High Drama Around IRA Subsidies As Senate Finally Approves Trump's OBBBA

Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski head to the Senate chamber after last-minute negotiations over wind and solar subsidies

Vice President JD Vance cast the tiebreaking vote as the U.S. Senate approved its final version of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), 51-50, at mid-day Tuesday. That happy outcome for the Trump administration and congressional Republicans did not come without its share of high drama, much of which centered on language to phase out wind and solar subsidies contained in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).

In the end, Majority Leader John Thune and Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski reached a compromise that left no one completely satisfied. That has historically been an indicator that the compromise did a good job of balancing a wide variety of interests.

The Senate Finance Committee's version of the OBBBA, released on June 16, 2025, served as the working baseline on those provisions. Unlike the House version, which imposes a strict 60-day construction start deadline and a 2028 placed-in-service requirement, the Senate’s initial change would have allowed full incentives for projects beginning construction by the end of 2025, with a stair-step phase out through the end of 2028.