The Republican-controlled US House of Representatives was expected today to give final approval to a sweeping tax bill and send it to President Donald Trump to sign into law.
This will seal the US President's first major legislative victory in office.
In the largest overhaul of the US tax code in 30 years, Republicans in mere weeks have steamrolled over the opposition of Democrats in an effort to cut taxes for corporations and the wealthy.
The tax cuts will also offer mixed, temporary tax relief to working US individuals and families.
The Senate approved the bill in the wee hours of Wednesday morning on a 51-48 vote.
But it had to send it back to the House, which had passed it yesterday, for a re-vote due to a procedural foul-up that embarrassed Republicans, but was not expected to change the outcome.
The re-vote was expected to take place in the House later today.
The sprawling, debt-financed legislation cuts the US corporate income tax rate to 21% from 35%, gives other business owners a new 20% deduction on business income and reshapes how America taxes multinationals along lines the largest businesses in the US have recommended for years.
Millions of Americans would stop itemizing deductions under the bill, putting tax breaks that incentivise home ownership and charitable donations out of their reach, but also making their tax returns somewhat simpler and shorter.
It keeps the present number of tax brackets, but adjusts many, though not all, of the rates and income levels for each one. The top tax rate for high earners is reduced.
The estate tax on inheritances is also changed so far fewer people will pay.
In two provisions added on to secure needed Republican votes, it also repeals part of the Obamacare health system and allows oil drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Democrats have railed against the legislation as a giveaway to the wealthy and the business community that will widen the income gap between rich and poor, while adding $1.5 trillion over the next decade to the $20 trillion national debt, which Trump promised in 2016 he would eliminate as president.
Despite Trump administration promises that the tax overhaul would focus on the middle class and not cut taxes for the rich, the non-partisan Tax Policy Center, a think tank in Washington, estimated middle-income households would see an average tax cut of $900 next year under the bill.
It also said the wealthiest 1% of Americans would see an average cut of $51,000.
The prospect of a Republican victory came tinged with embarrassment. House lawmakers initially voted 227-203, largely along party lines, to approve the bill yesterday afternoon.
That sent the measure to the Senate, where the Senate parliamentarian ruled three minor provisions in violation of anarcane Senate rule. To proceed, the Senate deleted the three provisions and then approved the bill.
Because the House and Senate must approve the same legislation before Trump can sign it into law, the Senate's late vote only ping-ponged the bill back to the House.
Democrats pounced on the mistake as evidence of the hurried, often secretive process used by Republicans in developing thebill.
Ignoring Democrats and much of their own rank and file, Republican congressional leaders and White House officials drafted the bill behind closed doors, unveiling it on September 27.
No public hearings were held on the measure.
Numerous narrow amendments favoured by lobbyists were added late in the process, tilting the package more toward businesses and the wealthy.
