Following a lengthy session that started just after 2 p.m. on Tuesday in a vast and frigid chamber in the Longworth House Office building, the tax-writing panel of the House of Representatives made significant progress on Wednesday morning toward implementing President Trump’s tax program.
Out of eleven House panels, the Ways and Means Committee is the only one working on Trump’s “one big, beautiful bill,” which will eventually form a single, enormous one.
It occurred despite Democratic members’ best efforts to slow down procedures and force Republicans to take politically difficult votes by submitting a slew of protest amendments.
Throughout the night, members of the Ways and Means Committee and the Energy and Commerce Committee met to discuss and move forward important provisions of Trump’s bill.
The meeting with the former is scheduled to start at 2 p.m. on Tuesday and is anticipated to continue into Wednesday afternoon. Early on Wednesday morning, the Ways & Means Committee advanced its section by a party-line vote of 26 to 19.
The House Agriculture Committee, which is also an important body, started working on its part on Tuesday night and stopped at about midnight. It is anticipated that later Wednesday morning, that committee will continue.
While Republicans seek to cut vital social services, Democrats on each committee are preparing a volley of charges and attacks against them. Committee hearings have stretched on for hours due to the constant barrage of amendments proposed by liberal members, which Republicans have mercilessly rejected time and time again.
Protesters within and outside the chamber tried to interrupt proceedings many times, leading to the arrest of 26 individuals by Capitol Police during the early stages of the Energy & Commerce Committee meeting.
There were demonstrators outside the budget markup for hours, most of them in wheelchairs, arguing against Medicaid cuts as lawmakers inside discussed these and other important issues within the committee’s wide purview.
Medicaid cuts were a partisan flashpoint in the budget markup between Republicans and Democrats. Republicans’ budget plan, Democrats said time and time again, would eliminate funding for essential Medicaid programs.
Democrats have spoken out about the lives saved by Medicaid and the millions of Americans who might lose coverage if the current plan is passed.
At the same time, Republicans accused Democrats of misleading the American people about Medicaid cuts—a term that Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Brett Guthrie of Kentucky, a Republican, discouraged his colleagues from adopting. When Democrats claimed that the term mischaracterized their testimony, tensions grew as it was repeated.
Conservatives have maintained that the primary goal of their plan is to reduce Medicaid fraud, abuse, and waste so that more funds may be allocated to those populations most in need.
To counteract Trump’s other budgetary demands, that committee had to find $880 billion in savings. They have discovered savings of more than $900 billion, Guthrie informed House Republicans on a conversation that took place on Sunday night.
Republicans’ changes to Medicaid, such as increased work requirements and cost shifting to certain states, have been used by Democrats as a political weapon.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) dropped into the hearing of the Energy & Commerce subcommittee late in the evening.
Our Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries is here because he is concerned about Medicaid, I just wanted to express that. Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.), the ranking Democrat on the committee, expressed his gratitude.
However, conservatives and moderate Republicans are still at odds about how much money the committee wants to eliminate from the green energy tax subsidies that were part of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) under the Biden administration.
Throughout the night, many Democratic amendments were put forth in an effort to keep the green energy measure alive, but they were all rejected.
Parts of the Energy and Commerce Committee’s plan, which would rescind large sections of the IRA and establish telecom standards (including a ban on state AI legislation for ten years), had been advanced by early Tuesday morning.
Despite the lack of publicity, the Ways & Means Committee meeting was just as controversial as expected, with Democrats seeking to revise the bill in order to maintain tax credits from the Affordable Care Act, limit tax cuts for the wealthiest, and alter the state and local tax (SALT) deduction limitation.
An argument broke out between New York Democrat Tom Suozzi and Republican Beth Van Duyne (R-Texas) on SALT, with Suozzi asking Van Duyne if she had ever been to New York.
“We should not have to pay to make up for the rich folks in New York who are getting raped by their local and state governments.” This is in reference to a previous quote by Van Duyne, who referred to Texas as a “donor state” due to its high tax rates.
A few moments later, Suozzi brought attention to the fact that Van Duyne was born and attended college in upstate New York, which caused everyone in the room to gasp.
There was “a reason” she departed, according to Van Duyne.
“We’re sorry you left New York, but in some ways it may have worked out better for all of us,” added Suozzi.
Even though Republicans in the House are debating what they thought would be the final package, the SALT deduction ceiling remains a politically contentious subject.
Republicans in regions with higher cost of living felt the current $10,000 limit on the SALT deduction was inadequate, so they pushed for a $30,000 increase for most married and single filers.
Representative Mike Lawler (R-NY) has already threatened to abstain from voting on the final measure if it includes the increased cap.
House Republican leaders and a small number of Republicans from blue states came together during the committee’s long meeting in an effort to reach a deal and move forward.
A member of the SALT Caucus and Ways & Means Committee, Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.), “wasn’t involved in today’s meeting” because her district needed “something different than mine and the other most SALTY five,” according to Rep. Nick LaLota (R-N.Y.), who posted on X, suggesting that there were tensions in the meeting.
Malliotakis has already expressed her support for the $30,000 maximum in an interview with AWN Digital. Not only that, but she is the sole SALT Caucus member on the important tax-writing panel.
During the morning session of the House of Representatives, Republican from North Carolina Rep. Greg Murphy made a joke and said, “I see the light coming in from the East…”It seems like we’re in for a Disney day.
Right from the start of Tuesday night’s hearing, Democrats in the Agriculture Committee accused Republicans of attempting to undermine the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), more often known as food stamps.
Republican Rep. Adam Gray of California said that the party is focusing on little concerns, such as “somebody is getting a meal they didn’t deserve or kids are getting too fat,” rather than more pressing ones.
Representative Randy Feenstra (R-Iowa) and other Republicans have been vocal about their support for the plan, which they say will aid young farmers by providing crop insurance, expanding access to export markets, and funding national animal catastrophe centers to combat livestock diseases.
He went on to say that Republicans are actively trying to “secure” SNAP funds from being wasted or abused.
Republicans in both houses are pursuing Trump’s agenda through the budget reconciliation process, which enables the majority party to marginalize the minority by reducing the Senate’s passage threshold to a simple majority, so long as the bill in question pertains to expenditure, taxes, or the national debt.
Trump is hoping Republicans would take advantage of the tactic to pass a comprehensive plan addressing his goals in taxation, immigration, energy, and military.
According to two informed sources, the House Budget Committee is planning to move the entire measure forward on Friday in order to bring it up for a vote by the entire House.
On Wednesday, we shall find out whether that schedule is still valid. The proposal must first pass individual House committees—seven of which have completed their work—before it can be merged into a larger law. This package must then pass both the House and the Senate before it can reach Trump’s desk.