ALBANY, N.Y. (NEXSTAR) — The U.S. House of Representatives passed the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” by a slim 215-214 margin on Thursday, dividing New York over its impact on health care, food assistance, and tax policy. Contrasting reactions from state officials and public welfare advocates concerned the cuts to safety net programs and an increased State and Local Tax deduction.

New York’s Democratic leaders and several advocacy groups, labor unions, and charity organizations condemned cuts to social services. According to Governor Kathy Hochul, New York Republicans in Congress “caved to the billionaire class at the expense of the constituents they serve” by approving the budget. She said the legislation “tore up SNAP benefits, slashed funding for affordable housing, killed clean energy projects, and enacted the largest Medicaid cut in history.”

To take Hochul’s first example, opponents raised the alarms because of the impact on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. SNAP feeds low-income families, with nearly 3 million New Yorkers receiving benefits in January 2025, totaling $655.9 million that month. The bill—available to read at the bottom of this story—would slash over $290 billion from the program.

The Alliance for a Hunger Free New York posited that the cuts would force the state government to cover up to 25% of benefit costs and 75% of administrative costs. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimated that New York would be on the hook because of that shift for costs ranging from $366 million to $1.828 billion come 2028, depending on the state’s payment error rate. New York’s 2023 SNAP error rate was 12.68%.

Director of No Kid Hungry New York Rachel Sabella said that approving the budget bill represented “a vote to increase childhood hunger.” She added that the cuts would increase “red tape and bureaucracy for working families” and force an “unprecedented and impossible cost burden onto states.”

Hochul’s office had estimated that the bill would lose New Yorkers over $13 billion per year, with almost 1.5 million losing health insurance through the Essential Plan or Medicaid. The Essential Plan is an Affordable Care Act-funded program insuring 1.6 million New Yorkers who earn under 250% of the federal poverty line.

The Fiscal Policy Institute reported that the budget could end up cutting the Essential Plan by $7.6 billion, or 57%. The shift would force 506,000 Essential Plan enrollees, who are lawfully present immigrants, into completely state-funded Medicaid, costing New York an estimated $2.7 billion.

The Fiscal Policy Institute also estimated that a $10 billion reduction in federal Medicaid funding would see 78,000 health care jobs disappear across New York, and over 136,000 more jobs lost through knock-on economic effects, totaling over 215,000 jobs statewide. New York City alone stands to lose over $5.4 billion in federal Medicaid funding, causing about 116,000 job losses. For instance, they found that Rep. Nicole Malliotakis’ 11th district could lose 8,426 jobs, while Rep. Mike Lawler’s 17th district could lose 5,316, and Rep. Elise Stefanik’s 21st could lose 5,785.

On Friday, New York City Comptroller Brad Lander—a Democratic candidate for New York City mayor—challenged Malliotakis—a Republican and member of the SALT caucus representing Staten Island and Brooklyn—to defend her vote for the budget. He argued that the bill strips health care from over 134,000 New Yorkers, including almost 10,000 in Malliotakis’ district. He added that, all told, NYC congressional districts stand to lose $4.5 billion in Essential Plan funding, and that NYC hospitals could lose $916 million more in reduced compensation.

Many of the over 4 million working families in NYC who rely on Medicaid will lose coverage, according to Lander. Statewide, according to New York State Comptroller Thomas Dinapoli, that figure grows to 6.9 million. That’s 35% of New Yorkers as of February 2025.

Upper Hudson Planned Parenthood, which serves 16,000 people annually, noted that almost 45% of their patients rely on Medicaid. The Community Health Care Association of New York State also pointed out that one in eight New Yorkers depends on a local community health center, with over 60% covered by Medicaid.

In March, Lawler appeared on Fox Business, denying that any cuts to Medicaid or SNAP would be in the final bill. He also said, “I will not cut Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid,” a position he reiterated in acrimonious Twitter exchanges with New York’s Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia.

But according to the New York State Democratic Committee, Lawler “broke at least six promises he made New Yorkers because Donald Trump told him to,” including vowing not to cut Medicaid and SNAP. They also alleged that Lawler “voiced opposition to defunding Planned Parenthood, which was included in the bill he just voted for.”

Hochul also criticized the bill’s approach to the cap on SALT deductions, calling it “pathetic.” But Republican House members from New York praised the bill, particularly that higher cap. SALT lets taxpayers subtract certain state and local taxes from their federal taxable income. The 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act previously capped this deduction at $10,000. The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” raises it to $40,000 for households earning under $500,000. Both the cap and the income threshold would increase by 1% every year.

The SALT caucus, a group of representatives advocating for the higher deduction, includes New York Republicans Malliotakis, Lawler, Stefanik, Nick LaLota, and Andrew Garbarino, along with Tom Kean Jr. of New Jersey and Young Kim of California. Earlier in May, they issued a joint statement rejecting an “insulting” proposed $30,000 SALT deduction cap.

Now that the bill passed in the House, LaLota, who represents the 1st congressional district, called it a “significant win for Long Island taxpayers.” He said the quadrupled SALT cap would save many Suffolk County families as much as $8,000 on their 2026 federal tax returns, making 92% of his constituents “whole.”

According to Lawler—who may run against Hochul for governor—the bill “extends key 2017 tax cuts, puts more money back in the pockets of hardworking New Yorkers, and supports small businesses.” He argued that 93% of middle-class families in the Hudson Valley earning below $300,000 will be able to fully deduct their state and local taxes. Lawler also previously introduced the SALT Fairness and Marriage Penalty Elimination Act to increase the deduction cap to $100,000 for single filers and $200,000 for married couples.

Cait Conley and John Sullivan, Democrats campaigning to unseat Lawler, both criticized his vote, with Sullivan stating the bill “will throw nearly 1 million off of Medicaid in New York state.”

Stefanik, House Republican Leadership Chair and another potential gubernatorial candidate, said she was “proud to be the deciding vote to pass the One Big Beautiful Bill, a historic victory for New Yorkers and President Trump’s America First agenda.” She called the 300% increase in the SALT cap a “win for hardworking families struggling under the weight of the highest tax burden in the nation.” She also said the bill protects Medicaid for U.S. citizens by “removing 1.4 million illegals.”

Ultimately, as told by New York State Democratic Committee spokesperson Addison Dick, Lawler and Stefanik “gutted Medicaid for two million New Yorkers and sold out their own constituents to appease Donald Trump.”

Debate over SALT was contentious even within the slim Republican majority. In the days leading up to the vote, President Donald Trump reportedly expressed impatience with the SALT caucus, urging them to back off their demands for a higher cap. Lawler tweeted that day, “While I respect President Trump and understand the importance of passing this legislation, I will not do so at the expense of my district.”

In a public statement, Trump’s Office of Management and Budget said, “The Administration strongly supports passage of H.R. 1, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” claiming it “delivers bigger paychecks for Americans” and “will protect Medicaid and SNAP for the Americans that depend on them” through “commonsense work requirements for able-bodied adults” and focused benefits for citizens only.

The OMB statement warned that failure to pass the bill “would be the ultimate betrayal” of President Trump’s promises.

The bill includes other changes, too. For example, Stefanik said the bill permanently enshrines Trump’s border security measures, modernizes air traffic control, and ends taxpayer-funded sex changes for minors.

The Congressional Budget Office estimated that the bill will increase the deficit by $3.8 trillion. And according to state figures from DiNapoli, federal dollars represent over $90 billion of the state’s total revenues, over 38%.

The bill now heads to the Senate. After it passed in the House, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said that Republicans were “stealing from hungry kids, stealing from low-income families, to give trillions in tax giveaways to the wealthy.”

Schumer argued that the bill endangers 700,000 jobs by gutting clean energy tax credits and letting polluters release toxic chemicals. He also claimed the bill includes a “clean job kill switch” that requires projects to break ground within 60 days to receive tax credits.

You can take a look at the full text of the bill—over 1,000 pages long—below:

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