Protesters’ chanting sends Obamacare overhaul hearing into recess

“No cuts to Medicaid, save our liberties,” shouted members of the crowd who were able to make it into the hearing room. Several people were removed from the room, some of them in wheelchairs. Only roughly 20 people got into the hearing, a majority of them protesters concerned about major cuts to the Medicaid program under the overhaul bill sponsored by Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Dean Heller of Nevada and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin.

The protesters were with the grassroots group Adapt, which advocates for disability rights.

Capitol police officers started to remove the protesters one by one, some carried out as they continued to chant. Outside the room, the members of the public who didn’t get into the hearing joined them in chanting.

Hundreds of others were gathered in the hallway outside the Dirksen Senate Office Building, where the hearing was being held.

The Senate Finance Committee planed to hear testimony from state and federal officials. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, chairman of the committee, said the committee would be in recess until there was order in the room. The chanting continued as Hatch gaveled the hearing back into order after roughly 15 minutes.

“If you can’t be in order, then get the heck out of here,” Hatch said after resuming the hearing.

Hatch also issued a warning at the hearing’s onset that he may cancel the hearing again.

“If the hearing is going to devolve as a side show or a forum simply for putting partisan points on the board, then there is no reason for us to be here,” he said. “It hasn’t gotten there yet, but it’s close. Let’s have a civil discussion.”

The hearing is the only one scheduled on the Graham-Cassidy bill, which would take Obamacare funding and give it to states through block grants. It also would deeply cut Medicaid by shifting the program to a per-capita funding scheme, which gives states funding per beneficiary.

Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, the panel’s top Democrat, wanted to know why a hearing on an Obamacare overhaul bill that erupted in protests wasn’t in a bigger room.

“Normally when Congress holds hearing we have our hearings in large hearing rooms,” he said, adding that those rooms are available.

Hatch responded that there is an overflow room and the hearing is televised on C-SPAN and the Senate committee’s website.