• Republicans are trying to pass Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill" in the coming weeks.
• It includes new tax cuts, changes to Medicaid, saving accounts for kids, and other provisions.
• Here's what you should know about the centerpiece of Trump's legislative agenda.

For months, President Donald Trump has pursued his sweeping agenda through executive actions. Now comes the hard part.

Republicans on Capitol Hill are finally putting pen to paper on what Trump has called the "One Big Beautiful Bill," a sweeping fiscal package that will serve as the centerpiece of the president's legislative agenda.

The bill includes GOP priorities like no taxes on tips or overtime, cuts to Medicaid, "MAGA accounts" for children and several other provisions.

It will take weeks for lawmakers in the House and Senate to work out the final details, and it's likely that some changes will be made along the way. Republicans hope to send the bill to Trump's desk by July 4.

Here's what you should know about what's in the "One Big Beautiful Bill."

The bill includes cuts to Medicaid, and millions could lose health coverage

As part of the plan approved by the House Energy and Commerce Committee, states would implement work requirements in 2029 for childless adults on Medicaid who do not have a disability, mandating they work for 80 hours a month.

A component of the plan would increase the price of doctors' visits, mandating beneficiaries making above the federal poverty limit to pay co-payments of up to $35. States would also be required to stop taxing hospitals and nursing homes in order to secure more federal funding.

Medicaid recipients in some states would have more paperwork to regularly confirm their residency status and income. And the plan would lower federal funding for some recipients in states that fund medical coverage for undocumented immigrants.

The Congress Budget Office estimated the legislation would save about $912 billion over the next decade in federal spending, about $715 billion of which would derive from Medicaid and Affordable Care Act cuts. The CBO said about 8.6 million people could lose their insurance coverage.

The plan came short of expectations among some ultraconservatives who wanted more Medicaid cuts at the federal level. Some GOP leaders wanted per-capita caps for those in Medicaid expansion states and a lower across-the-board rate at which the federal government supplements each state's funding for Medicaid programs.

Democrats have strongly opposed the bill, emphasizing that millions of Americans will potentially have their lives uprooted by Medicaid cuts.

No tax on tips or overtime, making Trump's 2017 tax cuts permanent, and more

Some of Trump's flashiest campaign promises were to remove taxes on tips, overtime, and Social Security. This bill largely gets those done, but only for the next four years — lawmakers will have to decide whether to renew the cuts in 2029.

The bill would allow workers in an "occupation that traditionally and customarily receives tips" to claim a tax deduction for the sum of all tips that they received in the previous year. It would also do the same for overtime wages. Neither deduction is available to anyone who is a "highly compensated employee."

To help accomplish Trump's "no taxes on Social Security" pledge, Republicans created a new $4,000 tax deduction for seniors making less than $75,000 per year. There's also a provision in the bill to fulfill Trump's promise of no taxes on car loan interest.

There's also an extension of the child tax credit, which is currently $2,000 but was set to decrease to $1,000 after this year. The bill would increase the credit to $2,500 through 2028, then it would drop to $2,000 permanently after that.

If you're thinking of buying an electric vehicle, you might want to do so before the end of the year. The bill would eliminate existing tax credits for new and used EVs, and it would impose an annual registration fee of $250 for EV owners.

The bill also makes permanent a slew of tax cuts that Trump and Republicans enacted in 2017. The average American won't feel much of a difference, since they've probably gotten used to the existing tax rates and brackets that have existed since 2018. But it's the most consequential part of the bill from a budgetary perspective, adding trillions to the deficit over the next several years.

MAGA savings accounts

The bill establishes "Money account for growth and advancement" accounts, or MAGA accounts, for children. The idea was originally proposed by Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas.

The federal government would pay $1,000 to babies born from 2024 through 2028. After the cutoff, parents will still be able to put $5,000 per year into each account.

Cruz's proposal is similar to previous Democratic-led efforts for "baby bonds," but the biggest difference is that there is no income cutoff. Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, a Democrat, envisioned a program primarily targeted at low-income families.

A repeal of Biden's student loan forgiveness plans

If enacted, the reconciliation bill would mean major changes for student-loan borrowers. The legislation proposes terminating all existing income-driven student-loan repayment plans, including Biden's SAVE income-driven repayment plan, which would have shortened the timeline for debt relief and provided cheaper monthly payments. While SAVE is currently paused due to litigation, Trump and Republican lawmakers have said they would not carry out the plan if it survives in court.

Under the bill, borrowers would have two repayment plan options: one, called the Repayment Assistance Plan, would allow for loan forgiveness after 360 qualifying payments, and the other option would be a standard repayment plan with a fixed monthly payment over a fixed time period set by the servicer.

Payments made under the Repayment Assistance Plan would be calculated based on the borrower's income and would count toward Public Service Loan Forgiveness.

A 10-year ban on state-level AI laws

House lawmakers handed a major win to Big Techby including a 10-year federal preemption on all state artificial intelligence laws in the larger bill. Congress has talked about a federal AI policy, but no serious legislative proposals have emerged.

In the meantime, states have tried to fill to void. Major tech companies have long fought state-level AI regulations. Last year, California lawmakers passed the nation's most sweeping AI legislation only for Gov. Gavin Newsom to veto it.

Meta, OpenAI, and Anthropic lobbied against California's bill. Meta recently wrote to the White House that state laws "could impede innovation and investment."

The issue isn't going away. In the 2024 legislative session, lawmakers in at least 45 states introduced AI-related bills, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Unlike most of the other provisions on this list, the AI regulation ban faces major hurdles to making it into law. Republicans must adhere to strict parliamentary rules to pass Trump's bill without facing a Democratic filibuster in the Senate. One rule is that all provisions must be primarily fiscal in nature, and many expect that the AI provision will fail that test.

A debt ceiling hike, the end of IRS Direct file, money for a border wall, and more

Avoiding default: Republicans would raise the debt limit by $4 trillion, staving off a potential default that could come later this summer. One way or another, Congress will have to address the debt issue soon. The federal government is expected to exhaust its borrowing ability sometime in August.

Billions for missile defense: Trump wants the US to have a futuristic missile defense system inspired by Israel's vaunted "Iron Dome" air defenses, but the US shield would include space-based components and focus on longer-range missile threats rather than the smaller weapons Israel faces. House Republicans have allocated roughly $25 billion for overall missile defense, most of which will go to the "Golden Dome" project.

700 more miles of Trump's border wall: Republicans proposed spending roughly $47 billion on border barriers, which will cover 701 miles of "primary wall," 900 miles of river barriers, and 629 miles of secondary barriers. Trump repeatedly fought in his first term to build a massive border wall between the US and Mexico but struggled to get funding through Congress.

A big tax increase on large university endowments: Republicans would significantly increase Trump's 2017 groundbreaking tax on colleges and universities with large endowments. Under the bill, the tax rate would be tied to the size of their endowment, adjusted by student enrollment.At the low end, the rate would remain at 1.4%. At the highest level, universities would pay 21% tax if they have an endowment of $2 million or more per student.

IRS direct file: The big beautiful bill would officially kill off the IRS's Direct File program, a Biden-era initiative that has long been a subject of Republican ire. In April, a Treasury Department official told BI that it was a failed and disappointing program. The new legislation would instead allocate funding towards studying a public-private partnership to provide free filing for a majority of taxpayers.

• Gen Z's intrigue with the papal conclave surged because they'd had a juicy primer in the film "Conclave."
• The movie offered a fictional glimpse into the secretive papal selection process.
• "Conclave" became a box-office hit, resonating with Gen Z's love for drama and exclusivity.

I have a confession.

I saw "Conclave," the movie, five times in the theater.

It's shocking, I know, in an era when movie theater attendance has been tanking, but it meant I was well-prepared for this week's real-life event and the inner machinations of the cardinals who ultimately selected Robert Francis Prevost to be the next pope.

It also meant I understood all the Gen Z hype around it.

First, there's "Pope Crave," a play on the popular "Pop Crave" X account, which has transitioned from sharing "Conclave" film memes to reporting live from the event itself.

Then there were TikTok edits and betting pools. Even NBC's Steve Kornacki, another unlikely Gen Z icon, jumped in, breaking down the conclave à la his popular election coverage — signature khakis and all.

So why the huge surge in interest in the real conclave — and the film?

Gen Z loves access, exclusivity, and drama

In an age when social media and direct virtual access have come to dominate politics, the movie gave Gen Zers a fictional glimpse at what might happen behind closed doors — an inroad into a ritual that, by design, is shrouded in secrecy and pomp. When the real event rolled around, anyone who had seen the film could feel like they were already in on the secrets.

Some of the most affecting parts of the film are grounded in the humanity of its holy men: The throughline of Ralph Fiennes' Cardinal Lawrence, the dean of the "Conclave," is his growing detachment from his own faith. Factions snipe at each other, the purest of men are petty and short, and the desire for power and institutional stability is a blinding force for some. Those are certainly themes that are resonant for younger viewers who have often joked about constantly living in unprecedented times.

And those themes resonated with audiences: Conclave also emerged as a surprise box-office hit, a standout in a time when big superhero franchises and reboots are floundering. And, yes, it amassed its own barrage of TikTok edits — another Gen Z hallmark.

The film primed Gen Z for the actual event

It's like knowing Taylor Swift's catalog so well that you can spot the Easter Eggs in her newest music — you're naturally going to be a bigger fan, notice the inside details, and debate what it all means in the group chat.

The actual conclave meant that, unlike dramas such as "Succession" or "Game of Thrones," the movie crossed a little bit into reality; Gen Z came in with an acute, gossipy understanding of what might be happening behind closed doors and was ready to speculate. That offered the opportunity to edit, post, and bet away.

The film, and the actual event, also came at important times for Gen Zers. "Conclave" gained box office steam right around the 2024 election, suggesting an appetite for a contained story about a high-stakes and tumultuous election; the film's box office yields for the Friday and Saturday following the election both came in over $1 million. (I did not pay for five individual viewings. As a sober-curious, subscription-maximizing young person, I'm a member of AMC A-List, which allows me to see four movies a month for just under $30.)

The appointment of a new pope comes at a consequential life stage for many Gen Zers, even as the share of young Catholics in the US shrinks: Many in my age cohort are considering marriage or having their first children. A new pope might dictate how much, if at all, they choose to be involved in their religion or raise a child within it.

Now, ironically, we're in a world with a new pope tailored to the Gen Z age: Folks are already combing through his X account and finding his political takes. Welcome to the official Pope Crave era.

Do you have a story to share about the conclave (real) or "Conclave" the film? Contact this reporter at [email protected].