Congressman Cohen Statement on Final Passage of GOP’s One Big Ugly Bill

WASHINGTON, DC — Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-9) issued the following statement today after voting against final passage of President Trump’s so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act (H.R. 1). House Republicans passed the Senate-amended version of the bill in a largely party line vote of 218-214, sending it to the President’s desk. 

“The GOP’s One Big Ugly Bill fails every basic moral test,” said Congressman Cohen. “They are taking food and health care away from poor people so that the wealthiest individuals who have ever lived can become even wealthier. It is cruel, indefensible, and it is likely the worst bill that has ever been presented by Congress for the citizens of Memphis and Tennessee’s Ninth Congressional District. I was proud to vote ‘NO’.” 

“I’m deeply concerned about the impact this bill will have in my district and throughout the country,” Congressman Cohen added, “not just on the poor and vulnerable, but also on middle-class families, small businesses, hospital systems and emergency services, and so much more. I will continue to fight for my constituents, stand up for what’s right, and be a resource for every person in Memphis and TN-9 who is hurt by this inhumane legislation. This fight is not over.” 

Congressman Cohen voted against the One Big Ugly Bill when it was first considered by the House in May and has vehemently opposed the Senate’s version. The final bill slashes SNAP, Medicaid, and health care subsidies by more than $1.3 trillion, eliminates important tax credits for working families, and adds $4 trillion to the national debt while funding tax giveaways for millionaires, billionaires, high-income earners, and wealthy corporations. See more below. 

Yesterday, Congressman Cohen joined his colleagues in urging Republican leaders to allow a vote on amendments to H.R. 1 that would protect health care and food assistance for millions of Americans. He reminded the chamber of the words in the Gospel of Matthew: “He was sick, and I healed him. He was hungry, and I fed him”—a moral appeal to preserve Medicaid, SNAP, and other lifelines the bill will gut.

Click here to watch Rep. Cohen call on House Republicans to protect health care and food assistance during unanimous consent requests on the House Floor

Despite being given less than 24 hours to review the final bill text and submit amendments, Congressman Cohen moved quickly to offer and support a series of targeted proposals aimed at protecting his constituents and mitigating some of the One Big Ugly Bill’s most egregious provisions by: 

• Making Health Coverage More Affordable — Amendment co-sponsored by Rep. Cohen to make Affordable Care Act (ACA) premium tax credits permanent, helping lower health insurance costs for working- and middle-class families who rely on the ACA marketplace.
• Taxing Billionaires Fairly — Amendment introduced by Rep. Cohen to add his Billionaires Income Tax Act to H.R. 1, requiring ultra-wealthy Americans to pay taxes annually on their full economic income. The legislation would close a massive loophole that allows billionaires to avoid paying taxes year after year and ensure vital programs like Medicaid and SNAP are properly funded.
• Protecting Medicaid Access — Amendment co-sponsored by Rep. Cohen to remove harsh new work requirements for Medicaid recipients, which would put millions at risk of losing their health coverage.
• Preserving Access to Reproductive Health Care — Amendment co-sponsored by Rep. Cohen to strike language in the bill that prohibits Medicaid from covering care at Planned Parenthood, protecting access to contraception, cancer screenings, and other vital services.
• Easing Costs for People with Disabilities — Amendment introduced by Rep. Cohen to provide a 50% tax credit for out-of-pocket expenses on mobility devices. Modeled on his Mobility Means Freedom Act, the provision would help more Americans afford essential equipment like wheelchairs, walkers, and prosthetic limbs.
• Restoring Green Housing Investments — Amendment introduced by Rep. Cohen to strike the bill’s repeal of the HUD Green and Resilient Retrofit Program (GRRP), which funds energy-efficiency upgrades to affordable housing and protects low-income residents from extreme weather.
• Defending Clean Energy — Amendment co-sponsored by Rep. Cohen to remove new taxes on wind and solar energy, which would raise costs on consumers and undermine America’s clean energy economy.
• Banning Spending at Trump Properties — Amendment introduced by Rep. Cohen to prohibit any taxpayer funds from being used at properties owned by Donald Trump, preventing public money from flowing into the president’s private business empire.
• Blocking Retrofit of Trump’s Qatari Jet — Amendment introduced by Rep. Cohen to prohibit taxpayer funds from being used to retrofit the luxury Qatari jet procured by Donald Trump into Air Force One, a conversion that could cost taxpayers up to $1 billion. 

The Republican-led Rules Committee did not allow floor debate on these amendments or any of the other nearly 500 other amendments that were filed by Democrats.

The final version of President Trump and the GOP’s One Big Ugly Bill includes deep cuts to essential programs and sweeping giveaways to the wealthy—policies that would hurt millions of Americans, including thousands in Memphis and across TN-9.

Some of the bill’s most harmful provisions would: 

• End health coverage for millions — Slashes over $1.1 trillion from Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act, resulting in at least 17 million Americans losing their insurance, according to CBO projections, including over 45,000 in Tennessee’s Ninth Congressional District. 
• Cut SNAP at historic levels — Cuts more than $190 billion from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the largest in cut in the program’s history, wiping out or reducing nutrition assistance for millions of children, seniors, veterans, and people with disabilities, including over 711,000 Tennesseans. These cuts will also impact approximately 6,700 SNAP authorized retailers who rely on customers using their SNAP benefits in these stores.
• Impose new costs on the poor — Requires Medicaid recipients earning as little as $16,000 per year to pay out-of-pocket co-pays of up to $35 for each doctor visit.
• Put hospitals and clinics at risk — Cuts funding for community health centers, nursing homes, and hospitals that rely heavily on Medicaid to serve low-income and elderly patients.
• Strip access to care from low-income communities — Defunds Planned Parenthood and decreases access to women’s health services such as contraception and other reproductive care, cancer screenings, and more, especially in low-income communities.
• Punish clean energy while rewarding big oil and gas — Imposes a death sentence for clean energy in our country by stripping tax incentives for wind and solar, imposing new taxes on clean energy projects, and redirecting climate program funds to give oil and gas companies new tax breaks and subsidies.
• Kill clean energy tax credits and raise costs — Eliminates clean energy tax credits for working- and middle-class homeowners and small businesses (e.g. rooftop solar, efficiency upgrades), phases out clean energy incentives for wind, solar, and EVs, and slashes investments in climate resilience, reversing critical sustainability gains.
• Divert national security funds to Trump’s private benefit — Allows national security funding to be used for retrofitting the luxury Qatari jet procured by Donald Trump, which some experts estimate could cost taxpayers up to $1 billion—for a plane he is unlikely to use while in office, but which could become a taxpayer-funded centerpiece of his presidential library to boost visitor traffic.
• Boost military spending while slashing social safety net programs — Hikes the Pentagon budget by $150 billion—a 15% increase—while slashing health care, nutrition assistance, and other critical services for working families.
• Give billionaires a massive inheritance tax break — Eliminates the estate tax for the wealthiest 0.2% of Americans, delivering $211 billion in tax breaks on inheritances over $30 million.
• Shower big corporations with tax breaks — Delivers $918 billion in tax breaks to large corporations, including those that ship jobs overseas or replace American workers with AI.
• Explode the national debt to benefit the wealthy — Adds $4 trillion to the federal deficit, according to the Congressional Budget Office, to finance tax breaks for billionaires, Big Oil, and multinational corporations. 

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