Last Updated July 3 at 9:45 AM ET
Note: This resource is based on a rapidly evolving situation and will be updated as we receive more information.
UPDATE from July 3, 2025:
Last night, the House started a vote on the rule to open debate around 9:30 pm ET. Initially, the rule did not have enough votes to pass, but vote was held open for five hours in order to get some Members of Congress to change their vote. The rule passed 219-213, and the bill could move forward for a full floor vote. The only Republican member of Congress to vote no was Representative Brian Fitzpatrick from Pennsylvania, the Chair of the Bi-Partisan Disabilities Caucus.
The House floor is currently debating the Senate-passed version with no changes. Majority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has been speaking for more than four hours reading stories about the importance of Medicaid from all 50 states. There is still time to contact your Representatives to ask them to oppose this bill and to protect Medicaid and SNAP.
UPDATE from July 2, 2025 at 7:53PM:
Current State of Play: Speaker Johnson brought the House to the floor today to vote on the rule to debate and the budget reconciliation text from the Senate, but the Republican leadership is short of the votes needed to pass the rule for debate. The House floor has been frozen since the vote began around 2:00 pm ET as the leadership tries to have conversations to sway Members of Congress who have not decided how they will vote yet. This means that the bill is stalled.
The content of the bill is still the same as what was in the Senate bill. It is critical that you contact your Representatives to ask them to oppose this bill and to protect Medicaid and SNAP.
UPDATE from July 2, 2025:
Current State of Play: Early Wednesday morning, the House Rules Committee advanced the budget reconciliation bill after 12 hours of debate. The House Rules Committee plays an important role in determining how a bill will be considered on the floor. The committee can set time limits for debate, restrict or allow amendments, and even determine how certain amendments will be handled.
There were no changes to the Senate’s version of the budget reconciliation bill in the House Rules Committee. The content of the bill remains the same as described in the update from July 1st update. The House is set to convene Wednesday morning and start voting on the rules to advance the legislation.
UPDATE from July 1, 2025:
Current State of Play: The Senate passed its version of the budget reconciliation bill on July 1st, with Vice President Vance casting a tie-breaking vote. This bill must still pass the House in order to be final. Contact your Representatives to ask them to oppose this bill and to protect Medicaid and SNAP.
The Senate budget reconciliation bill makes the largest cuts to Medicaid in history, almost $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts. This is about 20% of the federal Medicaid budget and would cause 17 million people to lose access to healthcare. The bill also contains nearly $200 billion in cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Four out of five households that receive SNAP benefits include a person with a disability. If passed by the House, these cuts will mean that disabled people and our families will go hungry.
Throughout the Vote-A-Rama process, amendments were passed that changed what was in the original bill. Some parts of the bill were also taken out because they violated rules about what can be voted on by a simple majority through the reconciliation process.
The following amendments were added to the Senate bill:
- The rural health fund was increased to $50 billion from $25 billion. It directs money to mental health and behavioral health clinics, but not other disability-specific providers.
- Minor funding for Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS)
Neither of the increases within these amendments will come close to fully addressing the closures of rural health providers or the reduction of HCBS that this bill will cause if passed by the House.
Some dangerous provisions got removed:
- The Medicaid funding reduction for states that cover undocumented immigrants with their own funds. This means that states that provide Medicaid coverage for undocumented immigrants with state funding will still receive their full federal match for Medicaid.
- The prohibition on Medicaid coverage of gender-affirming care.
- A requirement for Medicaid applicants to verify citizenship
- A 5-year moratorium on the regulation of artificial intelligence (AI) platforms by states as a condition of accessing funding for broadband infrastructure and bridging the digital divide faced by marginalized communities. This means that states can still
But there are many harmful parts remaining. Here are a few examples of what’s still in the bill:
- Stricter work requirements for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and increased program costs for states with high overpayment rates
- A one-year prohibition on Medicaid payments to reproductive health
- Medicaid cuts to states through provider tax caps, work requirements, more frequent eligibility determinations, and new copays for Medicaid recipients. All of these changes will make it harder for people to become eligible for and stay on Medicaid, resulting in people losing benefits.
- A national school voucher program that will divert $30 billion from public schools to fund private school tuition, making it more difficult for students with disabilities to access special education services
What’s Next? We take the fight to the House.
This fight is not over. Because the bill the Senate passed is different from the bill the House passed, the House has to pass this version of the bill for these changes to be final.
The House Rules Committee has already come together to prepare the Senate-passed bill for House floor consideration. The bill could be on the House floor as early as Wednesday morning, and debate and final votes on the Senate-passed bill begin. Please contact your Representatives to ask them to oppose this bill and to protect Medicaid and SNAP.
We are encouraged that some House members have already indicated their opposition to this harmful legislation. We urge everyone to contact their Representatives immediately and demand they vote NO on this destructive bill.
AAPD is firmly against any legislation that undermines the rights and well-being of people with disabilities. We call on Congress to protect Medicaid and ensure that people with disabilities have continued access to the services they need to thrive.
UPDATE from June 29, 2025:
Current state of play: Very late on Saturday night, the Senate passed the motion to proceed by a vote of 51-49. Passage of the motion to proceed allows the Senate to begin debate on the reconciliation bill.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) and Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) joined with all Senate Democrats voting against the motion to proceed. Senator Paul has been outspoken in his opposition to the bill because of its substantial increase to the federal debt. Senator Tillis has been making headlines for his very recent, but very vocal, opposition to the bill’s Medicaid cuts.
After intense negotiations with Senate Republican leadership and Vice President Vance, several Republican holdouts withdrew their opposition. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) reported that he and Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) agreed to vote for the motion in exchange for an amendment to the final bill that would end the 90% Federal Medical Assistance Percentages (FMAP) for Medicaid expansion. Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) did not confirm Senator Johnson’s statement. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) was given several Alaska-specific provisions, including an increased FMAP for the state (although this was later ruled out by the parliamentarian after senator Murkowski voted for the motion to proceed). A previously included $25 billion rural hospital fund was enough to quell opposition from Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO).
Next steps: Last night’s vote was only the beginning of the Senate floor process. Senate Democrats are forcing a full reading of the 900+ page bill by the Senate clerks. The Senate has now entered 20 continuous hours of debate, called “vote-a-rama.” The hours are divided evenly between Democrats and Republicans. Democrats will likely use all of their 10 hours of debate to highlight the unpopular parts of the bill. Republicans will probably forfeit most of their time to speed up vote-a-rama. If all stays on track for Republicans, a vote on the final bill should occur sometime on Monday.
Negotiations with Senate Parliamentarian still not finished: While a Monday vote is ideal for Senate Republicans, Sunday morning rulings from the Senate parliamentarian are casting doubt on that goal. The parliamentarian is still working but here’s what we know as of now, according to Senate Democrats. As of writing, more than 209 amendments have been filed.
What’s been removed from the bill?:
Repealing parts of the Biden era eligibility and enrollment rule for Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP)
Repealing parts of the eligibility and enrollment rule for the Medicare Shared Savings Program
Repealing parts of the nursing home staffing rule
Increased FMAP for high poverty states – this is an Alaska-specific provision
Increased payment for outpatient hospital treatments in Alaska and Hawaii
Expansion of the orphan drug exclusion in Medicare drug price negotiations
What’s still in the bill?:
Provider tax language provision that remains unchanged from Saturday morning draft
Limiting receipt of Affordable Care Act (ACA) tax credits by certain immigrants
Barring Medicare participation for most non-citizens
What does this all mean?: Passage of any sort of reconciliation bill is not guaranteed! Thune continues to say a Monday vote is aspirational, and parliamentarian rulings are making that even harder. This makes all the more important that your Senators need to hear from you NOW that you oppose this budget and all cuts to Medicaid. Click here to tell them to vote NO on cuts to Medicaid and SNAP!
*If* the bill passes the Senate, it still has to be passed by the House. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) says he will give House members 48 hours to return to DC to vote. As of now, several House Republicans are on record as no votes, with a potential final vote occurring Wednesday or Thursday.
Original Post from June 28, 2025:
This weekend, the Senate is trying to pass the budget reconciliation bill. AAPD is an outspoken opponent of the budget reconciliation bill, because of its significant cuts to Medicaid, SNAP, and other essential programs.
The Senate Parliamentarian – a person whose job is to help the Senate follow its rules – found that some key parts of the bill violate budget reconciliation rules (read more about the budget reconciliation process here). In response, Senate leadership released a rewritten 1000-page bill early this morning. The Senate is trying to push through a vote on it today, even though there is no way Senators will be able to read all 1000 pages of the bill before they vote.
This is especially concerning because the contents of this bill have the power to drastically change the country by taking away food and healthcare from millions of Americans, force millions of Americans into poverty, and kill at least 51,000 Americans every year whose deaths would have otherwise been preventable without this budget.
Your Senators need to hear from you NOW that you oppose this budget and all cuts to Medicaid. Click here to tell them to vote NO on cuts to Medicaid and SNAP!
The bill caps Medicaid provider taxes, which makes it harder for states to fund Medicaid. Currently, Medicaid makes up 30% of state budgets, much of which is funded by Medicaid provider taxes. The bill also cuts federal Medicaid funding for states that expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, or currently provide coverage to undocumented immigrants with their own state funds. The bill also requires more people who receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits to work, also known as “work requirements.” SNAP is an essential program that helps millions of people with disabilities, seniors, and their families buy food each month.
These rules will add substantial new costs for states, which could result in state cuts to Medicaid, SNAP, or other key areas like education and transportation.
In addition, the revised bill says that states are not allowed to regulate Artificial Intelligence (AI) platforms for ten years. States must agree to this if they want to access the bill’s funds for AI deployment and increasing access to broadband internet. States are more likely to agree to this because they want – or need – to access the bill’s $500 million in AI deployment and $42 billion in broadband internet funding.
Artificial intelligence is a fast-evolving technology, and regulatory frameworks around AI are still under development. Without regulations and laws, it is easier for AI to discriminate based on disability, race, sex, sexual orientation, gender, or other identities. This leaves marginalized groups, including people with disabilities, at risk of discrimination by the AI platforms and algorithms the government and many companies are now using for everything from hiring processes to approving (or denying) benefit applications.
There are some positive things in the bill that would help disabled people. The bill does include minor funding increases for Home- and Community-Based Services (HCBS) waivers. It also extends certain tax advantages for people with disabilities who have ABLE Accounts. These tax benefits help people with disabilities save money, which can be used for expenses that Medicaid or other insurance does not cover.
However, these helpful parts are overshadowed by the bill’s massive cuts to Medicaid. These cuts would result in new, burdensome administrative and work requirements that will result in many people being unenrolled from Medicaid, even though they qualify for it.
AAPD remains strongly opposed to the budget reconciliation bill.
If successful, this afternoon’s procedural vote will trigger what is known as a “Vote-a-Rama”. During this step of reconciliation, any Senator can offer an amendment to the bill to add or remove harmful provisions. Once the Senate votes on final passage, the bill has to go back to the House of Representatives to work out the differences between the Senate Bill and the House Bill. Once the House approves the Senate’s version, the bill goes to the President to be signed into law. You can read more about the Budget Reconciliation process in AAPD’s Reconciliation Explainer here.
Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), Ranking Member of the Senate Finance Committee, plans to offer an amendment to the reconciliation bill during the “Vote-a-Rama” that would strike all provisions that cut Medicaid from the bill, and ensure that the ultra-wealthy and large corporations pay their fair share of taxes. AAPD has endorsed Sen. Wyden’s amendment.
The bill’s text could still change, especially during Vote-a-Rama. Several Senators have expressed continued reservations about the bill’s contents, and there are many hours of debate to come. AAPD will share updates as this process continues.
Your Senators need to hear from you NOW that you oppose this budget and all cuts to Medicaid. Click here to tell them to support Sen. Wyden’s amendment and vote NO on cuts to Medicaid and SNAP!