IFPTE Requests Congress Reject Budget Resolution that Targets Medicaid Benefits, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance, and Federal Worker Benefits to Fund Tax Cuts for the Wealthiest
IFPTE sent a letter to all Members of the House of Representatives urging them to vote no on the Fiscal Year 2025 budget resolution which is likely to lead to draconian cuts to Medicaid, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and to federal employee compensation.
The letter notes that, similar to the previous Budget Resolution that the House passed in late February, this bill sends instructions to various House Committees to recommend spending cuts as part of a "budget reconciliation bill that is “expected to include a permanent extension of the 2017 Trump tax cuts for corporations and the ultra-wealthy…. Financing these permanent tax cuts through spending cuts to Medicaid, SNAP, and federal employee benefits will hurt working families, low-income households, and the workforce that provides so many critical services and performs valuable functions for the American people.”
The House Budget Resolution is a bill that sends instructions to various Congressional committees to find budget cuts and dollar-amount targets for each committee. The House Budget Committees will then assemble a Budget Reconciliation bill, which is a bill that is solely meant to change revenue and spending levels and not enact other policies. Unlike other legislation, a Budget Reconciliation bill only requires a simple majority to advance to a Senate vote, and the Senate’s 60-vote threshold for advancing bills does not apply to Budget Reconciliation bills.
This Budget Resolution instructs: 1) the House Energy and Commerce Committee to recommend $880 billion in cuts, which may include massive cuts to Medicaid; 2) the House Agriculture Committee to recommend $230 billion in cuts, which may mean cuts to SNAP benefits; and, 3) the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee to cut $50 billion, which would come from federal employee benefits.
IFPTE’s strong opposition to this Budget Resolution is based on proposed cuts to Medicaid, which provides healthcare coverage to our most vulnerable citizens as a federally funded program that is administered at the state level and the leading source of federal dollars for state government. Proposals that are expected to be considered for inclusion in a Budget Reconciliation bill include provisions to institute per capita caps, turn Medicaid into a block grant program, and/or cut the 90% federal matching level for Medicaid expansion. All of these proposals would “force state governments to make difficult choices on how to fill Medicaid spending gaps by cutting spending on other priority services, but it would also result in unanticipated increases in healthcare costs and will leave hospitals, clinics, and the community health systems without a key pillar of funding.”
IFPTE is also opposed to any changes to federal employee compensation that this Budget Resolution allows to be considered for a Budget Reconciliation bill. That includes proposals “setting federal employee retirement contributions at 4.4% of pay without any added benefit increase; eliminating FERS cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) for current and future retirees, which will erode the value of benefits over time and undermine retirees' economic security; eliminating the FERS annuity supplement, which will harm workers retiring before Social Security eligibility, including those in jobs with lower mandatory retirement ages; changing retirement annuity calculations from the highest three years of salary to the highest five years, which could cost workers thousands annually and disrupt retirement planning; and reducing the TSP G Fund interest rate, which would harm investments in U.S. treasury securities, discourage G Fund participation, and undermine fiduciary responsibilities.” IFPTE also opposes changes to the “Federal Employee Health Benefits program (FEHB) that would increase employee contributions by converting federal health benefits to a voucher system.”
IFPTE’s letter also notes that “cuts under consideration to SNAP would put millions of children, parents, seniors, and disabled people at risk of hunger, “leaving 1 in 5 children in America and 40 million people served by SNAP vulnerable to food insecurity. SNAP benefits are also support economic growth, as “$1 billion in new SNAP benefits leads to an increase of $1.54 billion in the Gross Domestic Product,” according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The message from IFPTE to Representatives concludes, that the “budget resolution and the budget reconciliation bill that will follow it will force the neediest among us who rely on Medicaid and SNAP benefits, and working Americans employed by the federal government, to pay for a tax giveaway to those who need it least. This budget resolution is also a tremendous, missed opportunity to propose a fair taxation policy that can fund necessary government services and help lower the record-high federal deficit.”