PHILADELPHIA — Congressional Republicans laid plans Wednesday to act on a health care repeal bill by the end of March and rewrite the tax code by August as they sketched out an ambitious agenda for their first 200 days under President Donald Trump.

Meeting in Philadelphia for their annual policy retreat, they also discussed action to raise the nation's borrowing limit, write an infrastructure package sought by Trump and push funding for defense and border priorities.

The gathering was shadowed by a rocky start to the Trump administration, full of inaccurate claims about voter fraud, torture and inaugural crowd sizes that some lawmakers fear could distract from their ability to deliver in a new era of GOP control.

Trump will address the retreat Thursday.

“We have to get on to the serious issue of governing, these other issues are distractions,” Rep. Charlie Dent, R-Pa, said. “It's a very aggressive agenda.”

The 200-day agenda was discussed at a downtown hotel, in a session led by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan.

Vice President Mike Pence also is addressing the gathering Thursday, as is British Prime Minister Theresa May.

But the actions on election fraud and torture drew a sometimes skeptical response as lawmakers arrived in Philadelphia.

“This is a debate we've had already, we believe it is settled law,” Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, the No. 3 Senate Republican, said on the issue of torture, which Congress has banned.

Thune said he had “not seen any evidence” to support Trump's assertions of widespread fraud resulting in millions of illegal votes.

Los Angeles Times contributed.