Luján, Finance Democrats Demand Committee Markup of Republican Reconciliation Bill

Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), Ranking Member Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), and every Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, demanded the committee Republicans schedule a markup of the Republican bill that would slash health care and clean energy tax credits to pay for handouts to corporations and the wealthy. Republicans have not held a single hearing in the Finance Committee to examine or justify the effects of their proposals, and if they bypass a committee vote, the Senate’s only public debate on the destructive, sweeping legislation will happen on the floor in a restricted time frame predetermined by Senate rules.

“The American people deserve a chance to hear Republicans justify their economic agenda that would terminate health coverage for 16 million kids, seniors, people with disabilities, and families, while adding trillions of new debt—all to fund tax cuts for the rich and big corporations. A markup is the last opportunity for us to have that debate at the committee level,” Finance Democrats wrote in a letter to Finance Committee Chairman Mike Crapo, R-Idaho. “If there is no markup, the American people will have to assume Republicans either find their proposals impossible to defend under real scrutiny or lack the votes to report a bill out of the committee.”

The most damaging policies in the reconciliation bill fall under the Finance Committee’s jurisdiction, including tax handouts costing $7 trillion, the largest Medicaid cut in history, and hundreds of billions in ACA cuts that dismantle the program. A new, independent analysis estimates that more than 51,000 people will die every year as a direct result of the health care cuts in the Republican reconciliation bill and their refusal to extend the Affordable Care Act premium tax credits.  

“If Trump and Republicans in Congress are going to deprive millions of Americans of their health care so that millionaires and rich corporations can get massive tax cuts, it should not be done in secret backroom negotiations. It should be done in the light of day, including through a full markup in the Senate Finance Committee,” Finance Democrats concluded. 

The text of the letter is available here. 

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