***For Immediate Release***
May 22, 2025
Contact: Sierra Salgado Pirigyi
Communications Director, Nebraska Appleseed
Office: 402-438-8853 ext 116
sierrasp@neappleseed.org
RELEASE: US House Passes Budget That Will Devastate Nebraska Communities
Hundreds of thousands of Nebraskans’ access to healthcare and food is at risk
LINCOLN, NE – This morning, the US House of Representatives passed a budget reconciliation package that will strip health care and food assistance away from hundreds of thousands of Nebraskans and their families. With over $1 trillion in cuts, a majority of representatives – including Nebraska’s three members –voted to advance a destructive agenda that fails the people of this state and the country. This bill prioritizes funding for sweeping deportations of everyday working people that will separate families, and to go towards tax breaks that benefit billionaires and large corporations.
With last minute changes to the bill, made behind closed doors, the House quickly advanced policies that will take away some – if not all – of Nebraskan’s access to healthcare and food. The House-passed policies include devastating consequences for:
Immigration
- Unprecedented spending for sweeping and unproductive enforcement of long-outdated immigration laws – separating local neighbors and families, and destabilizing whole communities.
SNAP
- Shifting huge, unmanageable costs to states to cover SNAP, risking loss of benefits or eligibility for the 150,000 Nebraskans currently 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.
Healthcare
- Dozens of provisions to slash 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 with life-saving health care coverage.
- These provisions also impose unnecessary work requirements that will cause up to 15,000 Nebraskans to lose their health care.
Child Tax Credit
- Taking the Child Tax Credit away from US citizen children with parents who are stuck in immigration limbo.
- Increasing the Child Tax Credit for higher income families – while leaving out at least 17 million of our lowest-income children.
This package is a generational threat to Nebraska communities and families that will push substantial costs onto states, further straining our state budget. These priorities are entirely misaligned with Nebraska values.
As the Senate begins advancing their budget reconciliation proposals, it’s urgent that they hear from Nebraskans who support stability for immigrant community members and whole communities – not budgets that would cut health care, take food off the table, and separate local families and our neighbors who are stuck in limbo because of long-outdated immigration laws.
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