Texas Republicans helped push through Congress a domestic policy megabill that cuts funding for Medicaid and food stamps. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Democrats criticized the ‘One Big Beautiful Bill Act’ for decimating ‘lifelines for working families.’ Trump’s budget bill includes $12 billion that could reimburse Texas for militarizing its border with Mexico.
All 25 Republicans representing Texas in the US House voted early Thursday for a domestic policy megabill that cuts spending on healthcare and food stamps to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy, and hundreds of billions of dollars in new spending for the military and border security.
The budget bill — a priority of President Donald Trump and GOP lawmakers — passed 215-214. While Texas Republicans voted for the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” the state’s 12 Democratic House members voted against it. One Texas House seat — the predominantly Democratic 18th Congressional District in Houston — remains vacant.
The bill now moves to the Senate.
The measure cuts nearly $700 billion from Medicaid and another $300 billion from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), a low-income food assistance program. Some 13.7 million people would lose healthcare — through Medicaid or the Affordable Care Act — by 2034, including nearly 1.3 million Texans, according to a Congressional estimate. The cuts to SNAP are made by shifting costs back to states, which could cost Texas about $1 billion. Nearly 3.2 million people receive SNAP benefits in Texas.
US Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Dallas) said the bill will hurt the 130,000 people in her district that rely on Medicaid and 115,000 people who use food assistance benefits to help feed their families.
“Let me be clear: these programs are lifelines for millions of working families — the same folks Republicans were elected to represent,” Crockett said in a prepared statement.
“This isn’t about fiscal responsibility. It’s about taking from the folks who have the least to give more to those who already have the most,” she added.
US Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Austin) criticized the legislation for undermining public schools with a $20 billion federal school voucher plan — pushed by Sen. Ted Cruz and other Republicans — reducing food assistance, repealing renewable energy credits, and making cuts to healthcare programs.
“Our national debt, soaring by trillions from Republicans who talk fiscal responsibility but serve their cult leader, the deficit hawks have become chicken hawks tonight in submission to Trump, the self-described king of debt,” Doggett said during House floor debate on the bill. “All to reward billionaires with even more tax breaks.”
Texas Republicans played key roles in shaping the legislation and its narrow approval by the House.
US Rep. Chip Roy (R-Austin) helped lead a GOP revolt against the bill with other members of the House Freedom Caucus, a far-right group of Republicans. He demanded that the legislation speed up the phase out of clean energy tax credits, more severely cut Medicaid, and move up the start date of new Medicaid work requirements.
Despite Roy’s concerns about the bill ballooning the federal deficit, he also successfully pushed for it to include $12 billion to reimburse states for border spending. Sen. John Cornyn and other Texas lawmakers, along with Gov. Greg Abbott, want the federal government to reimburse Texas for the $11 billion Abbott has spent on Operation Lone Star. Abbott launched the effort in 2021 to militarize the border in an effort to stem the flow of drugs and migrants across the border.
The budget bill requires the Homeland Security Secretary to create a grant program to reimburse states like Texas, according to the Texas Tribune.
“My budget hawk colleagues and I, including many in the House Freedom Caucus, forced reforms that were critical to making the bill more responsible,” Roy said in a statement after the vote.
Roy sits on the powerful House Budget Committee, chaired by fellow Texan Rep. Jodey Arrington (R-Lubbock). Arrington helped address the concerns from Roy and other right-wing Republicans and pushed the bill through his committee earlier in the week.
“This bill was rushed, mashed together, and crammed through the House without sufficient time to review every item carefully. We should do better,” Roy said.
After the full House vote, though, Roy threatened to oppose the measure when it’s returned from the Senate. He doesn’t want the bill to increase the federal deficit over the next five years — even if the massive cuts to federal safety net programs balance out the cost of the bill over 10 years.
“I think the 10-year window is bullshit. So that’s why I’m still not happy with the bill,” Roy said, according to Politico. “I’ll go ahead and draw one of my red lines.”
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