WASHINGTON, D.C. – I have proposed changes to President Trump and Senate Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), which will pay for tax cuts for billionaires by kicking millions of Americans off Medicaid and closing rural hospitals, cutting food assistance programs and tanking the economy.
My changes to the Republican tax bill would protect Vermonters’ access to health care, food assistance and other critical programs. The proposed changes include provisions to prevent harm to rural hospitals, strengthen access to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act, block cuts and policies that weaken the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and other food assistance programs, protect home energy efficiency tax credits and the home efficiency workforce and support federal public defenders.
My changes to the Republican budget resolution will protect access to health care and support rural hospitals. I have proposed requiring the Finance Committee to rewrite the bill to prevent harm to rural health care and the fiscal wellbeing of rural hospitals; proposed requiring the Finance Committee to exempt managed care programs operated by state governments like Vermont from any changes proposed to state directed payments; requiring the Finance Committee to strike any changes to provider taxes, including changes that would impact states like Vermont with Medicaid expansion; requiring the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee to make it easier to verify eligibility for the Affordable Care Act’s premium tax credits, and expand special enrollment periods under certain circumstances.
Other amendments to defend food assistance programs, proposed requiring the Agriculture Committee to strike any cost-shifts of administering SNAP to states, which would kick American families off the food assistance they need and strain state budgets; proposed an amendment to strike administrative cost-shifts for SNAP; proposed an amendment to adjust the Thrifty Food Plan for cities, counties, and regions where the price of food is 10% higher than the national average; proposed an amendment that places a floor on SNAP allotments to households instead of a ceiling; proposed requiring the Agriculture Committee to rewrite the bill to allow volunteer work to qualify under SNAP’s work requirements.
Another amendment to protect programs and government services proposed requiring the Finance Committee to rewrite the bill to maintain the energy efficient home improvement tax credit at current levels through 2028; proposed an amendment to strike the repeal of several home energy efficiency tax credits, including credits for home energy, rooftop solar, energy efficient homes for homebuilders, and more; proposed striking language in the bill that would rescind funding for state-based contractor training grants, as required in my HOPE for HOMES Act, passed as part of the Inflation Reduction Act; proposed striking language in the bill that would institute taxes on international remittances.
I have proposed an amendment to dedicate funding for residential reentry centers, which are needed in Vermont and an amendment to dedicate funding for the federal public defenders program, which is currently underfunded.
I have been an outspoken opponent of the Republicans’ tax bill, the OBBBA, which Republicans are advancing through a reconciliation process without Democratic support. The bill threatens access to health care and cuts food assistance, and I have sounded the alarm about how this bill will add more than $4 trillion to the national debt and tank the economy.
U.S. Senator Peter Welch (D-Vt.) is a member of the Senate Finance Committee.
