Hi there, from CNN. I'm Joe Beck, with the five things you need to know for Wednesday,

May 21st.

GOP House leaders are racing to get President Donald Trump's tax and spending agenda passed.

A key committee met up in the early hours of this morning to work on the bill, which is a

crucial step before it can go to a floor

vote. But the top Democrat on the House Rules Committee, Massachusetts Representative Jim

McGovern, criticized Republicans for getting the panel together at 1 a.m.

If Republicans are so proud of what is in this bill, then why are you trying to ram it through

in the dead of night? GOP House Rules Committee Chair Virginia Fox said Democrats have also had late-night early

morning meetings in the past, as they work to get things done. Whatever the timings,

there were still huge sticking points over the domestic policy bill when the committee started

its meeting, and the panel is expected

to create a package of changes.

It's not clear if the legislation has the support it needs to pass, even after Trump visited

Capitol Hill yesterday to try to convince lawmakers.

South Africa's president, Cyril Ramaphosa, is holding crucial talks with Trump at the White House

today, hoping to improve their frosty relationship. The trip comes just over a week after

a group of 59 white South Africans arrived in the U.S. with refugee status. Trump said they were

being persecuted back home and repeated unverified claims that a, quote,

genocide is taking place, which Ramaphosa denies.

Those people who have fled are not being persecuted.

The American government has got the wrong end of the stick here.

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