Senate parliamentarian deals blow to Republicans over Medicaid provisions in Trump’s megabill
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(WASHINGTON) — The Senate’s rule enforcer dealt a major blow to Senate Republicans Thursday morning by ruling a key Medicaid provision in the megabill that advances President Donald Trump’s legislative agenda is out of order.
Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough found that a provision that cracks down on states’ use of health care provider taxes to help collect additional Medicaid funding is not in keeping with the rules governing a package like the that “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” which senators are making changes to as Republicans work to meet Trump’s Fourth of July deadline for passage.
MacDonough’s ruling means that Senate Republicans will need to retool the provision or scrap it entirely if they want to move forward with attempting to pass the bill using only GOP votes.
The ruling is a major setback for Republican leadership, who are under pressure to expeditiously move it to the Senate floor to meet the July deadline. This ruling will require potentially major reworks of the bill with relatively little time to accomplish them.
(WASHINTON) — Officially titled the “One Big, Beautiful Bill Act,” this megabill fulfills a laundry list of President Donald Trump’s campaign promises from taxes to border security.
As House Republicans continue to negotiate the final details of the legislation, here’s a look at some possible ways the bill could affect everyday Americans, according to recent estimates.
Keep in mind, the Senate is likely to significantly change this bill and the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) continues to review the legislation.
Some potential impacts:
More than an estimated 8 million recipients could lose Medicaid coverage, according to a CBO analysis requested by House Democrats. Republicans say they’re targeting able-bodied adults and undocumented immigrants, but other beneficiaries could also be impacted.
Cuts SNAP food assistance by roughly $230 billion over 10 years, narrowing participation in the program servicing roughly one-in-eight Americans each month
Extends the 2017 Trump tax cuts
Fulfils Trump’s campaign promises of no taxes on tips and no taxes on overtime work
Provides $50 billion wall to renew construction of Trump’s border wall
Commits roughly $150 billion in defense spending for shipbuilding and ‘Golden Dome’ missile defense system
It’s important to note, the impacts of the bill are estimates based on early analysis by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. The estimates – and legislative text – have not been finalized.
Changes in Medicaid work requirements
Republicans say their main goal is reducing “waste, fraud, and abuse” within Medicaid, the health care program for lower income Americans and those with disabilities, in order to achieve hundreds of billions in savings over the next decade.
Early estimates requested by House Democrats put the number of people who could lose coverage at more than 8 million, but that number continues to fluctuate and the Congressional Budget Office has not yet released its final score of the GOP bill, which is not yet even finalized itself.
The bill imposes new work requirements on able-bodied Medicaid recipients aged 19-64 who don’t have dependents, which includes working at least 80 hours per month. The bill also requires states to conduct eligibility redeterminations at least every 6 months for all recipients.
The legislation also removes undocumented migrants from Medicaid eligibility (per the White House, this accounts for approximately 1.4 million undocumented migrants losing coverage provided through state Medicaid programs).
Under the bill’s current text, these work requirements don’t kick in until 2029, as President Trump leaves office. But House Republican hardliners are looking at moving that date up to 2026 or 2027 in their negotiations with leadership.
The bill also increases copays for Medicaid recipients who make more than the federal poverty limit, for single beneficiaries that’s just over $15,500. They would be required to pay an extra $35 dollar copay in some visits.
It also increases the required Medicaid paperwork for income and residency verification as lawmakers look to crack down on people who are “double-dipping” in multiple jurisdictions. These additional steps are expected to especially impact seniors and others who can’t promptly respond.
SNAP cuts
The bill tightens eligibility requirements for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), what used to be called “food stamps” program, which helped roughly 42 million low-income people per month buy groceries in 2024.
Adults aged 55-64 and children would face additional work requirements to qualify for SNAP benefits.
The bill also shifts some SNAP costs to the states. The program is currently 100% federally funded. This bill requires states to share in at least 5 percent of SNAP benefit costs starting in 2028.
The SNAP cuts total an estimated $230 billion over 10 years.
The changes could have an indirect impact on school lunch programs, requiring some previously eligible families to apply for access and impact federal reimbursement payments for some school districts.
No tax on tips and overtime pay
This addition to the bill helps Trump fulfill one of his major campaign promises — exempting workers who receive tips from paying federal income taxes on them, as long as they make less than $160,000 a year. The tax break would expire at the end of 2028, after the next presidential election, according to the proposal.
Expanding Trump tax cuts
Makes tax cuts from the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act permanent that fiscal hawks complain adds trillions of dollars to the deficit over the next decade; does not include a tax increase on the wealthiest earners. Trump posted last week that the proposal shouldn’t raise taxes on high-earners, “but I’m OK if they do!!!”
Creation of MAGA savings account for children
The bill would create so-called MAGA savings accounts for parents to open for their children. The contribution limit for any taxable year is $5,000. It includes a pilot program to start the accounts with $1,000.
Raising the SALT cap
The current bill raises the deduction limit of state and local taxes from your federal income tax filing from $10,000 to $30,000 for joint filers making less than $400,000 per year.
Republicans from states such as New York and California are pushing House Republican leadership to further increase that cap to help their constituents. Hardliners warn increasing that limit would worsen the deficit.
On the campaign trail, Trump promised to eliminate the SALT cap first imposed by the 2017 tax law he signed during his first term.
More money for border security enforcement
The legislation provides almost $50 billion to revive construction of Trump’s wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and it makes changes to immigration policy.
The bill includes $4 billion to hire an additional 3,000 new Border Patrol agents as well as 5,000 new customs officers, and $2.1 billion for signing and retention bonuses.
There’s also funds for 10,000 more Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and investigators.
It includes major changes to immigration policy, imposing a $1,000 fee on migrants seeking asylum, which has never been done before in the United States.
The bill includes a $4 trillion increase to the statutory debt limit as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent calls on Congress to act by the end of July.
(WASHINGTON) — Tens of thousands of protesters mustered in cities and towns across the country on Saturday to sound off against the Trump administration’s cuts to the federal government and its polices.
Carrying homemade posters and chanting “Hands Off,” the protesters came out to the more than 1,200 rallies nationwide despite rain in many cities, according to organizers.
Several Democratic heavyweights, including some members of Congress, joined the protests and urged the public not to stand for what they called the administration’s mismanagement and breaking with constitutional norms.
“Our founders wrote a Constitution that did not begin with ‘We the dictators,'” Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., told the crowd gathered on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.
He slammed the administration for several of its policies, including President Donald Trump’s implementing of tariffs on nearly every country.
“Their tariffs are not only imbecilic — they’re illegal, they’re unconstitutional, and we’re going to turn this around,” he said.
Paul Osadebe, a lawyer for the Department of Housing and Urban Development, spoke during the rally in Washington and said he’s been asked by the Trump administration and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency to take a buyout offer.
Osadebe, a union steward with AFGE Local 476, told the crowd the oligarchs do not “value you or your life or your community.”
“We’re seeing that they don’t care who they have to destroy or who they have to hurt to get what they want,” he said.
Rep. Maxwell Frost, D-Fla., echoed his statement with a warning that it will get worse.
“They would have us believe if we gave them all of control, everything would be OK,” he said. “But breaking news, they have the control, and look at where we are now: massive inequality across the country.”
Similar energy and rhetoric were present at other “Hands Off” protests.
“The federal administration thinks this country belongs to them — and that they’re above the law,” organizers of the Boston rally said. “They’re taking everything they can get their hands on — our rights, our health care, our data, our jobs, our services — and daring the world to stop them.”
There were no reports of any major disturbances or arrests at any of the rallies.
The White House did not have any immediate comment about the events.
(WASHINGTON) — Senators will be briefed by law enforcement on Tuesday on safety and security after the murder of a Minnesota lawmaker and her husband and the wounding of another and his wife on Saturday.
House Republicans held a conference call, which was described as “tense,” on Saturday with the House sergeant at arms and U.S. Capitol Police to discuss their concerns, multiple sources familiar with the call told ABC News. Several Republicans said on the one-hour call that they feel unsafe in their home districts and want more protection, sources said.
The key source of contention in particular was the request of police outside their homes at all times and law enforcement authorities saying they need more funding from Congress to provide that.
Senators will be briefed by the Senate sergeant at arms and Capitol Police on Tuesday morning, two sources familiar told ABC News, after it was requested by Majority Leader John Thune and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.
House Democrats are expected to have a similar call in the coming days. Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said in a statement Saturday that he asked the sergeant at arms and Capitol Police to “ensure the safety” of the Minnesota delegation and members of Congress “across the country.”
While House and Senate leadership are provided with a security detail, rank-and-file members are not routinely protected unless there is a specific threat.
Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar told ABC News’ “This Week” on Sunday that political violence is a “rampant problem.” Fellow Minnesota Sen. Tina Smith told NBC News on Sunday, “I don’t want to think that I have to a personal security detail everywhere I go, but I think we really have to look at the situation that we’re in.
“This is no way for our government to work when people, any number of us, feel this kind of threat,” she said.
Rep. Jared Moskowitz said he might force a vote on a “secret session” in the House to discuss security and so that “members can handle this ourselves.”
Vance Boelter, 57, faces multiple federal charges in the killing of Democratic Minnesota state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, and wounding Democratic state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, in “political assassinations,” acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Minnesota Joseph Thompson said Monday.
In a 20-page affidavit, prosecutors outlined how they say Boelter “embarked on a planned campaign of stalking and violence, designed to inflict fear, injure and kill members of the Minnesota state legislature and their families.” He allegedly had firearms and a list of 45 elected officials, “mostly or all Democrats,” according to prosecutors. Authorities say Boelter traveled to the homes of at least four public officials during the early morning hours of Saturday before the killings.
The number of threats and “concerning statements” against members of Congress, their families and staffs has risen for the past two years, according to Capitol Police, which pointed out that threats tend to increase during election years. The Capitol Police’s Threat Assessment Section investigated 9,474 threats and statements in 2024 and 8,008. It investigated 3,939 cases in 2017.
ABC News’ Isabella Murray contributed to this report.
