JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
President Trump's sweeping domestic policy bill passed the Senate. It's now being considered in the House. It would cut trillions of dollars in taxes, mostly for the well off. To help offset that, it would also make the biggest cuts to the social safety net in decades to things like food aid. NPR's Jennifer Ludden is here to walk us through the latest. Hi there.
JENNIFER LUDDEN, BYLINE: Hi, Juana.
SUMMERS: Jennifer, NPR has reported a lot on changes to Medicaid, which provides health care for some 70 million low-income, elderly and disabled Americans. And scaling it back has been controversial, even among congressional Republicans. Can you just briefly explain to us what's included in the Senate bill?
LUDDEN: Right, and with a reminder, as you said, lawmakers in both chambers still have to agree on one version. But the Senate version would cut Medicaid spending even more than the House had by about a trillion dollars. Now, it's mainly through a new requirement that people would have to work at least 80 hours a month, unless they're exempt. And overall, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office says this package could cause nearly 12 million people to lose health insurance over the next decade.
SUMMERS: Which is, of course, a lot of people - I want to turn to some of the safety net cuts that haven't gotten as much attention, like food benefits. Tell us what could happen there.
LUDDEN: Yes, yes. So more than 40 million people get food stamps as they're known, or SNAP - it's the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. It would lose 20% of its funding, and that's the largest cut in its history. Now, this is also partly from a change to its existing work requirement. The Senate bill bumps up the age people have to work by a decade, until age 65. And parents who used to be exempt would now have to work if their kids were 14 or older. Now, as with Medicaid, one concern is that people would run into red tape trying to prove they're working. The CBO estimates this change could push more than 2 million people off food aid.
Now, a couple more things for food aid - the spending package makes it harder for states to waive these work requirements, and conservatives have long argued that it's just too easy. You've got entire states where they're waived. The Senate bill says you could only get a waiver if you live in a place with an unemployment rate above 10% - so quite high. And finally, for the first time, the federal government would not pay for all food aid. Most states would have to chip in.
SUMMERS: Which sounds to me like a really big change for states, so how would that work?
LUDDEN: Yeah, it's tied to how much states have over or underpaid for SNAP. Researchers say these error rates are mostly unintentional, but it would mean that most states would now have to pick up between 5- and 15% of food aid costs. Katie Bergh at the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities says this undermines the whole guarantee that people in need should get food aid no matter where they live. And she says if states faced a budget crunch, they might shrink their SNAP program or even opt out altogether.
KATIE BERGH: So this is really a proposal that fundamentally changes the structure of SNAP, jeopardizes food assistance for millions of low-income families and could end SNAP as a nationwide program.
SUMMERS: Jennifer, I want to ask you about something that got quite a bit of attention for reducing poverty temporarily during the coronavirus pandemic, which is the federal child tax credit. Any big changes there?
LUDDEN: Yes, though not as big as some were calling for during the 2024 election, including now Vice President JD Vance. The Senate bill does boost the tax credit from $2,000 per child to 2,200, and that would rise with inflation. But unlike during the pandemic, lawmakers did not expand this to include the lowest income families, and currently, they don't qualify for that full credit because they just don't earn enough. Now, Sophie Collyer is with the Center on Poverty and Social Policy at Columbia University, and she says for her, this really reflects the overall tilt of this tax and spending package in favor of the wealthy.
SOPHIE COLLYER: Even this small provision that is kind of meant to help families is not reaching the children and families where it could do the most good - where that $200 actually could be more meaningful.
SUMMERS: Jennifer, I'll let you have the last word here. Anything else we should note?
LUDDEN: Yes. Another key change to the child tax credit - at least one parent now would need a Social Security number. And Collyer says, by one estimate, that could disqualify 2.6 million children who are U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents. And I should just add, there are provisions in the package that would also cut federal health care and food benefits for some immigrants with legal status.
SUMMERS: NPR's Jennifer Ludden. Thank you.
LUDDEN: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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