Planes, Rains and Automobiles: Lawmakers Struggle to Get to D.C. With Reconciliation on the Line

As the House prepared to begin voting on the Republican megabill Tuesday night, members headed for Washington. The only problem? A huge storm was headed that way, too.

Flights to the D.C. area from all around the country were canceled, rerouted or delayed. But members were determined to make it to the Capitol to vote for — or against — President Donald Trump’s reconciliation bill.

Rep. Derek Tran tried to beat the storm by taking the first flight out of Los Angeles. But the plane circled for almost an hour over Pennsylvania, waiting to land, before running out of fuel. While waiting, Tran’s team told him that Pennsylvania Rep. Chris DeLuzio needed a ride to D.C.

“We’re like, you know what? We’ll just rent a car and we’ll drive down to D.C.,” Tran told NOTUS.

Tran drove an hour, picked up DeLuzio, and they headed five hours south to Washington.

“We were just getting to know each other and catching up,” Tran said of the road trip conversation. “I’m a first-term, he’s a two-termer, so it was good. It’s good bonding.”

When Rep. Nancy Mace’s flight from South Carolina was canceled, she also ended up driving in a rented van. She documented the journey on X, sporting pink pajamas and making stops at Waffle House and Wawa along the way.

“I’m tired,” Mace told reporters in between votes on Wednesday. “But it was like a girls’ road trip, so it was such a good time.”

Her fellow South Carolina Republican Rep. Russell Fry did the same, with a pitstop at Buc-ee’s.

Republican Rep. Kat Cammack spent 24 hours traveling, according to a post on X, and was still waiting to catch a flight to D.C. at 3:45 a.m. on Wednesday morning. She eventually made it to the Capitol by noon.

Flight cancellations in the Midwest meant even longer journeys. Illinois Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi and some staff drove 14 hours from west of Chicago, hosting a virtual town hall along the way. As anyone who’s ever made that overnight trip knows, it can be an odyssey.

“At hour 13, we weren’t the same people as we were at hour one,” Krishnamoorthi told NOTUS, disclosing that spicy chili Doritos helped him make it through.

For Wisconsin Rep. Mark Pocan, the whole journey took more than 21 hours. His flight from Madison was canceled, so he drove to Chicago, spent the night, and took a 6 a.m. flight to D.C.

“Everything worked out, so I’m fine and I’m here,” Pocan told NOTUS.

Some West Coast members, whose direct flights on a normal day range from five to six hours, had an even harder time. Like Tran, Oregon Rep. Suzanne Bonamici found herself in Pennsylvania and considered getting a car with a colleague to finish the journey.

“Marie Gluesenkamp Perez was on my flight. We thought maybe we should rent a car and drive, but it’s five-and-a-half hours through the mountains,” Bonamici told NOTUS.

They ended up landing in D.C. about three hours late, around 7 p.m. on Tuesday.

Some members still didn’t make it in time to vote Wednesday morning. Oklahoma Rep. Kevin Hern was stranded in a St. Louis airport after flight delays, but he made it to the Capitol by 2 p.m.

Wisconsin Rep. Scott Fitzgerald had “travel issues” and also missed the first vote of the morning, according to a statement from his office.

Domestic travel was hard enough, but Rep. Luz Rivas made it back from Panama, where she had been on a congressional trip.

“I looked it up, it would’ve been harder for me to get back from LA,” she said.

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Helen Huiskes is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.