The United States has reached a historic moment of wealth inequality. Corporations and the ultra-wealthy influence policy, while vast swaths of the country live paycheck to paycheck. And right now, Congress is advancing a bill that would codify Trump’s billionaire agenda, causing one of the largest wealth transfers from working families to the wealthy in U.S. history.

Trump calls it “One Big, Beautiful Bill,” but it may be the ugliest legislation we’ve ever seen. It would cause the largest transfer of wealth from working and middle-class families to the corporate elite of any law in US history. Last month, it passed the House of Representatives by one vote, with no Democratic support, bringing it closer to becoming law. 

The House bill is chock-full of good-for-billionaires, bad-for-us policies. It extends and expands Trump’s 2017 tax cuts for corporations and the country’s wealthiest. And to help pay for them, funding for healthcare and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) food assistance is on the chopping block. Moreover, it proposes to hand more of our tax dollars to dirty energy corporations that already fleece us for billions. 

In passing this bill, House Republicans have sent a clear message: “Be rich, or go without.” We can and must work to stop this bill.

How Is Congress Passing This Bill?

Congressional Republicans are using the budget reconciliation process to fast-track this legislation. It’s available once a fiscal year for certain fiscal-related measures. And while most laws require votes from 60 out of 100 Senators to pass because of the filibuster, a reconciliation bill requires a simple majority, 51 out of 100. This makes it easier to pass now without Democrats’ support.

The House and Senate have passed a resolution with top-line budget levels, and House committees have written the bill language to detail the parts of the bill they have authority over. (For example, the Committee on Agriculture has authority over the SNAP program.) These pieces were all compiled into one big, ugly bill. 

The House passed their bill during a middle-of-the-night voting session by a single vote — something you only would do with a very unpopular bill. Now, the Senate is considering the House bill, and it will likely make major revisions.

What are the next steps? Senate Committees will mark up their pieces of the bill that will be sent to the Senate floor for a vote. After Senators pass the amended bill, the House will either 1) vote on the amended bill and accept the Senate changes or 2) the House and Senate will enter backroom dealing to work out the differences. Then, both chambers will vote on the updated bill. 

Only after the same version of the budget reconciliation bill passes both Chambers of Congress can Trump sign it into law. 

While the recent House vote was a major blow to working and middle-class families, we still have time to stop this bill. In the weeks ahead, we’ll be working relentlessly to demand that lawmakers reject it, as Congressional Republicans aim to pass it by July 4.

What Does This Mean for Families and Farmers?

The backers of this bill are pushing a world where a few billionaires and corporations hoard more wealth and power for themselves, while slashing the safety net for the rest of us. 

They’re taking away essential programs that many of us depend on to survive and thrive. Food and healthcare for millions amongst our country’s most vulnerable populations are especially at stake.

The House budget bill includes:

• More wealth for the wealthy, lower incomes for the poorest. The tax changes in the House budget bill will, on average, take $700 a year away from households making less than $51,000 and $1,000 from those making less than $17,000. Meanwhile, the top 0.1% of households (making $4.3 million or more) will gain $389,000. 
• Slashing healthcare for millions. The bill will cut at least $800 billion from healthcare programs and $300 billion from SNAP food assistance to pay for $1.1 trillion in tax breaks for the top 2%. At least 10 million would lose access to Medicaid, which provides affordable healthcare to low-income adults and children. Worse, the bill’s proposed budget deficit could trigger hundreds of billions of dollars more of cuts to Medicare for seniors.
• Taking food away from children. The House budget bill could take food assistance away from nearly 11 million people, including more than 4 million children. 
• Putting farms at risk of shutting down. SNAP not only feeds families; it’s also a direct customer for many of the nation’s farmers. SNAP cuts of this size will cost farmers around $30 billion in lost income and imperil 400,000 jobs.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Food & Water Watch (@foodandwaterwatch)

What Does This Mean for the Planet?

Already, many of us are choking on dirty energy pollution, and power bills are becoming increasingly unaffordable. But rather than usher in clean, affordable, reliable renewables, this bill’s backers are chaining us to even more dirty energy. Our reliance on fossil fuels makes us sicker and poorer, period — meanwhile, Big Oil and Gas continue to profit. 

If passed, the House budget bill would:

• Throw free money to Big Oil’s climate scams. Big Oil touts carbon capture, hydrogen, and so-called “biofuels” as “clean.” But they really just give corporations license to continue drilling and polluting. The House bill preserves lucrative tax breaks for these scams (including one program rife with fraud) and introduces new ones. 
• Allow Big Oil and Gas to pay to pollute. The bill would allow pipeline companies to pay to fast-track the permitting process. This fee is chump change to many of the biggest corporations — and it will allow them to put more dangerous pipelines in the ground, faster.
• Open the door for expensive liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports. The Department of Energy itself found that expanding these exports will raise energy prices for us at home. Yet, Congressional Republicans are determined to do so anyway. The House wants to let LNG exporters pay a fee to clear a key regulatory hurdle. 
• End support for renewable energy. The Inflation Reduction Act included massive funding for cheaper, healthier renewable energy. Yet, the House bill will eliminate much of this funding, further jeopardizing our livable future.

How Can We Stop This Bill?

Our advocacy has already made a difference. Since day one of the budget reconciliation process, Food & Water Watch volunteers and supporters have rallied together to oppose it. 

We’ve come together to drive more than 28,000 calls and emails, rally dozens of times, and meet with lawmakers and their staffers. We’ve organized a letter signed by more than 500 healthcare professionals nationwide opposing this bill because of its harms to health. And, we’ve spoken out in newspapers and on social media, calling on lawmakers to change course.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Food & Water Watch (@foodandwaterwatch)

All this action made a huge difference! While it’s still terrible, we stopped several really harmful proposals in the House-approved bill. Notably, we:

• Defeated an attack on nonprofits and free speech that would have threatened our and our allies’ work by allowing Trump to punish his political enemies;
• Stopped cuts to school lunches and to local government financing for safe, affordable water;
• Stopped the REINS Act, which would have rolled back many protections and required more Congressional oversight over major agency regulations. This would have hamstrung agencies’ ability to protect our food and water;
• Defended public lands, as the House bill dropped proposals to sell off public land in Nevada and Utah to pay for tax cuts for the country’s wealthiest; and
• Defended communities against dangerous carbon dioxide, hydrogen, and oil pipelines. We stopped a provision that would have prevented state and local governments from protecting public safety from these pipelines, and another that would have allowed companies to simply pay a fee for approvals of cross-border pipelines.

Will You Join Us?

These wins show the power of our collective efforts and what’s possible if we keep up the fight. Every phone call, every email, every action makes a difference.

Our focus now turns to the Senate to ensure the bad provisions aren’t added back in. We’re also working to defeat other horrible measures that take food away from families and fast-track gas pipelines. 

As Congress moves the reconciliation bill forward, Food & Water Watch is ramping up the pressure on lawmakers to oppose it. Together, we have an opportunity to stop this bill in the Senate and push Congressmembers to stand up for us as we approach a final vote.

We need all hands on deck. Trump’s big, ugly bill would be a disaster for everyone in the United States except for a small group of the ultra-wealthy and the country’s biggest corporations. 

But we know we can make a difference and combat this agenda with people power. Food & Water Watch volunteers, members, and supporters will be rallying and calling nonstop in the coming weeks and putting everything we have into this fight. 

Every voice counts — can we count on yours?