House Republicans are slowly working their way through the healthcare section of President Trump’s “one big beautiful bill,” despite protests from their Democratic colleagues and activists on Capitol Hill. The amendment process could take several days to complete. 

Before the Energy and Commerce Committee sat to even begin consideration of its bill on Tuesday, lawmakers were confronted by protesters chanting things like “Medicaid saves lives!” and “No cuts to Medicaid!”

A spokesman for the Capitol Police confirmed to the New York Sun that 26 people were arrested for protesting at the committee meeting on Tuesday. “They were arrested for … Crowding, Obstructing, and Incommoding. It is against the law to protest inside the Congressional Buildings,” the Capitol Police said. 

As the hearing kicked off, lawmakers were met with even more protests inside the room, with activists holding signs and yelling at members of Congress. 

The chairman of the committee, Congressman Brett Guthrie, has said his legislation will cut as much as $900 billion from the budget — the largest chunk of the $2 trillion conservatives want to see slashed in the spending talks. The largest savings from Medicaid come from shifting funding burdens to states, establishing new work requirements, and cutting funding for states that use their own funds to provide health insurance for migrants. 

The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that as many as 8.6 million could lose their health insurance as a result of the first three sections of the Energy and Commerce bill as it is currently written. In response to the CBO estimate requested by Democrats, Mr. Guthrie said his colleagues were deploying scare tactics. 

“Democrats are pedaling incorrect reports that include policies that aren’t even in the bill. This bill refocuses Medicaid on mothers, children, people with disabilities, and the elderly — not illegal immigrants and capable adults who choose not to work,” Mr. Guthrie said in a statement. “It is reckless that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle claimed an artificially high number in alleged coverage loss just so they can fear monger and score political points.”

Consideration of the bill began in committee on Tuesday afternoon. Opening statements from both sides of the aisle lasted for more than two hours before lawmakers finally moved on to the first amendments. The full amendment process is expected to last until Thursday at least. 

The legislative fight is far from over due to conservative opposition. Congressman Chip Roy — who serves in the chamber where Speaker Johnson has a mere three-seat margin of error — says the bill is far from deserving of his vote.

 “Does the bill meaningfully reduce the deficit — getting to $1.5 trillion in supposed savings plus the tax policy is GOOD to be sure. … BUT, it still leaves more than $20 trillion in additional debt in 10 years,” Mr. Roy wrote on X on Monday after the Energy and Commerce bill and the tax portion were both released. 

“I remain open-minded because progress has been made based on our forceful efforts to force change. But we cannot continue down the path we’ve been going down — and we will need SIGNIFICANT additional changes to garner my support,” Mr. Roy declared. 

Senate conservatives, too, are saying that they may not be able to vote for the legislation in its current form given the projected impact it will have on the budget deficit and the national debt. Senator Lee responded to Mr. Roy’s X post with a bullseye emoji, and later told Deseret News, “we can and should be doing more to both save American families from paying for the waste, fraud, and abuse in federal entitlement programs like Medicaid.”

Senator Johnson went so far as to write an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal, saying that the Republican megabill may have to be broken into two pieces in order to get the president the border security funding he wants, then deal with taxes and the deficit issue later this year. 

“It’s essential that Congress deviate from its current path. Under every scenario now being considered, federal debt continues to skyrocket from its current level of almost $37 trillion,” Mr. Johnson writes. “The CBO’s current projection adds around $22 trillion over the next 10 years, resulting in total debt of approximately $59 trillion — 134 percent of GDP — in 2035.”