Senate Dems join GOP to approve major Trump campaign promise in surprise move

The Senate passed bipartisan legislation to eliminate the tax on tips through unanimous consent in a surprise move Tuesday afternoon.

Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz’s No Taxes On Tips Act would exempt tips from taxation under the federal income tax. The legislation’s passage delivers on a central pledge of President Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign to provide tax relief to tipped workers.

Democratic Nevada Sen. Jacky Rosen, a cosponsor of the legislation, went to the Senate floor Tuesday to ask for unanimous consent to pass the bill. No senators from either party objected to Rosen’s request.

“No tax on tips was one of President Trump’s key promises to the American people, which he unveiled in my State of Nevada,” Rosen said Tuesday. “And I am not afraid to embrace a good idea wherever it comes from.”

Cruz spoke shortly after Rosen to praise the legislation’s passage, which he called “commonsense, bipartisan tax reform.”

President Trump made a promise to the American people that he would eliminate taxes on tips.

Today, I went with Senator Rosen to the floor to secure Senate passage of the bill.

I urge my colleagues in the House to pass this important bill and send it to the President’s… pic.twitter.com/4vqk1uEzVB

— Senator Ted Cruz (@SenTedCruz) May 20, 2025

“With what we just saw now, the certainty that we will see no tax on tips become the law of the land, I think, is very close to 100%,” Cruz said on the Senate floor. “As the senator from Nevada mentioned, it is included in the House’s one big, beautiful bill, and whether it passes free-standing or as part of the bigger bill —one way or another — no tax on tips is going to become law and give real relief to hard-working Americans.”

Trump first declared his campaign promise to provide tax relief to tipped workers during a June 2024 rally in Nevada, a state home to many service workers.

“When I get to the office, we are going to not charge taxes on tips, people making tips,” Trump told Nevada residents. “We’re not going to do it, and we’re going to do that right away.”

House Republicans’ sweeping tax and spending package, incorporating much of the president’s legislative agenda, includes a provision eliminating taxes on tipped wages and overtime pay.

Cruz attended a White House event Monday to celebrate the passage of another bipartisan bill he co-led with Democratic Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, the Take It Down Act, which criminalizes revenge porn and AI deepfakes. The legislation, promoted by First Lady Melania Trump, passed the Senate by unanimous consent in February.

“I’m proud of what the Senate just did, and I commend Democrats and Republicans, even at a time of partisan division, coming together and agreeing on this commonsense policy,” Cruz said Tuesday.

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