Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries is now delivering the longest speech in House history, holding the floor for more than eight hours to delay passage of Republicans’ domestic policy megabill.

His so-called “magic minute,” as the unlimited speaking time granted to party leaders is known, breaks a record set by Republican Kevin McCarthy in 2021, which in turn exceeded the mark set by Nancy Pelosi in 2018. All were serving as minority leader at the time.

Starting at 4:52 a.m., Jeffries used his hours of speaking time to read letters from constituents who could be affected by cuts to social safety-net programs and to single out purple-district Republicans who are in line to support the legislation whose districts Democrats plan to target in next year’s midterms.

The speech is Democrats’ last option to slow down the megabill ahead of a final passage vote. It’s still expected to pass later Thursday, ahead of the GOP’s self-imposed July 4 deadline.

“I’m here today to make it clear that I’m going to take my time and ensure that the American people fully understand how damaging this bill will be to their quality of life,” he said, later adding: “Donald Trump’s deadline may be Independence Day. That ain’t my deadline.”

Republicans largely shrugged off Jeffries’ speech, which set the new record at 1:25 p.m. after eight hours and 33 minutes. Speaker Mike Johnson called it “an utter waste of everyone’s time, but that’s part of the system here.”

Unlike in the Senate, debate time in the House is typically strictly limited, but there is an exception for top party leaders, who are allowed to speak without interruption under chamber precedent.

Progress on the megabill wasn’t just stalled out by Jeffries’ speech. Opposition by conservative hard-liners to changes made by the Senate led to one procedural vote being left open for more than nine hours Wednesday — the longest vote in House history, according to Democrats. GOP leaders pulled an all-nighter to flip lawmakers and eventually cleared the last procedural vote around 3:30 a.m., setting up Jeffries’ effort.

Cassandra Dumay contributed to this report.

Speaker Mike Johnson predicted Thursday morning he had the votes to pass Republicans’ domestic policy megabill and would lose only “one or two” GOP lawmakers ahead of a self-imposed July 4 deadline.

“We’ll get this. We’ll land this plane before July 4,” he told reporters.

GOP leaders are barreling toward a final passage vote on the megabill as soon as this afternoon after pulling an all-nighter to advance the bill over the initial opposition of conservative holdouts upset at changes the Senate made to the package. Still, Johnson told reporters that while GOP lawmakers needed “time to digest” the Senate’s changes, many of their concerns were allayed with the help of President Donald Trump and his administration.

“The president helped answer questions. We had Cabinet secretaries involved, and experts in all the fields, and I think they got there,” he said.

He brushed aside concerns about Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), a purple-district lawmaker who was the sole lawmaker to oppose the procedural vote, saying he “tried to encourage him to get to a yes” though Johnson acknowledged Fitzpatrick has “got a number of things he’s just concerned about.”

The final vote has been delayed by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries’ so-called magic minute, or the unlimited speaking time granted to party leaders that’s been stretched into its sixth hour. Jeffries could break the all-time record set by then-House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who spoke for about eight and a half hours in 2021 to delay passage of Democrats’ domestic policy package.

Hard-line House conservatives said President Donald Trump assured them his administration would strictly enforce rules for wind or solar projects to qualify for the tax credits under the Inflation Reduction Act — a pledge that persuaded them to back the party’s megabill.

“What he’s going to do is use his powers as chief executive to make sure that the companies that apply for solar credits, as an example, he’s going to make sure that they’re doing what they say when they say they’ve started construction,” Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), a member of the House Freedom Caucus, said on CNBC on Thursday morning. “He’s going to make sure they’ve done that.”

The Senate passed its version of Republicans’ budget reconciliation bill earlier this week that included compromise language on the phaseout of incentives for solar and wind generation projects under the Democrats’ 2022 climate law.

The language gave projects one year to begin construction to claim the current tax credit, while projects that start later would need to be placed into service by 2027. That marked a shift from the language in the House version, H.R. 1 (119), supported by conservative hard-liners that only would provide 60 days for projects to begin construction.

Conservatives also opposed a “safe harbor” clause allowing projects to qualify for the credits if they begin construction by incurring 5 percent of the total cost of the work.

Norman, who voted to proceed to a final vote on the measure, said that Trump gave assurances that changes were going to be made, “particularly with getting permits,” although he did not provide further details. And while the president can’t remove the subsidies, Trump’s pledge on enforcement of the changes helped win support from conservatives.

“They wanted to put when construction began [as] when the time frame would extend from, like the wind and solar. We wanted date of service, which means they can’t take a backhoe out there and dig a ditch and say that’s construction,” he said. “So things like that the president is going to enforce.”

Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) also said Thursday that Trump heard conservatives’ “concerns about the energy sector” and confirmed the administration would vigorously enforce construction dates for the phaseout of the credits.

“That was huge,” Burchett said.

The White House did not immediately return a request for comment Thursday.

Meredith Lee Hill contributed to this report.