Eleven months ago, Rep. James Walkinshaw (D-VA-11) and Rep. Suhas Subramanyam (D-VA-10) both voted no on the bill that ended the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, while TSA employees were working without pay and flight delays were clogging airports across the country.

On Monday, Oct. 12, the two of them joined a political event at an airport. They stood in the Dulles Airport cell phone lot with an advocacy group’s bus, and Subramanyam told the crowd Americans are “literally sick of the cuts to healthcare.”

The event was a stop on the “Sick of It! Fix Health Care Now” bus tour. The tour belongs to Protect Our Care, an advocacy group, and the Dulles stop featured 32BJ SEIU airport service workers. The press release said the point was “calling out Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress.” The release says the bus tour is taking aim at Republican cuts to Medicaid and ACA tax credits and calls on lawmakers to reverse them. In the Committee’s view, the pitch boils down to this: Republicans took away your health care, and Democrats are here to fix it.

In the Committee’s view, that is a campaign rally with a bus, three weeks before an election. Fair enough. But a rally is not a record. The record is below.

The Record on Reopening the Government

On Sept. 19, 2025, the House passed a bill to keep the government funded. James Walkinshaw voted no. So did Suhas Subramanyam. The government later shut down for 43 days.

About 650,000 federal workers were furloughed, and 600,000 more worked without pay, WFTV reported, citing The Washington Post. TSA employees were working without pay too, and the bill that finally reopened the government was meant to end the flight delays at airports across the country.

Airports. Monday’s event was at one.

On Nov. 12, the House voted on the bill that ended the shutdown. It passed 222 to 209, with back pay for furloughed federal workers. Six Democrats voted yes. James Walkinshaw and Suhas Subramanyam both voted no.

Two no votes before the shutdown. Two no votes to end it. TSA employees worked those weeks without pay, and both congressmen voted no on the bill that ended it.

The Law Behind the Cuts

The event release never names it, but the Medicaid cuts it describes trace to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The release says Trump and Republicans in Congress “slashed more than $1 trillion from Medicaid.” In the Committee’s view, that is the law Monday’s event was aimed at. It passed the House 218 to 214 on July 3, 2025. Suhas Subramanyam voted no. James Walkinshaw could not have. He was sworn in on Sept. 10, 2025, two months later.

The Congressional Budget Office does estimate that the law cuts about $1.06 trillion from Medicaid and the health insurance marketplaces over ten years. The biggest single piece, $325.6 billion, comes from work requirements for adults on expanded Medicaid. In the Committee’s view, asking those adults to meet a work requirement is not “cutting” care. It is a condition for coverage.

You Get the Last Word

Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 3. Ask James Walkinshaw and Suhas Subramanyam why they voted no on the bill that reopened the government while TSA worked unpaid, then went to Dulles Airport to say they are sick of it.