This Week, Lawmakers Fought Sleep. Sleep Sometimes Won.

About a hundred lawmakers worked through overnight markup sessions this week, resorting to different methods, from matcha to nudges from their colleague, to try to stay awake.

House Energy and Commerce
Francis Chung/POLITICO/AP

By the time the last votes rolled around Wednesday evening in the House of Representatives, lawmakers who’d participated in all-night markups were, well, dragging.

It was clear in the ways they moved throughout the Capitol: Some were walking and talking a little slower than usual, or were blinking through bloodshot eyes; others were quick to leave the Capitol after late-afternoon votes Wednesday, hoping to catch up on sleep.

“You’re telling me I look like I haven’t shaved or something?” Republican Rep. Russ Fulcher asked, pointing to his 5 o’clock-plus shadow. “You can tell the real men, because the real men look like they haven’t shaved today. The wussies, they don’t have to shave every day.”