Garbarino misses ‘Big, Beautiful, Bill’ vote

U.S. Rep. Andrew Garbarino recently made national headlines after missing a vote on President Donald Trump’s domestic policy bill, known as the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” which he had expressed support for.

Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, told reporters after the vote that Garbarino fell asleep before the vote, which took place around midnight on May 22.

Garbarino said in a statement that while he barely missed the vote, he was proud to have been a leading figure on key elements of the bill, such as raising the state and local tax (SALT) deduction from its limit of $10,000 to $40,000 for households making less than $500,000 a year.

“I was moments away from the House floor to vote ‘yes,’ when the vote was closed,” Garbarino said. “While I am frustrated that the vote was closed before I was able to cast my vote, I am proud of the work we accomplished to deliver huge results for Long Island. I congratulate President Trump on getting this bill passed and look forward to voting ‘yes’ when it comes back to the House floor from the Senate.”

The bill passed the House of Representatives by only one vote, with all Democrats voting no, including U.S. Reps. Tom Suozzi and Laura Gillen from Nassau County, who said that the SALT deduction cap should have been eliminated.

While Johnson jokingly told reporters that he was “going to strangle” Garbarino for missing the vote, he later posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, support for Garbarino, saying that the representative had taken an “essential role in negotiations among [House] members,” before the bill passed the house.

Trump also backed Garbarino on his social media platform, “Truth Social,” calling the congressman “a fierce Advocate for Long Island,” days after the bill passed and some constituents created social media posts calling for a contested primary against Garbarino for often voting alongside Democrats.

If passed by the Senate in the next month, the “Big Beautiful Bill” would raise the SALT deduction to $40,000, which means that when filing for federal taxes, certain taxes that are paid to the state and local governments can be deducted up to $40,000 for some filers.

Many Democrats have raised concerns about the domestic policy bill, which creates drastic changes to Medicaid, such as pausing the implementation of current rules that help streamline the Medicaid enrollment process and requiring that the over 80 million Medicaid participants report at least 80 hours of work or volunteering per month to keep enrollment.

Some Senate Republicans, such as Rand Paul of Kentucky and Rick Scott of Florida, are also cautious about the bill due to what they perceive as its excessive costs in its current state. Senate majority leader John Thune of South Dakota said the senators will continue to negotiate over the exact bill’s costs before Congress enters recess for the Fourth of July.