At its core, this legislation is a $5 trillion giveaway to the ultra-wealthy and well-connected. It makes permanent Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, lavishes new breaks on billionaires and corporations, and explodes the national deficit—all while slashing healthcare, housing, food assistance, education, clean energy jobs, and public safety programs.

In New Mexico, the consequences would be catastrophic.

Healthcare:
This bill includes the largest Medicaid cut in U.S. history. It will strip health coverage from 17 million Americans nationwide, including nearly 112,000 people here in New Mexico’s 1st Congressional District. It jeopardizes coverage for the more than 840,000 New Mexicans who rely on Medicaid. Do not be fooled, the vast majority of people enrolled in Medicaid are working – these work requirements are nothing more than onerous paperwork burdens designed to make people give up and go without coverage. The bill slashes Medicare by over half a trillion dollars, and puts 15 of our rural hospitals at risk of closure. On average, it will raise ACA premiums in my district by more than $1,160 per year.

Food Assistance:
It guts the SNAP program, cutting off food assistance for millions—including at least 55,000 New Mexicans. One in four children in our state already faces hunger; this bill would only deepen that crisis. It also rolls back school meals, increases paperwork for families, and forces states to shoulder costs they can’t afford.

Affordable Housing and Homeless Services:
The bill eliminates critical funding for affordable housing and homelessness programs. Every year, the City of Albuquerque receives over $6 million through the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG), the HOME Investment Partnership Program, and the Emergency Solutions Grant program. That money supports eviction prevention, affordable housing construction, rental assistance, and staffing for community development teams. Now that this bill is law, hundreds of families could lose housing support, city workers could lose their jobs, and vital services could disappear overnight.

As Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller put it, “This bill is big and dangerous, but it’s certainly not beautiful.”

Climate and Clean Energy:
It dismantles clean energy programs and kills over 4,600 clean energy jobs in New Mexico’s 1st Congressional District. It raises household utility bills by an average of $520 per year, eliminates environmental protections, and opens our public lands to oil, gas, and coal giveaways—including massive oil expansions in New Mexico.

Education:
The bill will make it harder for working families to pay for higher education. The bill ends graduate PLUS student loans, restricts Pell Grants, and pushes public money into private school vouchers. Arbitrary caps on loan amounts will puts college and graduate school out of reach for more than 28,000 New Mexico students. Let’s be clear, college is too expensive across the country, but the way to address that is by bringing the costs down, not capping the amount of loans families can take out to send their kids to school. It also slashes funding for childcare and adoption services—programs New Mexicans depend on every day.

And for what?

To fund tax cuts for the ultra-rich. To expand Trump’s border wall and deportation machine. To pour money into weapons, surveillance, and nuclear arsenals, while stripping working people of the basics: healthcare, housing, food, education, and safety. It’s un-American. It’s immoral. And it’s a betrayal of everything we claim to value as a country.

When Democrats held the House majority, we expanded Medicaid, passed the largest investment in clean energy in U.S. history, cut child poverty nearly in half, and invested in affordable housing and jobs. This bill undoes all of that progress and more.

The Republicans who voted for this legislation should feel ashamed. I voted HELL NO because I believe we owe working families more than platitudes—we owe them protection, support, and dignity.

When will this take effect?

I want to be clear: most of these changes will not happen overnight. They will happen slowly over the next couple of years and will take effect on different dates. We cannot stop paying attention! Below, is a list of important dates to remember if you believe you will be affected by this bill:

Upon enactment: New work requirements on SNAP benefits
November 1, 2025: Open enrollment for ACA Marketplace begins with higher premiums due to expiration of enhanced premium tax credits
January 1, 2026: Start of new coverage year for ACA Marketplace health insurance plans, with new restrictions and higher costs
January 2026: Medicare, higher student loan fees, and other mandatory program cuts begin
July 1, 2026: New borrowing caps and elimination of certain repayment plan options for federal student loans
January 1, 2027: Deadline for most states to implement new Medicaid work requirements
October 1, 2027: Tightening of cap on Medicaid provider taxes begins, and new state cost-share requirement for SNAP begins
July 1, 2028: Deadline for current student loan borrowers to change out of eliminated income-based payment plans
October 1, 2028: New out-of-pocket costs up to $35 per service for Medicaid expansion adults
December 31, 2028: Expiration of temporary tax provisions for tips, overtime, seniors, and car loan interest while tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations remain permanent