Alliance Alert: In a razor-thin 215–214 vote, House Republicans passed a sweeping budget bill that would cut health care services for millions, extend tax breaks for the wealthy and large corporations, and slash vital social programs. The bill passed by just one vote, underscoring how high the stakes are for the upcoming midterm elections, which will determine control of both chambers of Congress.
Despite passage in the House, we still have opportunities to make necessary changes to the funding package by advocating with our congress members. We thank everyone for all of the work they have done to educate lawmakers and slow down this process. See the end of this note for what else we can do to stop these harmful changes.
The vote was nearly party-line, with only two GOP members voting “no”—none from New York. That means any one of the NY House Republicans (LaLota, Garbarino, Malliotakis, Lawler, Stefanik, Langworthy, Tenney) could be called the deciding vote in slashing essential programs. The final bill text was released just before debate—leaving no time for representatives to read and analyze it properly or for constituents to provide feedback.
This legislation—pushed by Speaker Mike Johnson, President Donald Trump, and House GOP leaders—would:
- Medicaid Work Requirements: The bill accelerates the start date for harsh new Medicaid work requirements to December 31, 2026, despite research from the Kaiser Family Foundation showing these policies reduce access to care and don’t increase employment. (More info here)
- Massive Medicaid Cuts: Over 10 million people could lose coverage, with deeper hits to communities already facing economic and health disparities.
- Penalize states offering Medicaid coverage to certain immigrants
- Cut funding for SNAP and other essential programs
- Expand the SALT cap deduction to $40,000 for individuals earning up to $500,000
- Further Cuts Ahead: The bill sets up major fights over spending levels, with more cuts likely in the wake of major layoffs and efforts to shrink federal government functions.
The bill also allocates $100 million to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to “improve” regulatory processes at multiple agencies—including HHS and EPA—but despite that claim, this shift will do the opposite. Instead of enhancing transparency, it raises serious concerns about reducing public input and enabling critical health decisions to be made behind closed doors. Experts have warned that these changes could allow agencies like HHS to bypass public participation altogether. As Lawrence Gostin of Georgetown University put it, this approach threatens to sideline key stakeholders, including researchers and health advocates, and undermine public trust in the process. University noted: “HHS will make crucial public health decisions behind closed doors.”
This bill is not the final version. It now moves to the Senate, where many of the most extreme provisions are expected to be challenged or stripped out. After Senate revision, the bill will return to the House for another vote later this summer.
What We Must Do Now
- Flood the Phones: Call your House representatives—especially NY Republicans—and make it clear: voting for this bill was an assault on working people, families, and communities. Share personal stories of how these cuts will hurt you or your community.
- Hit the Streets: Plan press events, rallies, protests, and speak-outs TODAY, TOMORROW, or EARLY NEXT WEEK. We need visible, vocal outrage. Focus on:
- Policy harm (Medicaid loss, cutting of essential social services like food stamps)
- Political corruption (midnight vote, unread bill)
- Personal impact (stories from real people)
- Educate and Mobilize: This bill is wildly unpopular once people hear the truth. Use your networks to get the word out. There’s still time to pressure the Senate and change the outcome.
Take action now by visiting: Take Action Now!
You can also call 1-855-245-3682 to talk to your representatives and tell them to vote NO on the reconciliation bill.
Contact your senators. Organize. Speak out. This bill threatens lives, and the window to change it is still open.
Keep Fighting—We’re Not Done!
Your advocacy so far has made a difference. We slowed the process and forced attention on these issues. Now we regroup and escalate. The Alliance will be working with a host of national cross-disability advocates, including going down to D.C. with the National Coalition for Mental Health Recovery, to advocate with congress and push them to prevent these cuts from being enacted. We must continue creating coalitions and working together to show strength in numbers to beat back these harmful changes to critical services.
Together, we can win this.
House Republicans Pass ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ After Weeks of Division
By Katherine Tully-McManus and Jennifer Scholtes | Politico | May 22, 2024
House Republicans came together to pass their domestic policy megabill early Thursday, after weeks of internal conflict and last-minute intervention from President Donald Trump.
The 215-214 vote is a major victory for Speaker Mike Johnson, who largely kept his conference together after days of around-the-clock negotiations with holdouts. He kept his promise of passing the measure before next week’s Memorial Day recess. The bill includes a fresh round of tax cuts sought by Trump, as well as hundreds of billions of dollars in new funding for the military and border security.
The vote went almost entirely along party lines. Two Republicans joined Democrats in voting no: Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Warren Davidson of Ohio. The chair of the hard-right Freedom Caucus, Rep. Andy Harris of Maryland, voted present.
In a rare all-nighter for the House, GOP leaders gaveled the chamber back into session just after 11 p.m. Wednesday evening, forcing lawmakers to work through debate and procedural votes until the bill passed just before 7 a.m. Thursday morning.
“And after a long week and a long night, and countless hours of work over the past year — a lot of prayer and a lot of teamwork — my friends, it quite literally is again ‘morning in America,’” Johnson said in his final floor speech before the passage vote, in a nod to former President Ronald Reagan’s signature 1984 campaign ad.
The speaker called the bill “historic,” “nation-shaping” and “life-changing,” while claiming that it is the “most consequential legislation that any party has ever passed, certainly under a majority this thin.”
Now heading to the Senate, the bill is titled the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” at Trump’s suggestion.
“This is arguably the most significant piece of Legislation that will ever be signed in the History of our Country!” Trump posted on Truth Social on Thursday morning. “Great job by Speaker Mike Johnson, and the House Leadership, and thank you to every Republican who voted YES on this Historic Bill! Now, it’s time for our friends in the United States Senate to get to work, and send this Bill to my desk AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!”
Democrats have their own names for the measure, including “the GOP tax scam” and “one big, ugly bill.” Minority party leaders are deriding the bill by pointing to nonpartisan forecasts that it would increase the federal deficit by trillions of dollars and cause more than 10 million people to lose health care coverage, while shifting resources away from the lowest-income households and to the wealthiest.
In a lengthy closing speech ahead of the final vote, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries accused Republicans of bankrolling tax cuts for the rich with cuts to safety-net programs like Medicaid and SNAP food assistance.
“And people will die. That’s not hype. That’s not hyperbole. That’s not a hypothetical,” Jeffries said.
The bill’s path to passage was smoothed by a 42-page amendment that the House Rules Committee approved after spending more than 21 hours on a markup. The package of changes was loaded with hand-tailored provisions to woo Republican holdouts.
Revisions include moving up the start date of Medicaid work requirements from Jan. 1, 2029, to Dec. 31, 2026, and expanding the criteria for states that could lose a portion of their federal payments if they offer coverage to undocumented people.
The eleventh-hour changes would also weaken the clean electricity investment and production tax credits created by the Democrats’ 2022 climate law, a change that clean energy developers warn would make them largely unusable.
Republicans from blue states won a bigger boost to the cap on state and local tax deductions to $40,000 per household, with an income limit set at $500,000. Fiscal hawks hated the so-called SALT increase but swallowed it in exchange for the Medicaid changes.
The bill now heads to the Senate, where Republicans are expected to tear up many of the policy provisions sought by House GOP hard-liners.