In Case You Missed It...

| By CBPP

This week at CBPP, we focused on the federal budget and taxes, health, food assistance, climate, and income security.

We launched a live blog to track Senate action on the tax and budget reconciliation bill with entries from Joseph Llobrera and Margot Dankner, respectively, on how the Senate Agriculture Committee’s proposal would take SNAP food assistance away from millions of people, including households with children, who don’t meet an expansion of SNAP’s already harsh work requirement and people granted humanitarian protections. Llobrera also described how the Senate Agriculture Committee’s plan would make it harder for states to get a waiver from the SNAP work requirement for areas with high unemployment. Katie Bergh noted that the plan would cut billions in federal funding for SNAP benefits, forcing states to pick up the cost and risking deep cuts to food assistance. Ty Jones Cox, Vice President for Food Policy, highlighted the misguided priorities and harmful impacts of the Senate Agriculture Committee’s plan on SNAP.

On the federal budget and taxes, we identified the harmful impact the House Republican reconciliation bill would have on veterans and people with disabilities. Gbenga Ajilore examined how the House reconciliation bill would disproportionately harm rural households, communities, and economies by drastically cutting health coverage through Medicaid and food assistance through SNAP. We also updated our paper on how the reconciliation bill takes away health coverage, food assistance, and tax credits from millions of immigrants and their families.

On health, Gideon Lukens explained 5 million small business owners are expected to enroll in Affordable Care Act marketplace coverage in 2025, but proposed cuts and the looming expiration of an enhanced tax credit could place millions at risk of losing coverage. Elizabeth Zhang highlighted how Medicaid work requirements proposed by congressional Republicans could take health coverage away from millions of workers in low-paying jobs. Meanwhile, Allie Gardner took a close look at how the Medicaid work requirement provision in the House Republicans’ reconciliation plan imposes a one-size-fits-all mandate on states and would leave nearly 5 million uninsured. We also updated our backgrounder that provides an introduction to Medicaid.

On food assistance, Joseph Llobrera and Catlin Nchako estimated the number of people at risk of losing SNAP food benefits in each state under the Senate Agriculture Committee’s expanded work requirement proposal. Katie Bergh warned that the Senate proposal would deeply cut food assistance, with the risk that some states could SNAP entirely. Llobrera and Nchako also provided details about the more than 3 million parents and caregivers, predominantly women, at risk of having food assistance to help them feed their families taken away by the House Republican reconciliation bill’s proposed expansion of the SNAP work requirement.

On climate, Rachel Jacobson and Mikaela Tajo detailed how the House bill’s proposed $546 billion in cuts to tax credits and other programs would increase households’ energy costs, decrease job opportunities, and hasten climate change.

On income security, Nick Gwyn outlined pro-worker and pro-work policies Congress should consider, including expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit and raising the minimum wage, protecting food, health, and housing assistance, and increasing access to affordable child care and paid family and medical leave.

The Center was active on social media this week. Here are some of our posts:

Mikaela Tajo posted on X and Bluesky breaking down how the climate cuts in the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Republicans’ bill would raise energy bills and worsen pollution, among other consequences.

Gbenga Ajilore posted on X and Bluesky outlining how provisions embedded in the House Republican reconciliation bill would harm Black families and communities.

A variety of news outlets featured CBPP’s work and experts this past week. Here are some of the highlights:

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