Last week, the House of Representatives passed legislation, known as the budget reconciliation megabill, that would gut critical programs and services supporting the most socially and economically disadvantaged households. The bill has now moved to the Senate for consideration.
The megabill increases funding for the military and border security and extends tax cuts that disproportionately benefit the wealthy at the expense of low- and middle-income earners. To offset these spending increases, the House is proposing more than a trillion dollars in cuts to safety net programs that support families with low incomes, including Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Estimates indicate the proposed changes to Medicaid could leave more than 16 million people without health coverage.
The bill also ends student loan forgiveness programs, reduces protections for federal workers, takes away resources to fight climate change, decreases funding for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), and contains numerous anti-immigrant provisions, including penalties for health coverage and asylum protections and increased taxes on money that people send to family abroad (remittances).
If this legislation becomes law, households living paycheck to paycheck and those without immigration status will lose access to programs that help them build a more stable, safe, and secure future and contribute to the country and economy at large, in order to give the highest income earners hundreds of thousands of dollars in tax breaks.
We need to protect our communities by voicing our opposition. There is good news: the bill passed the House by just one vote – 215-214. The Senate also has narrow margins to work with, which means we only need to persuade a handful of Senators to vote against the bill to stop these proposed cuts and harmful policies from moving forward.
You can help by taking action today: call your Senators and tell them to vote against the reconciliation megabill in support of the communities they serve, particularly the disinvested households that will be hurt the most if the bill becomes law.