ºÚ¹Ï³ÔÁÏÍø congressional delegation joined other Democrats Thursday in uniform opposition to House Republicans' "big beautiful bill" designed to carry out President Donald J. Trump's agenda on taxes, immigration and energy.
Republicans had been divided on the best strategy to get the bill passed for weeks and were in nonstop negotiations up until the bill's passage. Last week, committees held marathon markups, with some lasting over 24 hours. In the final stretch, Trump came to Capitol Hill Wednesday to pressure remaining moderate and conservative holdouts.
After an all-night session, the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" narrowly passed, 215-214, just before 7 a.m. Thursday. The bill's name came from Trump, who wanted Congress to pass a wide array of priorities all at once instead of breaking them up into separate packages. Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., touted sticking with the swift timeline of passing the bill out of the House before Memorial Day weekend.
"The reason we did that was not because out of pride of authorship or because we were trying to raise some banner. We did it because we need to get this relief to the American people as soon as possible," Johnson said during a press conference after the bill passed. "President Trump made these promises on the campaign trail, and we did as well. The time table’s important. The sooner they feel that relief, the better."
The legislation, among many other things, extends the tax cuts passed in 2017 during Trump's first term. Those expire at the end of the year if they’re not renewed. As the bill stands, some of the relief would be immediate but temporary, while some of the spending cuts and proposed work requirements would kick in a few years later.
Democrats, meanwhile, are fiercely opposed to the legislation, arguing it would benefit wealthier Americans and big businesses at the expense of safety net programs that would see significant cuts. They also point out that it would add to the national debt.
"While you slept, Republicans robbed you," U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-3rd District, said in a statement. "In the dead of night, House Republicans passed legislation that hands over a trillion dollars in tax cuts to billionaires and the biggest corporations while gutting the very programs that help everyday Americans survive."
The reconciliation bill could also have a significant impact on states and their own budgets as the federal government seeks to shift more costs over to them. If enacted, ºÚ¹Ï³ÔÁÏÍø could be on the hook for the first time ever in helping to cover the , formerly known as food stamps.
That has , with the possibility of wide-ranging cuts to federal funding as well as new cost-sharing plans in the tax bill.
"Congress should be working on a budget that strengthens our nation and lowers costs, but instead, the bill passed by House Republicans overnight does the exact opposite — it explodes the national debt and imposes deep cuts to Medicaid and food assistance that will devastate millions of Americans, including thousands of ºÚ¹Ï³ÔÁÏÍø families," Gov. Ned Lamont said in a statement Thursday.
All of these provisions, however, are subject to change as the bill makes its way to the upper chamber. Senators will go through their own process to see what can remain in the bill and can tweak it through an all-night amendments process. The House and Senate would need to work out any differences that emerge and pass it again. The party wants to get it to Trump for his signature by the July 4 holiday.
Republicans are leaning on a process known as budget reconciliation to avoid the 60-vote threshold normally required to advance legislation in the Senate. This will allow them to bypass a filibuster and pass a bill without needing support from Democrats. Both of ºÚ¹Ï³ÔÁÏÍø senators, Chris Murphy and Richard Blumenthal, are opposed.
"I encouraged our Senate colleagues to think of this as a one-team effort as we have and to modify this as little as possible, because it’ll make it easier for us to get it over the line ultimately and finished and get it to the president’s desk by July 4, and that’s a big thing," Johnson said.
A look inside the bill
On the tax front, the legislation extends the expiring tax cuts for individuals and businesses and adds in a number of Trump's campaign promises. That includes no taxes on tips, overtime and interest on some auto loans. But those exemptions would only last until 2028, which coincides with the end of his second term.
Seniors who are 65 and older with low to middle incomes will be able to make an additional $4,000 deduction. And the bill would create new savings accounts for children — called a "Trump Account" — with a one-time infusion of $1,000 from the federal government.
One of the biggest sticking points during negotiations was over raising the cap on deductions for state and local taxes, otherwise known as SALT. Blue-state Republicans were pushing for bigger concessions on SALT because of its effect on high cost-of-living states like ºÚ¹Ï³ÔÁÏÍø, New York and California.
While ºÚ¹Ï³ÔÁÏÍø Democrats aren't supportive of the GOP bill, they have pushed to lift the cap in the past. Under the 2017 Trump tax law, SALT deductions were capped at $10,000 for filers who itemize deductions.
The original offer increased the cap to $30,000. When Trump came to Capitol Hill, he told moderate Republicans to take the deal, arguing that SALT benefits Democratic-led states. But they were able to negotiate new terms: a $40,000 cap for married couples, which would get phased out for those making over $500,000. Both caps would increase by 1% through 2033.
In 2022, ºÚ¹Ï³ÔÁÏÍø taxpayers had the highest average SALT deduction, around $9,100, just under the current $10,000 cap, . That year, over 11% of the state's returns claimed SALT, one of the highest rates in the U.S.
The $2,000 maximum federal child tax credit is also set to expire at the end of the year without any action. Under this bill, it would get a modest boost, albeit temporary.
Through 2028, it would increase to $2,500. After that, it would go back down to $2,000 and be indexed for inflation.
Democrats like DeLauro have pushed for the restoration of the included in the 2021 pandemic relief bill, which has since expired. That enhancement increased the rebate up to $3,600 per child under age 6 and $3,000 per child between 6 to 18 and was fully refundable.
Critics of the GOP bill say it disadvantages the lowest-income families who don't owe federal taxes and can't claim the full credit. The proposal also requires parents who file taxes jointly to both have Social Security numbers.
The legislation would also give a significant bump in spending for defense and border security. That includes more money for the wall along the U.S.-Mexico border as well as new border patrol agents and workers at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The bill also includes a $1,000 fee for migrants applying to seek asylum.
And on energy policy, the bill would end clean energy-related tax breaks that would be in place for years through former President Joe Biden's Inflation Reduction Act, which included credits for electric vehicles and energy-efficient home appliances.
Bill could overhaul Medicaid, SNAP
To pay for the legislation, Republicans have proposed generating billions of dollars in savings by making steep cuts to programs like Medicaid and SNAP.
Republicans say they are seeking changes to these programs to root out waste, fraud and abuse and ensure that those who need it are covered. But Democrats and advocates of these programs are raising concerns that an overhaul could leave out vulnerable individuals and families who rely on the programs.
Changes to Medicaid have been the biggest obstacle, in terms of both policy and politics, throughout the negotiations of this bill and the requirement to cut $880 billion from a number of programs.
The bill would require 80 hours of work, volunteer or educational requirements a month for certain enrollees and freeze the hospital tax, a mechanism that to increase the amount of Medicaid funding they receive from the federal government.
Medicaid, known as HUSKY in ºÚ¹Ï³ÔÁÏÍø, covers about 1 million people, or about 25% of the state's population, according to the . The state’s Office of Policy and Management projects ºÚ¹Ï³ÔÁÏÍø will spend a total of $11.6 billion on Medicaid this fiscal year. The federal government contributed roughly $6.9 billion, or 59%, of that funding.
"In eastern ºÚ¹Ï³ÔÁÏÍø, I’ve heard directly from hospitals, nursing homes, and community health centers about the real-life impacts of this bill’s cuts to Medicaid," U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd, said in a statement. "Non-partisan budget analysts determined that 13 million Americans will lose their health coverage. Locally, thousands of people in ºÚ¹Ï³ÔÁÏÍø’s 2nd District will become uninsured, which will hurt our hospitals and primary health networks, too."
The GOP measure would also significantly restructure SNAP and place a new financial commitment on states. The federal government has always fully covered benefits and shares the administrative costs of running the program equally with each state. Under the new proposal, Congress would institute a cost-sharing program with states and increase state contributions for administrative expenses to 75%.
The new expectations that states may need to start covering benefits in 2028 could place a new burden on ºÚ¹Ï³ÔÁÏÍø’s finances and state budget. State officials don’t yet know how exactly that might affect the administration of the program but anticipate that a "redesign" is inevitable if the state cannot cover the costs, according to state Department of Social Services Commissioner Andrea Barton Reeves.
, nearly 400,000 people, or 1 in 9 state residents, got those benefits in 2024, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. More than half of the recipients in the state are in families with children. That same year, ºÚ¹Ï³ÔÁÏÍø received a total of $885 million in SNAP benefits.
The GOP plan would also impose stronger work requirements for certain able-bodied adults without dependents. For older adults, it would raise the age limit from 54 to 64. The same would also apply to adults with children age 7 or older. They would be required to work or participate in related training for at least 80 hours a month.
U.S. Rep. Jahana Hayes, D-5th District, estimated that if ºÚ¹Ï³ÔÁÏÍø takes on the cost of covering 10% of the state's SNAP benefits, it would need to spend $89 million. But that percentage would likely be higher based on an analysis from the GOP-led House Agriculture Committee. , the committee estimates ºÚ¹Ï³ÔÁÏÍø’s cost-share would be 20%.
"It pushes enormous costs onto already financially strapped state governments, forcing them into impossible choices between cutting essential services like public safety and education, raising taxes, or most likely, slashing food benefits for their residents," said Hayes, who is ranking member of the Agriculture Subcommittee on Nutrition, Foreign Agriculture, and Horticulture.
"As ºÚ¹Ï³ÔÁÏÍø food banks, already struggling to meet the current demand that saw them distribute an estimated 46 million meals last year, have made clear," she continued, "any reduction in food assistance, especially with persistently higher grocery prices, will lead to more families facing hunger. They simply lack the resources to fill the gap created by these federal cuts."
CT Mirror reporter Katy Golvala contributed to this story.
The ºÚ¹Ï³ÔÁÏÍø Mirror/ºÚ¹Ï³ÔÁÏÍø Radio federal policy reporter position is made possible, in part, by funding from the Robert and Margaret Patricelli Family Foundation.
