Leran Minc
Leaders in Congress are working to pass sweeping legislation that will impact residents in every community across the Commonwealth. If enacted, individuals and families will have a harder time accessing healthcare and food.
This effort is part of a process known as budget reconciliation; a method Congress uses to expedite the passage of spending bills with just a majority of votes. Currently, both the House of Representatives and Senate are proposing to cut SNAP and Medicaid.
The good news is that this process is still ongoing, and we have the power to stop these attacks on federal nutrition programs. Join us and take action and ask our Senators to prioritize protecting these critical programs.
As Congress finalizes their plans, we will provide updates here.
On Friday, June 20, the Senate Parliamentarian ruled that two provisions in the Senate bill violate current Senate rules: shifting the cost of benefits to states and restricting SNAP eligibility for most legally present immigrants. This is welcome news and presents an opportunity to reduce the harm of an otherwise destructive spending package.
However, Senate leaders may still attempt to put forth similar proposals or find alternative ways to undermine and eviscerate the program. Even if the bill passes without these two terrible provisions, the remaining SNAP cuts in the House or Senate bill would still be the largest reductions in the program’s history.
Whether or not these ghoulish ideas raise up like zombies, or not, our path is the same: to make it clear this is a bad bill that will irreparably harm our communities.
On Monday, the Senate Finance Committee released its draft legislation, proposing major, devastating cuts to Medicaid. Some of the most concerning provisions include:
New reporting requirements: States would be required to implement an additional reporting mandate for adults on hours worked, volunteered, or participating in certain educational programs for childless adults between the ages of 19 and 64 as well as parents of children 15 years old and above. Though often referred to as a work requirement, in reality, it is an additional bureaucratic burden at best, and a job loss penalty at worse. The evidence of reporting requirements has conclusively found that these rules do not increase work. Rather these rules take away critical basic needs benefits from those struggling to find consistent employment.
Increased eligibility verification: The bill would require states to verify eligibility for Medicaid twice a year instead of once, adding to the bureaucratic burden on states and on households.
Higher costs for low-income individuals: Individuals just above the federal poverty level would be required to pay more in fees and co-pays to access care, potentially deterring them from seeking out necessary medical services and care.
Reduced federal support for inclusive coverage: The proposal would cut federal dollars spent by states who use their funds to expand coverage to additional clients, such as certain categories of legal immigrants.
Limit on provider taxes: The bill would limit and reduce provider taxes that help states equitably redistribute Medicaid funds to support hard-to-cover areas, such as rural communities.
Last night, the Senate Agriculture Committee released its text that closely mirrors the House’s proposed cuts to SNAP and existentially threatens the program. The Committee proposal includes:
What’s next?
Additional committees will be releasing language this week . The Committee on Finance, which oversees Medicaid, is expected to release its language next week.
The Senate has to go through a number of procedural steps, but leadership is aiming to have a vote the week of June 23rd so that the House and Senate can attempt to pass a compromise bill before July 4th.
It is possible things will get delayed into July, but advocacy over the next few weeks is critical.
After lengthy debate (speeches) the House passed the budget reconciliation by a slim majority with a 215-214 vote.
What’s next?
The bill now heads to the Senate. The Senate is expected to draft its own version that overlaps but doesn’t mimic the House’s version.
While the Republican leaders in the Senate will want to move the bill quickly, the bill will need to comply with Senate rules on budget reconciliation. This means there will likely be a line-by-line review and debate that will take at least four or five weeks.
If the Senate passes a bill, leadership from the House and Senate will need to negotiate a compromise. This will, again, require balancing out the multiple factions since they can only lose 3 or less votes in either chamber to still pass a bill.
If a compromise is reached, there will be a final vote in the House and Senate before heading to the president’s desk.
Advocacy over next month will be critical. We have an opportunity to raise the volume and apply political pressure to defeat this bill or at least make it a lot less devastating.
The House Rules Committee met in a marathon meeting starting a 1:00 AM in the morning to conceal the proposed cuts to basic needs programs. As part of the proceeding the committee adopted a “managers amendment” that changed the bills to gain support from potential holdouts. No changes happened for SNAP, but there were several provisions to make Medicaid cuts even worse including implementing new work (reporting) requirements at the end of next year instead of the start of 2029.
The House Budget Committee met on Sunday night and this time voted to advance the bill after making promises to conservative members to make additional cuts. These conversations have not been made public, but as an example they want Medicaid “work requirements” to start in early 2027 instead of early 2029.
What’s next?
On Wednesday, the House Rules Committee meets to finalize the bill that will be voted on by the entire House of Representatives. This will be an opportunity for them to make changes to the bill.
On Thursday, the Republican leaders hope to bring the entire bill to a final vote.
There are three possible outcomes:
The bill passes and moves to the Senate.
The bill fails and has to be revisited. Depending on the vote this could be a signal to make the cuts better or worse.
The vote is postponed, likely, because negotiations amongst Republican are ongoing.
Anything less than passage is good news, but under all three outcomes we will have continued opportunities to defeat, block, or mitigate the final bill by keeping up the advocacy drumbeat.
The House Budget Committee met to vote to advance the combined pieces of the budget reconciliation package. Five Republicans and all the Democrats voted against the bill and the bill was not able to move on in the process.
The five Republicans are all conservatives whose concerns were that cuts did not go far enough.
Last night, the House Committee on Agriculture released its draft legislative language to cut an estimated $290 billion from SNAP. If these proposals were enacted they would dismantle SNAP as we know it and severely cripple its ability to effectively support hungry households. Project Bread and our partners will continue to analyze the 12 SNAP-related proposals, but here are the five most troubling:
Dump costs onto states for both SNAP administration and SNAP benefits. Based on this proposal and current estimates, Massachusetts would be asked to cover over $500 million in annual costs.
Restricts future updates to the Thrifty Food Plan (TFP), the calculations used to set SNAP benefit levels. Under this proposal SNAP benefits would only increase based on inflation. Every SNAP recipient would feel the impact of this policy.
Increase work reporting rules on older workers (up to 64 years old) and add new reporting rules on families with children over 7. If households fail to work sufficient hours or comply with the bureaucratic burden to report those hours, they will lose benefits. Center on Budget and Public Priorities estimates this would put 230,000 MA residents at risk of losing some or all of their benefits.
Eliminates eligible for nearly immigrants including refugees and asylees who are currently eligible. Only legal permanent residents (green card holders) and citizens would be eligible for SNAP regardless of circumstances or level of need. This is estimated to harm up 20,000 to 25,000 legally present immigrants living in Massachusetts.
As we noted for Medicaid, SNAP is another way low-income families receive free school meals. On top of these draconian cuts to SNAP, these proposals would decrease federal support for child nutrition programs in Massachusetts.
Last night, the House Committee on Energy & Commerce released its draft legislative language. Early estimates by Congressional Budget Office (CBO) are that this bill would cut
At least $715 billion from cuts to Medicaid (known as MassHealth in Massachusetts) resulting in the loss of healthcare coverage for 8.6 million people.
At least $197 billion from other cuts to access to healthcare resulting in at least 5 million people losing health insurance.
The most concerning proposals are:
Requiring states to implement an additional reporting requirement on hours worked, volunteered, or participating in certain educational programs for childless adults between the ages of 19 and 64. This is often called a work requirement, but is, in reality, an additional bureaucratic burden at best and a job loss penalty at worse. The evidence of reporting requirements has conclusively found that these rules do not increase work. Rather these rules take away critical basic needs benefits from those struggling to find consistent employment.
Increase the frequency of verify eligibility for Medicaid to twice a year instead of once a year adding to the bureaucratic burden on the state and on households.
Requires those just above the federal poverty level to pay more in fees and co-pays to access care.
Reducing federal dollars spent to states who use states funds to expand coverage to additional clients such as immigrants.
In addition to the critical role Medicaid (MassHealth) plays in ensuring low-income families have access to health insurance, any cuts to Medicaid decreases the federal dollars going into our state for child nutrition programs.
The Committees on Energy & Commerce and Agriculture have scheduled their markups for Tuesday, May 13th.
The House Education and Workforce Committee, which has jurisdiction over the federal child nutrition programs, marked up their portion of the budget reconciliation on Tuesday and did not include cuts to nutrition programs. Instead, they focused on deep cuts and changes to student loans.
Even though it appears that school meals and other child nutrition programs will not be cut during this reconciliation process, we must remain vigilant. Previous proposals, leaked documents, and recent actions by the Administration show that these critical supports are under attack. Ongoing pressure is needed to remind Congress and the Administration that child nutrition programs are vital to children, families, and communities.
We understand that hunger can't be solved through stop-gap measures. Instead, our work seeks to provide sustainable, scalable solutions that permanently move the needle on ending hunger.