Minnesota’s Rep. Fischbach wakes up a congressional colleague, literally

The vote was nearing 5 a.m. The congressman from Utah had fallen asleep, slumped over in his chair.

And the clerk counting votes needed an answer.

With a gentle but firm pat, western Minnesota GOP Rep. Michelle Fischbach reached over and nudged awake fellow Republican Rep. Blake Moore.

“No,” he stammered as he cast his vote.

The somnambulant encounter on Wednesday morning in the House Ways & Means Committee, after a day and a night of voting, underscores not only that Minnesotans possess clear-eyed vitality, even after an all-night meeting, but also the grueling pace of Republicans in the House trying to pass President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” through caffeine-fueled all-nighters before Memorial Day.

The package that’ll cost nearly $4 trillion — filled with sweeping cuts to Medicaid and food stamps, as well as tax breaks for individuals and corporations — has been passed so far on almost strictly party lines in the tightly divided U.S. House, meaning Republicans need to be present to vote down amendments offered by Democrats.

The pace can take a toll on both sides. On Wednesday, a clip of Michigan Democrat Rep. Debbie Dingell, with her eyes closed and seemingly asleep, went viral. Dingell clapped back that she’d been up 31 hours.

Over in the House Agriculture Committee, lawmakers began meeting to mark up the bill on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m., gaveling out at 11 p.m., only to restart again in the morning.

Some observers have worried that Congress is doing business while constituents are literally asleep.

“The cut you are proposing to SNAP tonight would be the largest rollback of an anti-hunger program in our nation’s history,” said Rep. Angie Craig, a Minnesota Democrat, on Tuesday evening.

A day later, on Wednesday, the committee approved the agriculture instructions on a party-line vote.

A week ago, the House Natural Resources Committee, which approved language to give life to the Twin Metals mine near the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in northeastern Minnesota, passed a bill near midnight. But Republicans approved a last-minute amendment to sell off public lands in Nevada and Utah.

“I would hope that you would consider at least striking that provision so that you can give those other members of Congress an opportunity to weigh in here,” said Colorado Rep. Joe Neguse, a Democrat, “as opposed to an 11 p.m. Eastern last-minute amendment.”

Still, it’s also not unheard of for Congress to burn the midnight oil. Just two years ago, before Congress switched party control, Democrats pushed through legislation late in the night to pass spending bills, and then-House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy chastised the move to “let some bill pass in the middle of the night.”