The bill includes nearly $4 trillion in tax cuts, along with new funding for immigration enforcement and defense. It also eliminates taxes on tips and overtime.
AUSTIN, Texas — President Trump’s massive tax cut and spending bill crawled toward the finish line on Thursday after a marathon day on Capitol Hill.
Republican lawmakers advanced the bill to get it to President Donald Trump’s desk ahead of his self-imposed July 4 deadline to pass the bill.
In a speech on the House Floor early Thursday Morning, U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-TX 37) called the bill a “travesty,” and said the changes made by the Senate to the bill made an already ugly bill even uglier.
“The Independent Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget condemns this as exploding our debt, spiking it to new record highs, and accelerating the insolvency of Social Security and Medicare,” Doggett said. “It takes from those with the least and gives to those with the most. Lining the pockets of the super-rich with millions in tax giveaways. It is mean. It is cruel. It is wrong.”
The bill includes nearly $4 trillion in tax cuts along with new funding for immigration enforcement and defense. It would also eliminate taxes on tips and overtime. Tax breaks from Trump’s first term are set to expire in December, which would lead to a significant tax increase.
The bill would make existing tax rates and brackets permanent and boost the $2,000 child tax credit to $2,200. Millions of families with lower incomes would not receive the full credit.
“The One Big Beautiful Bill delivers on their mandate by funding President Trump’s border security efforts, bolstering the Department of Defense at a crucial time in history and making permanent the largest tax cut in history,” Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX 10) said. “I’m proud to have joined my Republican colleagues in voting to restore our great nation and put this historic bill on the president’s desk just in time for Independence Day.”
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated that the wealthiest households would see a $12,000 increase from the legislation, while it would cost the poorest people $1,600 a year. Middle-income taxpayers would see a tax break of $500 to $1,500.
Earlier this week, Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX 21), who represents part of Austin, called the bill “garbage,” but ultimately supported it on Thursday after stating that conservative Republicans had fought for changes to the legislation.
“We won fights they said we could not win,” Roy said. “We added significant resources to secure the border. We have extended tax relief for millions of Americans. We have passed the largest ‘mandatory’ spending reduction in American history.”
While Republican lawmakers argue that the middle and working classes depend on the tax cuts, the bill requires significant cuts to Medicaid to offset the costs.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated that the bill would add $3.4 trillion to the national debt over the next 10 years, and 11.8 million Americans could lose their health insurance coverage due to the bill’s steep cuts to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP program.
“I believe that this will be very damaging to so many Central Texas families, particularly in the health care field,” Doggett said. “Millions of people across the country, perhaps as many as 1.7 million in Texas, losing access to health care.”
The legislation includes new work requirements for those on Medicaid. Adults would have to work at least 80 hours a month until age 65 to qualify. Parents of children 14 and under are exempted from the work requirements. There’s also a proposed new $35 co-payment that can be charged to patients using Medicaid services.
More than 71 million Americans rely on Medicaid services, and 40 million Americans use the SNAP program. According to Feeding Texas, 3.47 million Texans rely on SNAP benefits. As of November 2024, more than 4 million Texans were enrolled in Medicaid.
Doggett said the bill will harm low-income families and be particularly challenging for rural healthcare providers.
“The burdens on rural hospitals will be great,” Doggett said. “Many of them count on Medicaid to stay open. The projection is that we will lose several hospitals across Texas as a result of this bill.”
The bill would cut $186 billion from SNAP programs.
“For every meal that Texas food banks put on the table, SNAP puts nine meals on the table. So SNAP is doing the heavy lift against hunger in this country,” Celia Cole, the CEO of Feeding Texas, said. “It’s operating a scale almost ten times greater than what food banks can do. And food banks are putting out 700 million pounds of food every year. We do a lot, too, but we cannot make up for a cut of this magnitude.”
The Congressional Budget Office estimates that 3 million more would not qualify for food stamps, also known as SNAP benefits.
Currently, the federal government covers all the costs of SNAP benefits, but the legislation would shift some of that cost to the states. Under the bill, starting in 2028, states whose payment error rate exceeds 6% would be required to pay a percentage of those costs.
“The program is designed to kind of kick in when the economy is bad, to kick in during times of like big natural disasters. The federal government can increase benefits and serve more people when that happens. When you shift the cost to states like this bill would do, state governments aren’t in a position to deficit spend. They have to balance their budgets every year, and when the economy is bad, it’s when states are least likely to be able to pay for increases in need,” Cole said. “By shifting a percentage of the Snap benefits cost to states, it’s going to force tough decisions. State governments and state legislatures are going to have to decide: do we take funding away from other essential services, and do we raise taxes, which isn’t going to happen in Texas? Or do we cut benefits or reduce the number of people who qualify or, you know, worst case scenario, do we walk away from the program completely?”
Cole said the state will have to absorb an estimated $806 million annually in new SNAP obligations, which she noted strains the budget and threatens food security for millions of Texans.
“This shift of cost and these cuts that are coming to Snap and Medicaid are going to be devastating. They will lead to increased hunger. People are going to be sicker. And it’s going to have not just lasting consequences for those individuals and the communities they live in, but it overall, as a state and as a nation,” Cole said. “It undermines our productivity and our economic competitiveness. We need to have a healthy and educated workforce. And this bill takes us in the opposite direction.”
The cuts come as grocery prices rise and demand for food assistance grows. Texas’ food insecurity rate is 16.9%, the second highest in the nation and 5% higher than the national average.
“We can ratchet up during times of disaster,” Cole said. “We play a vital role with our infrastructure and our network of local pantries during times of need to get extra help to people but in terms of making sure that people who can’t afford food regularly can eat three balanced meals a day, that’s not something we’re set up to do. That’s the role of SNAP, and this bill undermines SNAP’s ability to do its job, which is to prevent hunger and fight poverty.”
Doggett said he is concerned the state will not step up to help ensure Texans in need will be able to access food through the SNAP program, leading to children and families “that will go hungry as a result of this bill.”
“The state of Texas has not been very concerned about the most vulnerable people in our state and is not going to put in its own dollars. They’re good at distributing federal dollars, and I don’t see these federal funds cut being replaced by Texans,” Doggett said. “I think the Central Texas Food Bank, which does an outstanding job like other food banks around the state, will be imperiled in its ability to help our neighbors.”
While Republican lawmakers argue the legislation will help hardworking families, Democrats, such as Congressman Doggett, argue that it will exacerbate existing challenges, particularly among the state’s most vulnerable populations.
“They’ve added provisions like no taxes, tips that are very misleading and narrow. Of course, there’s no tip for the person who’s washing the dishes or busing the table. The benefits of these new provisions were added simply to make it appear that they were doing something they’re not, and that is showing concern for the middle class,” he said. “All the benefits, the billions of dollars of benefits, will go to those at the top.”
The bill includes $13.5 billion to reimburse border states, such as Texas, for costs incurred to secure the border under the Biden administration.
Gov. Greg Abbott launched Operation Lone Star in 2021, and the state has since spent more than $11 billion on the border security program. The operation has included the deployment of Department of Public Safety (DPS) Troopers and Texas National Guard troops to patrol the Southern Border to deter migrant crossings, a state-funded border wall and shipping busloads of migrants to Democratic-run cities like Chicago, Washington, D.C. and New York.
“When the Biden administration abdicated its federal responsibility to secure the border, Texas stepped up,” said McCaul. “Our state bore the brunt of this unnecessary crisis for four years — fighting tirelessly on the front lines to defend all 50 states. That’s why I worked so hard to reimburse our border states for the costs they incurred over the past four years.”
An interfaith group called “Texas Impact” is urging state leaders to examine the impact of the bill on state programs and the budget and look at ways to mitigate it.
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