What's in the House GOP Budget Reconciliation Bill

On May 22, 2025, House Republicans passed a budget reconciliation bill that would cut billions from programs like Medicare, Medicaid, and SNAP, eliminate health care coverage for tens of thousands in Memphis, and raise everyday costs for working families—all to pay for $7 trillion in tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy. I voted NO.

This bill is not yet law. It now heads to the Senate, and Congressman Cohen has encouraged Senate Democrats to use every tool at their disposal to stop it. Below, you’ll find an overview of what’s in the House GOP’s budget reconciliation bill and what it could mean for Memphis and families across the country.

The GOP Budget Hurts Memphis Families

House Republicans started marking up their budget in the dead of night to keep the public in the dark about what’s in it. Democrats filed over 520 amendments—including one to advance Congressman Cohen’s bill to ensure billionaires pay a fair tax rate—and debated for 29 straight hours to drag the bill into the light and expose the truth.

Here’s a closer look at what the GOP’s bill would mean for Memphis and communities nationwide:

Cuts to Medicaid

The GOP bill slashes $736 billion from Medicaid, hurting children, seniors, and people with disabilities. In TN-9, it would kick an estimated 11,500 people off Medicaid—more than any other district in Tennessee. More than 241,000 people in our district rely on Medicaid, and this bill would:  

• Add new paperwork and red tape designed to kick people off coverage—even if they’re still eligible
• Impose new out-of-pocket costs up to $35 per visit
• Eliminate retroactive coverage, sticking families with massive emergency bills
• Gut funding for hospitals, nursing homes, and home care providers

Click here to learn more about how this bill dismantles Medicaid.

Attacks on the Affordable Care Act

The GOP bill guts the Affordable Care Act (ACA), driving up insurance costs and making it harder for families to get covered. In our district, more than 25,000 people would lose coverage through the ACA Marketplace.

The bill would:

• End enhanced ACA premium tax credits, causing premiums to double for millions
• Add new red tape that makes it harder to enroll—even after job loss, major life changes, or being removed from Medicaid
• Slash $300 billion from subsidies and enrollment assistance

Click here for more information from the House Committees on Energy & Commerce and Ways & Means. Click here to read more from CNBC.

Cuts to Food Assistance (SNAP)

This bill includes the largest nutrition cut in U.S. history—$300 billion from food assistance, including SNAP and school meals.

• Puts 18 million children at risk of losing meals, including through school lunch programs
• Slashes benefits for seniors, veterans, and disabled individuals
• Takes food off tables of  62,000 households in Memphis who rely on SNAP to buy groceries

Click here for more information from the Urban Institute.

Higher Prescription Drug and Insulin Costs

The Inflation Reduction Act gave Medicare the power to negotiate drug prices for the first time in history. In 2024, beneficiaries in TN-9 saved $8.4 million, with those savings expected to nearly double in 2025. In addition, the law capped insulin costs at $35/month for Medicare recipients.

The GOP reconciliation bill puts all of those savings at risk. It undermines Medicare’s ability to negotiate lower prices and triggers automatic cuts that would force 48,000 Medicare beneficiaries in TN-9—including more than 3,700 who rely on insulin—to pay more.

Tax Breaks for the Ultra-Rich

The GOP bill adds $3.8 trillion to the deficit—not to help working families, but to finance massive tax cuts for the wealthy. The top 0.1% of earners would receive an average tax cut of $255,000, while 13.7 million Americans lose health care.

Here’s how:  

• Extends the Trump tax cuts for high earners beyond 2025, including the top individual rate cut from 39.6% to 37%, and a 20% deduction for pass-through business income—benefiting hedge funds, private equity firms, and similar entities
• Preserves the 21% corporate tax rate—a 40% drop from the pre-2017 rate of 35%—alongside expanded deductions for multinational corporations
• Raises the SALT deduction cap to $40,000, delivering almost all the benefit to households making over $500,000 a year
• Repeals clean energy tax credits, including for EVs, home upgrades, and renewable power

Click here to learn more.

Hurts Small Businesses and Self-Employed Workers

The GOP’s bill makes it harder—and more expensive—for small business owners, freelancers, and self-employed workers to operate, especially when it comes to health insurance. Specifically, the bill would:

• Let enhanced ACA premium tax credits expire, doubling premiums for many who buy coverage on the marketplace.
  • That means higher health care costs for self-employed workers and small business employees who don’t get coverage through a large employer.
• Repeal clean energy tax credits—hurting contractors, electricians, HVAC technicians, and other small businesses who’ve benefited from growing demand for energy upgrades.
• Raise the cap on the SALT deduction, delivering huge tax breaks to wealthy business owners in high-tax states, while doing little or nothing for small business owners in places like Memphis.

While big corporations and the ultra-wealthy get tax cuts, small business owners get higher costs and fewer opportunities.

Environmental Rollbacks & Handouts to Polluters

The GOP budget rewards polluters while gutting America’s environmental protections. It hands billions in giveaways to fossil fuel companies and dismantles programs designed to fight climate change and protect public lands.

The bill would:

• Mandate new oil, gas, and coal leasing on public lands—including the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
• Slash royalty rates paid by drilling companies, shortchanging taxpayers
• Add new fees to make it harder for communities to protest fossil fuel leases
• Weaken environmental review requirements to fast-track drilling and pipelines
• Eliminate funding for climate resilience efforts, National Parks, and NOAA

Click here to read more: House budget bill effectively halts US clean energy boom.

Raising Everyday Costs for Working Families

While giving massive tax breaks to billionaires, the GOP budget raises costs on everything from energy to transportation—undoing tax credits and consumer protections that help families afford the basics.

The bill would:

• Repeal tax credits for energy-efficient home upgrades—raising utility bills
• Eliminate electric vehicle (EV) purchase incentives, making it harder for families to afford clean transportation
• Roll back rebates for solar panels and other home energy improvements
• Cut funding for clean energy deployment and domestic manufacturing, stalling job growth and driving up prices
• Repeal emissions and fuel efficiency rules that save consumers money at the pump

This bill doesn’t just make life more expensive—it does it on purpose, while protecting profits for oil companies and corporations that pollute.

Billions for Trump’s Immigration Crackdown

While slashing health care and nutrition programs for working families, the GOP’s budget reconciliation hands $74.6 billion to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)—including:

• $46.6 billion for detention and state reimbursements
• $15 billion for deportations and expedited removals
• $8 billion to hire 10,000 new ICE agents

This spending alone is projected to add nearly $7 billion to the federal deficit over the next several years. Trump has already defied the law and the courts in carrying out his hardline immigration agenda. Now Republicans want to reward that behavior with billions more in taxpayer funding that isn’t meant to fix anything, but to punish people and score political points.

Working to Stop It

House Democrats filed more than 520 amendments to block the worst parts of this bill—including one based on my Billionaire Minimum Income Tax Act, which would have ensured the ultra-wealthy can’t escape paying federal income taxes or pay lower tax rates than working people. Republicans blocked it.

They also rejected other amendments that would have protected Medicaid and SNAP, defended access to reproductive care, restored cancer research funding, saved ACA premium subsidies, and expanded the Child Tax Credit.

I voted NO on the GOP’s disastrous budget reconciliation bill. My office will continue providing updates as the budget process moves forward in Congress. For more real-time updates, click here to sign up for my weekly eNewsletter, and click below to follow me on social media.