News & Insights

details-banner

Congress Passes Final Budget Bill to Make America “Hungrier, Sicker, and Poorer”

WASHINGTON (July 3, 2025) The Alliance to End Hunger is dismayed by the final passage of H.R. 1, the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” (OBBB). The final reconciliation bill, passed in the House of Representatives on Thursday, ushers in the largest ever cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), as well as unconscionable cuts to Medicaid. Together, provisions in the bill will make it harder for hungry people and families to get food, and families facing health issues to get healthcare.

The final bill requires states to pay a portion of benefits and additional administrative costs, disproportionally impacting food insecure people and families who live in states struggling with tight budgets and higher poverty rates. Further, adding this burden to states will impede the program’s current flexibility to react to economic downturns and shocks. Carveouts to these provisions were cynically made for select states including Alaska in order to garner votes for passage in the Senate, providing an admission that the cost share provisions are bad for states and food insecure people.

The proposed legislation also restricts the US Department of Agriculture from making needed adjustments to the Thrifty Food Plan – the baseline calculation used to set benefit levels for SNAP. Such restrictions would hinder attempts to update the calculation in line with changes in diet and the cost of nutritious foods at a time when the current administration is voicing support to “make America healthy again.”

Additionally, OBBB increases work requirements for older Americans and parents of children as young as 10 who cannot reasonably stay at home alone. States are also restricted in their ability to request work requirement waivers in communities and regions facing economic hardship. Finally, the final version adds burdensome administrative and paperwork requirements for hungry veterans and their families, people struggling with homelessness, and young people who currently are or recently have been in foster care.

On top of the cuts and devastating provisions for SNAP, the final bill cuts $1 trillion from Medicaid. Together with changes to the Affordable Care Act, the bill could lead to up to 17 million people losing health coverage and devastate many hospitals that treat people in under-resourced rural communities. Together with the cuts to SNAP, more vulnerable families will find themselves choosing between buying nutritious food and paying medical bills.

“This bill does nothing to address the root causes of hunger in America,” stated Eric Mitchell, president of the Alliance to End Hunger. “In fact, this legislation will make America hungrier, sicker, and poorer. We can’t continue to pay lip service to making America ‘healthy’ and ‘great.’ We need policies to move us down the path to ending hunger. This bill will in fact lead us in the opposite direction. The Alliance to End Hunger will do everything in its power to make up for the inconceivable damage done to people and families who are already struggling to get by on a daily basis.”

Explore More News

Senate Agriculture Committee Budget Mirrors House Proposal to Cut Food Assistance, Raising Prospect of Increasing Hunger and Undernutrition

WASHINGTON (June 12, 2025) The U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee has released its bill...
Learn More

House of Representatives Passes Bill Devastating to SNAP and Those in Need of Food Assistance

WASHINGTON (May 22, 2025) The House of Representatives has passed legislation that severely...
Learn More

House of Representatives Agriculture Committee Budget Proposal Would Increase Hunger, Hurt Local Economies

WASHINGTON (May 13, 2025) The following statement can be attributed to Eric Mitchell,...
Learn More