***For Immediate Release***
May 15, 2025
Contact: Sierra Salgado Pirigyi
Communications Director, Nebraska Appleseed
Office: (402) 438-8853 ext 116
sierrasp@neappleseed.org
RELEASE: House Committees Advance Historically Devastating Budget Reconciliation Bills
LINCOLN, NE – Over the last two days, the US House of Representatives advanced reconciliation bills out of the Energy and Commerce and Agriculture Committees, making extreme cuts to Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act, and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) that would strip health care coverage and food access from thousands of Nebraskans.
These deep and cruel cuts to Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act, and SNAP are the most extensive that Congress has ever considered. They add up to more than $1 trillion, to go towards tax breaks that benefit billionaires and large corporations, and to fund sweeping deportations of everyday working people that will separate families and longtime community members, destabilizing local communities. The proposals, which are quickly advancing through Congress, include:
- Shifting huge, unmanageable costs to states to cover SNAP, risking loss of benefits or eligibility for the 150,000 Nebraskans utilizing the program.
- Implementing additional SNAP work requirements on older Nebraskans up to age 64, and parents of children 7 and older, who are already struggling to keep food on the table,
- Dozens of provisions slashing Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act that will result in nearly 14 million people losing coverage.
- These proposals include attacks on Nebraska’s voter-approved Medicaid expansion, which provides 65,000 Nebraskans lifesaving health care coverage.
- These provisions also impose unnecessary work requirements that will cause up to 15,000 Nebraskans to lose their health care.
- Unprecedented spending for sweeping and unproductive enforcement of long-outdated immigration laws – separating local neighbors and families, and destabilizing whole communities.
These proposals present a generational threat to Nebraska communities and families and will push substantial costs onto states, further straining state budgets. The House will continue to work to advance these reconciliation bills forward and could vote as early as next week.
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