By Bo Erickson, David Morgan and Andy Sullivan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Republicans in the U.S. Congress advanced elements of President Donald Trump’s sweeping budget package on Wednesday after a debate that lasted through the night, as a key committee voted along party lines to approve tax cuts that would add trillions of dollars to the U.S. debt.
The 26-19 vote by the tax-writing House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee amounts to an initial victory for Republicans, who still have many hurdles to clear before they can get the sprawling package of tax cuts, spending hikes and safety-net reductions to Trump’s desk to sign into law.
The vote came after an all-night debate that saw at least one lawmaker fall asleep at his post. Republicans rejected a series of proposed changes by opposition Democrats, who blasted the bill as a wasteful giveaway to the wealthy that would shred health and food benefits for the poor and worsen the nation’s financial standing.
A separate House committee was still debating a Republican proposal to tighten eligibility for the Medicaid health plan, which covers 71 million low-income Americans, with a vote expected later in the day. That would save the federal government $715 billion and kick 7.7 million people off the program, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. Police escorted out at least five protesters, including three who were in wheelchairs, at the outset of that debate on Tuesday.
A third panel was due to resume debate on a proposal to require some people who receive SNAP food benefits to get a job and shift some costs to states.
Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” would add trillions of dollars to the nation’s debt load, which at $36.2 trillion now equals 127% of GDP. The package calls for $4 trillion in additional borrowing, though the total cost is uncertain at this point.
It would extend tax cuts passed in Trump’s first term that are due to expire at the end of the year, and add new tax breaks for workers, retirees and private schools. To offset some of the cost, the package would cancel green-energy programs passed under Democratic President Joe Biden.
House agriculture committee chairman Representative Glenn Thompson, a Pennsylvania Republican, argued his party’s proposed cuts to the SNAP food aid program are meant to achieve savings and “restore integrity” in administering the food program.
The Republican proposal requires “states to have some skin in the game” and will get “folks who can work, back to work,” Thompson said at a late Tuesday evening debate.
Representative Angie Craig, the committee’s top Democrat, excoriated the SNAP funding changes as “the largest rollback of an anti-hunger program in our nation’s history.”
Republicans will need to stay united to pass the bill out of the House, where they hold a narrow 220-213 majority. The proposal will also need to clear the Senate, which Republicans control 53-47.
The country’s looming debt ceiling deadline this summer is also pushing Republicans to work fast. The package would raise the debt limit by $4 trillion and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has urged lawmakers to act by mid-July to avoid a default that would upend the global economy.
(Writing by Andy Sullivan; Editing by Scott Malone and Daniel Wallis)
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