Derrick Van Orden

WASHINGTON - While some of Wisconsin's U.S. lawmakers used their week-long break from Congress to hit the campaign trail, a handful of Republicans headed south for an unusual midterm convention with President Donald Trump in Dallas, Texas.

Trump used the GOP Midterm Convention to rally his base ahead of a final sprint in contentious races across the nation that will determine majority rule in the U.S. House and Senate – among them, the race to represent Wisconsin's 3rd Congressional District, where U.S. Republican Rep. Derrick Van Orden faces Democratic candidate Rebecca Cooke. (Billionaire Elon Musk has also weighed in on this race).

"The folks I talked to last night and at the hotel this morning, they're jacked up," Wisconsin GOP Chairman Brian Schimming, said in an interview with the Journal Sentinel from the convention. "I don't know if I'd call it a 'reset' button, but it's kind of like, 'look, remember what elections are about,' and they're not about arguing something that's stuck in the appropriations committee ... nobody out there is voting on that."

I’m Valerie Yurk, the Washington reporter at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel based in the nation's capital. We're starting a regular D.C. report, where I'll round up what the Wisconsin delegation did in Washington, D.C. Send your feedback and questions to [email protected].

Here's a taste of what happened the past week:

Van Orden touts GOP healthcare record in convention speech

During the first night in Dallas, Van Orden scored a speaking slot, which he dedicated to praising $50 billion in the GOP's "One Big Beautiful Bill" package for rural healthcare infrastructure transformation, as well as his work to "level up Medicaid assessments, bringing billions of dollars back to Wisconsin's Medicaid assessments."

"President Trump now wants to work with Congress to enact a great American healthcare plan to further lower prescription drug costs, increase pricing transparency and hold the insurance companies accountable for the costs they've imposed on you," he continued.

Republican U.S. Reps. Bryan Steil, representing Wisconsin's 1st Congressional District, and Glenn Grothman, from the 6th, also attended the convention, along with Republican candidate for Wisconsin's 7th Congressional District Michael Alfonso. U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, the current Republican representing 7th district and a candidate for governor, notably did not attend.

Democrats were quick to counter that the bill Van Orden touted enacted $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid over the next decade and mandated able-bodied adults to work 80 hours per month to qualify for Medicaid benefits, known as BadgerCare in Wisconsin. State health officials estimate about 60,000 Wisconsinites are at "immediate risk" of losing coverage once the requirements kick in in early 2027.

Van Orden has denied the bill made cuts to Medicare and Medicaid and said he “helped secure” $1 billion a year in Medicaid funding for Wisconsin, although Gov. Tony Evers's office said he was not involved.

Since the bill passed, Wisconsin has received over $200 million in federal grant funding for hospitals, clinics and other health care providers through its Rural Health Transformation Program. Wisconsin officials have asked for $1 billion over the five-year life of the program and they expect to receive another $200 million in the second year.

Wisconsin's U.S. lawmakers shaky on Trump's $5K midterm victory checks

Perhaps the most attention-grabbing announcement from the midterm convention was Trump's proposal to send $5,000 checks for all U.S. adult citizens if Republicans retain control of Congress in the midterm elections.

Politics reporter Molly Beck and I questioned Wisconsin's Republican U.S. lawmakers about the dividend checks and found a few are not completely sold on the idea.

U.S. Republican Sen. Ron Johnson said in a statement to the Journal Sentinel that he would rather pass budget legislation that supports defense, farmers and election integrity with a mind for targeting government waste and fraud and shrinking the national debt. U.S. Rep. Tony Wied, a Republican representing the 8th Congressional District, also avoided supporting the proposal in a statement.

But Tiffany said he's on board with the idea, along with Van Orden and Grothman. More details on their takes here.

Gwen Moore visits ICE center where two constituents are detained

U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore, a Democrat representing Wisconsin's 4th Congressional District, traveled to the U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement’s Midwest Regional Reception Center in Kansas earlier this week to visit two constituents who were arrested during a surge of Milwaukee arrests this summer.

Moore said the two detainees – Estenderly Marte Polanco and Reyna Elizabeth Garcia – have no criminal record and that their arrests are a "miscarriage of justice." Polanco and Garcia told Moore they are being "treated with dignity and respect."

"Not only the detention itself, but the arrests, where you burst the windows and drag people out, traumatize people's children," she said at a press conference after the visit.

She said she toured the facility, where there's a "very ambitious construction project" occurring to accommodate more detainees. "They are very eager to fill this place up," she said, and added that ICE agents on site "admitted that there are very few of the kind of criminals that we are told are being swept up."

"They have admitted they have tried to paint some of the walls different colors and so forth to try to ameliorate people's depression, and to try to treat them like something other than hardened criminals," Moore said.

Democrats hits Steil on congressional stock trading debate

Back in Wisconsin, Moore joined U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan, a Democrat who represents the 2nd Congressional District, and Mitchell Berman, the Democratic candidate running against Steil, in taking aim at the Republican incumbent and his bill to restrict stock trading in Congress.

They argue that Steil's bill, called the Stop Insider Trading Act, is too weak and doesn't actually bar U.S. lawmakers from selling stocks or require them to divest when they assume office.

"Bryan Steil receives hundreds of thousands of dollars of support from the cryptocurrency companies who are trying to buy his vote, and they succeeded," Moore said. "Bryan Steil has received large donations from individuals who are aligned with prediction markets. Companies that trade on real world events that he has a direct impact in determining the outcome, such as the war in Iran."

According to financial disclosures, Steil reported owning stock in a range of companies, including Caterpillar, Inc., Ford Motor Co., and GE Aerospace.

Congressional stock trading bans have become popular talking points on the campaign trail, but there are many different proposals floating around Congress that cover varying activities and people. Democrats have thrown their support behind a bill that extends bans to the president and vice president, while Steil's bill would only apply to members of Congress, their spouses and dependents.

"There are an array of proposals that people have on ethics reforms writ large – some folks want members to own nothing, we have actual socialists in the House now," Steil said in an interview. "This bill, though, is focused on trading stocks and preventing members from profiting off of insider information. It still accomplishes that."