House lawmakers meeting on key pieces of Trump agenda see long hours, fiery debate over Medicaid

Republicans and Democrats grew weary in the early hours of Wednesday morning on Capitol Hill as they slogged through at-times contentious debate over provisions in President Donald Trump’s sweeping tax and spending cuts package.

Republicans and Democrats grew weary in the early hours of Wednesday morning on Capitol Hill as they slogged through at-times contentious debate over provisions in President Donald Trump’s sweeping tax and spending cuts package. The House Ways and Means and Energy and Commerce panels held marathon sessions overnight, while a third committee, Agriculture, paused late Tuesday night and was set to convene later in the morning. Each committee is ultimately expected to move elements of the broader bill one step closer to a full floor vote in the chamber. If that goes as planned, House Republicans believe they’ll be on track to take up what the president has dubbed his “one big, beautiful bill” in a floor vote by Memorial Day, a target that even some members of the GOP conference once described as overly ambitious. House Ways and Means, the GOP’s powerful tax-writing panel, clocked nearly 18 hours of debate before advancing the tax portion of Trump’s agenda Wednesday morning. Lawmakers at times shared personal stories as they argued for changes to the measure, which failed amid GOP opposition. Democratic Rep. Gwen Moore of Wisconsin argued Republicans wanted to pay women to have children but wouldn’t “feed the ones we have.” An amendment being offered by a member of her party, Moore said, was “about the 17 million children like me.”