AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler issued the following statement on the budget reconciliation bill passed overnight in the House of Representatives:
House Republican leaders passed this shameful bill in the middle of the night for one reason: They didn’t want the American people to see the deep and harmful cuts they’re imposing in the light of day. This budget gave Congress a choice: stand with the working people, seniors and kids, or deliver another massive giveaway to billionaires and big corporations. Every single member of Congress who voted for this bill chose to write the richest 10% a fat check on the backs of working-class families already struggling to pay their bills. They voted to throw millions off their health care, put millions of American jobs on the chopping block, gut investments in energy jobs, raid federal workers’ pensions, and reverse years of progress to protect workers’ privacy, health, and safety. Even policies that should help keep money in workers’ pockets, like no tax on tips or overtime, are temporary—and will only help people pay the much higher costs of health care and energy bills resulting from this deal if they are fortunate to keep their coverage and jobs at all. The fight to beat this is now in the Senate, but working people won’t give up on tough fights. Our jobs, our health care and our families are on the line.
The House-passed budget includes:
- Cuts to Medicaid and other health care programs that would strip health care away from 13.7 million workers and slash nearly 500,000 care jobs in 2026 alone, forcing hospitals, clinics and nursing homes—especially in rural and lower-income communities—to close. Such a massive loss of coverage will ultimately force health care costs to rise for everyone.
- Reductions to federal workers’ retirement benefits that impose a monetary penalty on those who choose to retain their rights and then charging them a fee when they try to enforce those rights.
- Slashing more than 140,000 jobs in food processing, school cafeterias, retail, and agriculture by cutting $300 billion to SNAP food assistance that 42 million people, or almost 13% of U.S. residents, use each month.
- Eliminating protections and safeguards for workers and consumers by banning the enforcement of all existing or future state and local AI regulations for the next 10 years in an irresponsible gift to Big Tech companies.
- Draining critical funding for energy jobs, destroying good jobs families are depending on and driving up prices at a moment when working-class households are already struggling.
Contact: Onotse Omoyeni, 202-637-5018