The US Senate has held a marathon voting session through the night on a sprawling budget bill that is critical to President Donald Trump's agenda, BBC reports.
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act - running to nearly 1,000-pages - includes increased spending for border security, defence and energy production - offset to a degree by cuts to healthcare and food-support programmes.
Its fate hangs in the balance as Trump's Republicans - who control both chambers of Congress - remain split over how much to cut welfare programmes by as they seek to extend tax breaks.
If approved in the Senate, the bill will return to the lower House of Representatives for a final vote before being sent to Trump to be signed into law.
Overnight from Monday into Tuesday, senators argued for or against amendments - each voted on separately in a process called "vote-a-rama". The process has lasted more than 22 hours so far.
Just after 06:00 EST (11:00 GMT) Vice-President JD Vance arrived on Capitol Hill, indicating Senate Republicans may need him to cast a tie-breaking vote to push the legislation through.
Republicans in the Senate can only afford three defections in order for the bill to pass. If they lose three votes, Vance will have to cast a tie-breaking vote.
The bill's critics include Elon Musk - who has stepped up his criticism of Republicans who "campaigned on reducing government spending" and then "immediately voted for the biggest debt increase in history".
The tech billionaire was in charge of Doge, the Department of Government Efficiency, which has been tasked to find ways of cutting government spending, until he fell out with Trump over the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
The US national debt currently sits at $36tn (£26tn), according to the treasury department. According to new estimates, the bill will add $3.3tn to that debt if it is passed.
Proposed cuts contained in the legislation could strip nearly 12 million Americans of their health insurance coverage, according to the Congressional Budget Office, a non-partisan federal agency.
The Republican debate has focused on how much to cut welfare programmes in order to extend $3.8tn in Trump tax breaks.
One of their amendments, by Senator John Cornyn, proposed reducing federal Medicaid payments - the programme that helps low-income groups cover healthcare costs - to states that provide coverage to undocumented immigrants charged with specific crimes. It was not approved.
Democrats have criticised the proposed cuts and have attempted to slow proceedings in the Senate.
Senator Ed Markey, for instance, proposed an amendment to delete provisions which he argued would force rural hospitals to limit their services or shut down altogether.
Other amendments proposed by Democrats concerned the bill's cuts to food assistance. They were all voted down along party lines.
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