Over 20 protesters were arrested Tuesday for demonstrating inside and outside the Energy and Commerce Committee hearing room as House Republicans mark up a section of the budget megabill tackling reforms to Medicaid.
U.S. Capitol Police officers confirmed to the Washington Examiner that 25 people were arrested. The pro-Medicaid protesters, who chanted “no cuts to Medicaid” and waved signs outside the room just minutes before the hearing was scheduled to begin, will be charged with crowding, obstructing, and incommoding, according to USCP.
More arrests are being made, as well.
Police officers began closing down the halls around the committee hearing room to everyone, including the press, to arrest those who refused to leave. Inside the hearing, police officers were wheeling out protesters across the committee floor who were yelling at the lawmakers and attendees.
Sens. Brian Schatz (D-HI), Tina Smith (D-MN), and Cory Booker (D-NJ) attended the committee hearing. Democrats are prepared to have heated debates over the committee’s markup, which would impose the first federal work requirements on Medicaid and other changes to the healthcare program for lower-income people, reducing the number of people with health insurance by 8.6 million by 2034.
“We are going over to deliver some letter…from our constituents about how damaging this Medicaid cuts are that the House is taking up right now, 14 million people losing their health insurance,” the senators said, according to NBC News’s Frank Thorp V. “And we want to draw attention to what it is they’re trying to do.”
Schatz told the Washington Examiner that they are “going to be working with House members to kill these ridiculous cuts.”
The senators left the hearing shortly after 2:45 p.m. and met with protesters. Protesters had been seen waving signs that said variations of the phrases “hands off Medicaid,” “no cuts to Medicaid,” and “don’t cut Medicaid.”
The markups for both the Energy and Commerce and Ways and Means committees are expected to be the most chaotic hearings for reconciliation. They are expected to last for several hours as Democrats and Republicans argue over the content of the megabill.
HOUSE GOP’S MEDICAID REFORMS WILL BE HASHED OUT IN PUBLIC
Some fiscal hawks have argued that the language and instruction in Energy and Commerce’s bill do not go far enough. Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX), who has been a critic of the legislation at each stage, claimed the bill would not provide any “transformative changes” to Medicaid, and still leaves more than $20 trillion in additional debt over the next 10 years.
“I sure hope House & Senate leadership are coming up with a backup plan…. ….. because I’m not here to rack up an additional $20 trillion in debt over 10 years or to subsidize healthy, able-bodied adults, corrupt blue states, and monopoly hospital ceos…,” Roy said.
David Sivak contributed to this report.