The Républicains of the Chamber channel Edward Hopper this week as they try to pass the big, “beautiful bill” of President Trump.
Hopper is known for “Nighthawks”, one of the most emblematic paintings in American history. The 1942 painting represents four people in a restaurant in the middle of the night. A desert street landscape commands the first plan. Two men – Festone heads with Fedoras – sitting separately at the counter, breastfeeding coffee. One of the men has a cigarette nestled between his index and the fingers in the middle. It is positioned next to a woman with scarlet hair and a red dress. It seems to hold a bite of donut or sandwich, study it as if it were a rare artifact. She seems to be wondering if she should eat it. A young counter -man – dressed in white with a net envelope hat – leans down in search of glassware or hidden dishes below.
He's the death of the night. Everyone is distant and detached. Even the couple – even if they are sitting side by side – do not look at each other.
Nighthawks, 1942, oil on canvas, 84.1 x 152.4 cm (33 1/8 x 60 in), Art Institute in Chicago. (VCG Wilson / Corbis via Getty Images)
In Nighthawks, everyone seems to be trying to spend the night at dawn.
This is sort of what the republicans of the room are going through this week.
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The Chamber's Budget Committee met at 10:26 p.m. on Sunday evening to advance the tax reduction and the expense reduction package after a hiccup blocked the measure on Friday afternoon. At 10:39 pm, the committee approved Bill 17-16 – with four Republicans from the voting chamber “present”.
Representative Jodey Arrington, a Texas Republican and Chairman of the Chamber’s Budget Committee, Center, is expressed during a meeting of the Chamber’s Budget Committee in the American Capitol in Washington, DC, United States, Sunday, May 18, 2025. (Alex Wroblewski / Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The next judgment is the House rules committee, the last parliamentary road post before depositing ground legislation.
At 12:31 p.m. on Monday, the rules committee announced that it would prepare the soil bill – with a meeting at 1 a.m. Wednesday morning. This session could last all day on Wednesday. Literally. The Energy and Commerce Panel met for 26 consecutive hours last week to prepare its section for the measurement of budget reconciliation. The way and means committee is huddled overnight.
The group of republicans of the chamber that pushes the state and local tax for high tax states (known as SAL) has planned a meeting with the president of the Mike Johnson Chamber, R-La., For 9 p.m. HE on Monday. And it is quite possible that the room debates or even voting on the measure Thursday evening, the little hours of Friday morning or even Friday evening.
This is how Capitol Hill takes place when there is large clock legislation. The hours are late. The meetings are long. The legislators summon different sessions each time they need it – just to get the measure through the finish line.
The only difference between the rooms in the congress now and “Nighthawks” is that coffee has fueled the figures in the table until dawn. It was in 1942. But here is 2025. Edward Hopper could not have Celsius or Red Bull.
There is a real parliamentary reason for the reason why the budget committee met so late Sunday evening after its trip on Friday afternoon. And there is a method at the madness of the rules of the morning on Wednesday.
Let's go back.
The budget committee tried to mix the various provisions of nearly a dozen committees in the chamber in a unified legislative product on Friday at noon. This effort was short. In total, five republicans of the budget committee voted no. They groaned the expense reductions, the green energy tax credits and the time limit for working requirements for people on Medicaid.
The representative Chip Roy (R-TX) listens to a drop meeting with the Chamber's Budget Committee on Capitol Hill on May 16, 2025 in Washington, DC. The members of the Budget Committee met to consider the Reconciliation Bill of the House Republicans, which includes the reductions in tax and expenditure reductions by US President Donald Trump. The bill was confronted with the bipartite opposition, with five republican members of the budget committee of the chamber voted against it and supporting a request for the committee to be recreated for the weekend. (Anna Moneymaker / Getty Images)
Four of the five No GOPs were really opposed. The representative Lloyd Smucker, R-Penn., Voted not so that he could order a recovery. The rules allow a member on the winning side of a problem (in this case, non -), to ask for another vote later. Smucker supported the plan. But he then changed his vote not to be on the winning side. Which go up a possible repupple.
“Calling a vote advances the process. I think it is a catalyst,” said the chairman of the budget committee, Jodey Arrington, R-Tex., After the missing vote on Friday.
The budget committee then announced that it would meet at 10 p.m. on Sunday.
This is where things become interesting:
The key here was that the budget committee ended its work before midnight Friday. Once it has rolled, the process would only consume 15 or 20 minutes. The budget committee approved plan 17-16 with four Republicans voting “present”.
“We are delighted with what we have done,” said representative Ralph Norman, Rs.C., who was one of the GoPers who voted on Friday.
The representative Ralph Norman, RS.C., arrives for a meeting of the Republicans of the Chamber at the Capitol Visitor Center on the bill on budget reconciliation on Thursday, May 15, 2025. (Tom Williams / CQ-Roll Call, included via Getty Images)
But Norman was still not excited enough to vote yes Sunday evening. He voted present.
“There is so much more that we have to do to brake the government and curb costs and deficits,” said Norman on Fox Business on Monday.
But whatever, the measure was outside the budget committee before witch time on Sunday. And then came the announcement of the rules committee – just after midnight on Monday – about a session at 1 a.m. Wednesday to prepare the “big and beautiful bill” for the soil of the room.
There are several reasons why the Republicans of the House Rules Committee decided to snuggle up at 1 a.m. HE on Wednesday. Let's start with the parliamentarian.
The budget committee ended just before midnight on Sunday. The rules allow democrats of two full days to file their documents and their points of view after this meeting. So, they had all day on Monday and all day on Tuesday. The rules committee needs an “hour” to announce its meeting officially. Thus, the “official” announcement of the Rules Committee on Wednesday will take place just after 12:01 p.m. HE Wednesday. This triggers a meeting at 1 am in the morning on Wednesday.
Here are the other more practical reasons.
Republicans need all the time they can get. It is a question of trying to vote on the ground late during the day on Wednesday. We will see on this subject. But the meeting time of the first rules makes it a possibility.
Second, it is possible that the Rules Committee meeting can consume all day on Wednesday. The flows of legislators on both sides will deposit the rules of the rules to propose various amendments. This is an extended process.
The American Capitol in Washington, DC, United States, Sunday, May 18, 2025. (Alex Wroblewski / Bloomberg via Getty Images)
But in the same way, the meeting at 1 h 00 HE could decrease attendance. After all, who wants to run at 1:00 a.m. for a meeting and perhaps discuss your amendment at 6:30 a.m.? You have the idea.
And once the bill came out of the rules committee, expect end-of-evening meetings between the Republicans while they are trying to conclude the agreement. It is possible that the room can vote by almost any time of the day Wednesday, Thursday or Friday to adopt the bill. It could be late in the evening. Or even overnight. They will vote when the bill is ready, whatever the time on the clock.
This is the lot drawn this week by the Républicains de la Chambre for the “big and beautiful bill”. Maybe they will have the votes. Maybe they won't. Maybe they will spend more expenses. There may be a salt agreement for state and local taxes. Maybe not. Maybe the vote arrives at 3 in the afternoon. But more likely, some time late at night.
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Just like in Nighthawks, everyone on Capitol Hill is just trying to spend the night and at dawn.
