In Case You Missed It. . .

| By CBPP

This week at CBPP, we focused on the federal budget, food assistance, health, Social Security, the economy, poverty and inequality, and housing.

On the federal budget, CBPP President Sharon Parrott released a statement explaining that the Trump Administration’s partial budget plan would hurt the people the Trump campaign pledged to help. Sam Berger and Jacob Leibenluft explained why the Trump Administration’s mass federal worker layoffs are illegal. Berger and Cristin Dorgelo underscored serious ethical concerns with the Administration’s unprecedented use of special government employees.
On food assistance, Katie Bergh, Catlin Nchako, and Luis Nuñez emphasized that worsening SNAP’s harsh work requirement would take food assistance away from millions of low-income people, including families with children, older adults, and veterans. Bergh outlined House Republicans’ reported plans to shift billions in SNAP costs to states. Bergh also explained that Republican plans to slash SNAP funding aren’t about “program integrity” — cuts of that magnitude would take food assistance away from millions of people to help pay for tax cuts skewed to the wealthy.
On health, Allison Orris, Allie Gardner, and Elizabeth Zhang emphasized House Republicans won’t let go of repealing the Affordable Care Act (ACA), and decimating the ACA’s Medicaid expansion would harm millions of parents, children, and disabled people.
On Social Security, Kathleen Romig pointed out a revised policy no longer allowing beneficiaries to change their bank information solely by phone will require nearly 2 million more elderly and disabled people to make in-person visits to Social Security offices each year.
On the economy, Gbenga Ajilore highlighted what metrics to watch for on the monthly Jobs Day, and why the unemployment rate only tells part of the story.
On poverty and inequality, in the latest in our series of briefs, we described how Republican proposals would take vital health, food, and other assistance away from working families and from women. We also detailed how these proposals would mean higher costs and less help for seniors.
On housing, Peggy Bailey and Jim Parrott explained why the response to the housing crisis must include rental assistance, not just more supply.
We also updated our resource tracking harmful executive actions with entries on how the Education Department is threatening funding for students in poverty, on the Trump Administration firing experts who produce poverty guidelines that affect millions, and on the Administration phasing out Medicaid funding for state-funded health programs.

Interactive — Millions at Risk of Losing Food Assistance Under Proposed Expansion of SNAP’s Work Requirement

Millions At Risk of Losing Food Assistance Under Proposed Expansion of SNAP's Work Requirement

by 119th congressional district

Note: "With school-age children" refers to households with children where all children are 7 or older. These estimates do not incorporate other proposals in H.R. 1528 that would significantly restrict states' ability to request waivers of SNAP's work requirement for areas with insufficient jobs and eliminate current exemptions for veterans, people experiencing homelessness, or youth who have aged out of foster care. Due to rounding, the sum of congressional district estimates in a given state may differ from state estimates.

Source: State estimates based on CBPP analysis of SNAP quality control data for fiscal year 2022. State estimates were allocated to districts of the 119th Congress based on special tabulations from the American Community Survey for 2019-2023 using each district's share of the state's population of adults age 55 to 64 with no disability in SNAP households and no children under 18, and each district's share of the state's population of adults age 18 to 64 in SNAP households with school-age children.

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities | CBPP.org

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

Sarah Lueck just posted on X and Bluesky explaining how proposed Medicaid cuts would take coverage away from millions, harm enrollees, strain state budgets, and weaken the broader health care system.
Gbenga Ajilore posted on X and Bluesky analyzing the latest GDP data and how it highlights economic uncertainty stemming from the Trump Administration's recent tariff actions.
Shelby Gonzales posted on X and Bluesky about a recent Executive Order that seeks to withhold funding from states and localities labeled as Sanctuary Jurisdictions for not cooperating with federal immigration enforcement.

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

Republicans Consider Shifting Cost Of Food Benefits To States, With Cuts Likely
HuffPost
May 2, 2025

What to watch for when the White House releases Trump's first budget proposal
NPR
May 1, 2025

Undocumented immigrants contribute more to Social Security than they receive in benefits
CNN
May 1, 2025

Republicans Coalesce Around Medicaid Work Requirements, Pretending It Won’t Impact Millions Of Enrollees
Talking Points Memo
May 1, 2025

Trump administration’s budget cuts endanger Meals on Wheels: ‘Life and death implications’
The Guardian
April 28, 2025

Trump Approaches 100-Day Mark As Trade War with China Continues
WENY
April 28, 2025

Washington State Lawmakers Vote to Limit Rent Increases
New York Times
April 27, 2025

Americans Are Claiming Social Security Early, Fearful of Its Future
Wall Street Journal
April 26, 2025

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