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The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Find the AP’s

Nevertheless, momentum is building toward an end-of-the-week inflection point to stitch together the sprawling package Friday at the Budget Committee. That means combining hundreds of pages of bill text covering $5 trillion in tax breaks and at least $1.5 trillion in spending reductions on Medicaid, food stamps andto deliver Trump’s second-term legislative priority.

The Capitol is seen in Washington, March 25, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)The Capitol is seen in Washington, March 25, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)Democrats decry the package as a give-away to the wealthy at the expense of safety net programs that millions of Americans rely on. But Johnson insists the Republican majority is on track to pass the package by Memorial Day, May 26, sending it to the Senate where Republicans are crafting their own version. With his slim majority, he can only afford a few defections from his ranks.

“We’re still on target,” Johnson said at the Capitol. “The American people are counting on us.”Democrats also stayed up all night forcing marathon public hearings. One at the House Energy and Commerce Committee was still going more than 26 hours later before finishing Wednesday afternoon.

Later Wednesday evening, the House Agriculture Committee handling the food aid cuts wrapped up its work too, but only after the Republican chairman abruptly shut down debate on dozens of remaining amendments from Democrats.

All told, Democrats proposed hundreds of amendments trying to change the package, with dozens of votes that largely failed.Alabama joins at least nine other states that have considered legislation this year that would create crimes of transporting immigrants who are unlawfully in the U.S., according to an Associated Press

passed by conservative statehouses seeking to aid President Donald Trump’s crackdown on immigration.Activists say Alabama could end up ensnaring people who provide transportation across state lines for essential services, such federal immigration court hearings in New Orleans and Atlanta, mandatory trips to out-of-state consulates and visits to family.

Jordan Stallworth, 38, works as a civic engagement coordinator for the Alabama Coalition for Immigrant Justice and lives in Wedowee, Alabama, a rural town of about 800 people that is just a 20-minute drive from Georgia. His wife has relatives living without legal status in both states and he often assists family members and other immigrants in the community with transportation.Recently, he drove a family member lacking legal status to the maternity ward in Carrollton, Georgia, 35 miles (56 kilometers) away, since the local hospital doesn’t have one. Stallworth worries that similar trips will be criminalized.