. If the House makes ANY changes, then it goes back to the Senate for them to either vote on or make additional changes.

HERE IS HOW A BILL BECOMES A LAW
Somebody has an idea for a law and gets some Congresspeople to agree to introduce it as a bill.

The brand new bill goes to whatever committee is in charge of the subject of the bill (such as finance, healthcare, transportation, etc.).
The committee reviews that bill and if they agree it should move forward they report it out to the full House to be voted on.  There is usually a lot of haggling before the House actually passes the bill.
Once the House passes the bill it gets sent over to the Senate after a small holding period during which the House can recall it and haggle about it some more. 
Once the bill is sent over to the Senate the Senate then reviews it, almost always makes changes to it, and votes on their final changed version. These changes are called "amendments".

Then because the Senate made changes to the bill ("amended the bill"), the bill has to get sent back to the House so that the House can review the changes to see if they agree with them. More often than not they don't agree with them which means they then make changes again, which means that it has to go back to the Senate to see if the Senate agrees with the changes that the House made.
If you think of the whole process like divorced parents who are doing mediation, that's pretty much what it's like.
Both the House and the Senate HAVE to agree to an identical version of the bill for it to pass.
Then, and only then, does the bill get sent to the president for signature. At that point the president can either sign the bill into law, or veto it, in which case it usually gets sent back down to Congress for more haggling. (Note that there are two types of vetoes, the actual veto which is an action, and a "pocket veto" which is basically inaction, where the person holding veto/signing power simply ignores the bill until the time that it could be signed has passed.]
The process gives me hope. It did have a lot gutted from it. Also the Senate added 800 billion to the national debt. Meanwhile various States are in the process of passing laws to withhold federal taxes, since the federal government is not representing them in a fair and reasonable manner.
2. What is in the Big Butt-Ugly Bill aka the Big Beautiful Bill that the Senate Passed? (Beauty is always in the eye of the beholder apparently?)
Here's What got in and What got cut from the Big Butt-Ugly Bill
It went from 1000 pages to 940 pages.
In the bill:
tax cuts, medicaid cuts (The final version of the legislation includes restrictions on Medicaid, the joint state-federal program that provides health care for more than 70 million low-income and disabled Americans), cuts to green subsidies, increasing state payments to SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits), changes to Student Loan program, Pell Grants get additional funding,The bill would add $5 trillion the nation’s debt limit, which caps how much money the Treasury Department can owe to pay the country’s bills. The national debt stands at more than $36 trillion), Republicans passed a tax credit refund that would go to individuals or companies that donate to organizations that provide K-12 school choice scholarships,
On the Medicaid Cuts, what got in and got cut out of the bill:
"Like the House-passed version, the Senate bill will require beneficiaries to prove they are working or in school at least 80 hours a month to keep their health insurance starting Dec. 31, 2026. The Senate version extends the work requirement to low-income parents of children older than 14, in addition to childless adults without disabilities. It also requires more frequent eligibility checks.
But the Senate parliamentarian said a measure cutting federal funds to states that use their own money to provide health care coverage to immigrants lacking permanent legal status, along with a provision banning Medicaid from covering gender transition services, weren’t in compliance with Senate rules.
The steep cuts to taxes levied by Medicaid expansion states on hospitals and other providers remained in the bill despite objections by some Republicans in the Senate and House, though they will now be delayed by a year, to start in 2028.
The bill also requires people above the poverty line to pay out-of-pocket copays for most Medicaid services, like lab tests or doctor visits. States will be allowed to charge up to 5 percent of a person’s income per year, though some Democratic-led states may opt for a smaller amount."
What is left out of the bill or was cut:
Public land sales
"Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) had been pushing for a provision that would have required the sale of hundreds of thousands of acres of public land, but he abandoned that effort over the weekend.
In a post on social platform X, he said, “Because of the strict constraints of the budget reconciliation process, I was unable to secure clear, enforceable safeguards to guarantee that these lands would be sold only to American families — not to China, not to Blackrock and not to any foreign interests.”
“For that reason, I’ve decided to withdraw the federal land sales provision from the bill,” he added.
Lee had originally proposed to sell up to 3.3 million acres of land owned by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and Forest Service, but he later revised his proposal to pertain to up to 1.2 million acres of the BLM land.
He said he was pushing the measure to build more affordable housing. He received opposition from not only Democrats but also members of his own party, some of whom said they would vote against the bill if it contained public land sales."
[He may try to put in again, but I have a feeling it will fail.]
Excise tax on wind and solar, State AI provisions (The Senate stripped a provision barring states from regulating artificial intelligence (AI). )
For a more precise and total breakdown? Go HERE - The link is NY Times article via remove pay wall.
This tells you exactly what the Senate removed from the bill, changed, altered and left in and why.
Note they removed everything that wasn't budgetary related and broke the rules.
Example?
Measure to limit court contempt powers
The parliamentarian rejected a measure in the bill that would have made it harder for courts to enforce lawsuits against the Trump administration. The measure targeted preliminary injunctions and temporary restraining orders issued by federal judges against Trump’s executive orders and other directives. MacDonough argued that limiting courts’ ability to hold Trump in contempt violates Senate rules.
Go HERE for complete list of no-gos that can't be in the Bill at all
Note, it's still a controversial bill.
3. Want a way to help either in the US or out of the US?
We The People Defend provides information on how.
It's a non-profit site that provides emails with contact information, and instructions on how to go about contacting Senators, White House, Congress, Etc.
You don't have to do everything or anything at all. There's no pressure. But it helps explain how the law works and how to help change what is going on in a pro-active way.
So far, folks have managed to change a lot of things by doing this, so it is working.
If however, you are too pissed off like myself to rationally call and explain in a calm manner, you might want to hang back for a bit or do something else?
4. [ETA: Folks? Be mindful of my blood pressure and please knock off the defeatist talk or keep it out of my journal. I get we're all worried, scared and angry. But it does nobody any good, including you. And I honestly have enough troubles sleeping as it is. I'm on medication for anxiety. So be mindful and keep it to yourselves?]
Actually, Jay Kuo states all of this better than I can - so I'm reposting his words below:
"Folks, some real talk.
Every time I post about how the GOP and its budget bill are unpopular and they will suffer electoral consequences from it, I see multiple comments that say, “Not if we don’t have elections again!”
I’ve said it many times before but will repeat it here: This reaction is understandable, but it is unhelpful and laden with defeatism and cynicism. It literally does the work of fascists for them, while belittling the work of all those fighting for our democracy.
If firefighters were fighting a fire in your neighborhood with all their force, would you cluck your tongue and tell everyone around you, “It’s all going to burn down anyway…”?
Because that is what you sound like when you say our democracy is over when our battle has barely begun. I for one believe that because the states run federal elections, it will be quite hard for the White House to stop them.
Trump can barely get federal troops to stay in L.A., and we’re to believe he can create and maintain an illegal state of martial law, sufficient to cancel federal elections in 50 states?
That can only happen if we capitulate in advance. I will never do so, and no one here should either.
So if you’re coming here to spout doom and gloom, please knock it off, or I’m going to start charging a $5 donation to the ACLU each time you do it. 😉
As you were."
What he said.
But wait, another lawyer did it for me! To the tune of I'm only a Bill, just a little old bill...via School House Rock, which oversimplified it.
How A Bill Becomes a Law by Anne P. Mitchell

First and foremost: In order for a bill to be sent to the president to be signed into law the House and the Senate MUST pass *identical* versions of the bill!  This is what we are seeing happen right now with the budget bill, the House originally passed their version and sent it to the Senate. The Senate made massive changes to it, then voted on that changed version just now, so now it goes back to the House. If the House makes ANY changes, then it goes back to the Senate for them to either vote on or make additional changes.

HERE IS HOW A BILL BECOMES A LAW
Somebody has an idea for a law and gets some Congresspeople to agree to introduce it as a bill.

The brand new bill goes to whatever committee is in charge of the subject of the bill (such as finance, healthcare, transportation, etc.).
The committee reviews that bill and if they agree it should move forward they report it out to the full House to be voted on.  There is usually a lot of haggling before the House actually passes the bill.
Once the House passes the bill it gets sent over to the Senate after a small holding period during which the House can recall it and haggle about it some more. 
Once the bill is sent over to the Senate the Senate then reviews it, almost always makes changes to it, and votes on their final changed version. These changes are called "amendments".

Then because the Senate made changes to the bill ("amended the bill"), the bill has to get sent back to the House so that the House can review the changes to see if they agree with them. More often than not they don't agree with them which means they then make changes again, which means that it has to go back to the Senate to see if the Senate agrees with the changes that the House made.
If you think of the whole process like divorced parents who are doing mediation, that's pretty much what it's like.
Both the House and the Senate HAVE to agree to an identical version of the bill for it to pass.
Then, and only then, does the bill get sent to the president for signature. At that point the president can either sign the bill into law, or veto it, in which case it usually gets sent back down to Congress for more haggling. (Note that there are two types of vetoes, the actual veto which is an action, and a "pocket veto" which is basically inaction, where the person holding veto/signing power simply ignores the bill until the time that it could be signed has passed.]
The process gives me hope. It did have a lot gutted from it. Also the Senate added 800 billion to the national debt. Meanwhile various States are in the process of passing laws to withhold federal taxes, since the federal government is not representing them in a fair and reasonable manner.
2. What is in the Big Butt-Ugly Bill aka the Big Beautiful Bill that the Senate Passed? (Beauty is always in the eye of the beholder apparently?)
Here's What got in and What got cut from the Big Butt-Ugly Bill
It went from 1000 pages to 940 pages.
In the bill:
tax cuts, medicaid cuts (The final version of the legislation includes restrictions on Medicaid, the joint state-federal program that provides health care for more than 70 million low-income and disabled Americans), cuts to green subsidies, increasing state payments to SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits), changes to Student Loan program, Pell Grants get additional funding,The bill would add $5 trillion the nation’s debt limit, which caps how much money the Treasury Department can owe to pay the country’s bills. The national debt stands at more than $36 trillion), Republicans passed a tax credit refund that would go to individuals or companies that donate to organizations that provide K-12 school choice scholarships,
On the Medicaid Cuts, what got in and got cut out of the bill:
"Like the House-passed version, the Senate bill will require beneficiaries to prove they are working or in school at least 80 hours a month to keep their health insurance starting Dec. 31, 2026. The Senate version extends the work requirement to low-income parents of children older than 14, in addition to childless adults without disabilities. It also requires more frequent eligibility checks.
But the Senate parliamentarian said a measure cutting federal funds to states that use their own money to provide health care coverage to immigrants lacking permanent legal status, along with a provision banning Medicaid from covering gender transition services, weren’t in compliance with Senate rules.
The steep cuts to taxes levied by Medicaid expansion states on hospitals and other providers remained in the bill despite objections by some Republicans in the Senate and House, though they will now be delayed by a year, to start in 2028.
The bill also requires people above the poverty line to pay out-of-pocket copays for most Medicaid services, like lab tests or doctor visits. States will be allowed to charge up to 5 percent of a person’s income per year, though some Democratic-led states may opt for a smaller amount."
What is left out of the bill or was cut:
Public land sales
"Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) had been pushing for a provision that would have required the sale of hundreds of thousands of acres of public land, but he abandoned that effort over the weekend.
In a post on social platform X, he said, “Because of the strict constraints of the budget reconciliation process, I was unable to secure clear, enforceable safeguards to guarantee that these lands would be sold only to American families — not to China, not to Blackrock and not to any foreign interests.”
“For that reason, I’ve decided to withdraw the federal land sales provision from the bill,” he added.
Lee had originally proposed to sell up to 3.3 million acres of land owned by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and Forest Service, but he later revised his proposal to pertain to up to 1.2 million acres of the BLM land.
He said he was pushing the measure to build more affordable housing. He received opposition from not only Democrats but also members of his own party, some of whom said they would vote against the bill if it contained public land sales."
[He may try to put in again, but I have a feeling it will fail.]
Excise tax on wind and solar, State AI provisions (The Senate stripped a provision barring states from regulating artificial intelligence (AI). )
For a more precise and total breakdown? Go HERE - The link is NY Times article via remove pay wall.
This tells you exactly what the Senate removed from the bill, changed, altered and left in and why.
Note they removed everything that wasn't budgetary related and broke the rules.
Example?
Measure to limit court contempt powers
The parliamentarian rejected a measure in the bill that would have made it harder for courts to enforce lawsuits against the Trump administration. The measure targeted preliminary injunctions and temporary restraining orders issued by federal judges against Trump’s executive orders and other directives. MacDonough argued that limiting courts’ ability to hold Trump in contempt violates Senate rules.
Go HERE for complete list of no-gos that can't be in the Bill at all
Note, it's still a controversial bill.
3. Want a way to help either in the US or out of the US?
We The People Defend provides information on how.
It's a non-profit site that provides emails with contact information, and instructions on how to go about contacting Senators, White House, Congress, Etc.
You don't have to do everything or anything at all. There's no pressure. But it helps explain how the law works and how to help change what is going on in a pro-active way.
So far, folks have managed to change a lot of things by doing this, so it is working.
If however, you are too pissed off like myself to rationally call and explain in a calm manner, you might want to hang back for a bit or do something else?
4. [ETA: Folks? Be mindful of my blood pressure and please knock off the defeatist talk or keep it out of my journal. I get we're all worried, scared and angry. But it does nobody any good, including you. And I honestly have enough troubles sleeping as it is. I'm on medication for anxiety. So be mindful and keep it to yourselves?]
Actually, Jay Kuo states all of this better than I can - so I'm reposting his words below:
"Folks, some real talk.
Every time I post about how the GOP and its budget bill are unpopular and they will suffer electoral consequences from it, I see multiple comments that say, “Not if we don’t have elections again!”
I’ve said it many times before but will repeat it here: This reaction is understandable, but it is unhelpful and laden with defeatism and cynicism. It literally does the work of fascists for them, while belittling the work of all those fighting for our democracy.
If firefighters were fighting a fire in your neighborhood with all their force, would you cluck your tongue and tell everyone around you, “It’s all going to burn down anyway…”?
Because that is what you sound like when you say our democracy is over when our battle has barely begun. I for one believe that because the states run federal elections, it will be quite hard for the White House to stop them.
Trump can barely get federal troops to stay in L.A., and we’re to believe he can create and maintain an illegal state of martial law, sufficient to cancel federal elections in 50 states?
That can only happen if we capitulate in advance. I will never do so, and no one here should either.
So if you’re coming here to spout doom and gloom, please knock it off, or I’m going to start charging a $5 donation to the ACLU each time you do it. 😉
As you were."
What he said.