WASHINGTON, D.C. — House Republicans face a difficult task in the new few weeks: to slash $1.5 trillion in federal spending in order to offset the cost of President Donald Trump’s tax cuts. Much of that will likely come from Medicaid.

More than half of the cuts are set to come from one committee. The House Energy and Commerce Committee has a huge jurisdiction overseeing energy, technology and health care, including Medicare and Medicaid.

Medicare funding is mandated by law, so cuts are off the table. According to an analysis by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, the total cost of all non-Medicare or Medicaid programs under the committee’s jurisdiction is $581 billion, meaning cuts to Medicaid are the only way the committee could hit its savings target of $880 billion.

Republicans have argued they can meet that number without taking away care from eligible recipients. Rep. Bob Latta, R-Ohio, who chairs the Communications and Technology Subcommittee, wrote in a statement,

“I believe we will be able to raise a significant amount of money through our spectrum auctions… We will also focus on rooting out waste, fraud and abuse that is in our jurisdiction. Further, we will look at rolling back pandemic rules that permitted persons ineligible for Medicaid to stay on the rolls and removing illegal immigrants from receiving benefits.”

Democrat members of the Energy and Commerce Committee argued there was no way to cut that much without hurting the 70 million low-income Americans who qualify for Medicaid.

“Medicaid is one of the most efficient programs in the government. At the end of the day, the question is, are you cutting hundreds of billions of dollars, nearly a trillion dollars in health care or not?” said Rep. Greg Landsman, D-Ohio, who sits on three subcommittees: Communications and Technology; Environment; and Health.

Republican lawmakers are also considering moving more costs to states that expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act in 2010 to all Americans with incomes under 138% of the poverty level. Under the expansion, the federal government pays 90% of health costs for the expanded group of recipients, with states paying 10%. To date, 40 states opted in to the expansion, including Ohio.

If the federal government cut $880 billion over 10 years to Medicaid, Ohio would have to make up for $3 billion per year, according to an analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation.

However, Ohio lawmakers are also preparing for a potential cut in federal dollars. The Ohio state House’s proposed budget would end the Medicaid expansion if the federal government reduces its contribution below 90%. That would revoke Medicaid from 770,000 Ohioans.

“Almost 800,000 people in Ohio will lose their health insurance. For what? For tax cuts for the superwealthy. That is at the core of why this economy is so broken, and they’re going to further break it,” Landsman said.

Tensions were starting to show at an Energy and Commerce Committee markup hearing Tuesday, with several Democrats harshly criticizing any plan to cut Medicaid.

The full details of Republicans’ plan won’t be revealed until next week, when the committee is set to mark up its portion of the budget bill.