Harris, the House recently passed a budget bill that directs Congress to make deep spending cuts, and your health care could be on the chopping block.
Let me zoom out and break down what's happening.
The first thing to know is that we are not in a normal budget process. What is supposed to happen is that the President proposes a budget, the House and Senate each pass their own version, and then both houses of Congress need to agree on a final version. Usually, this is done through "conferencing," where a smaller group of Representatives and Senators meet to iron out the details.
Then, Congress uses this budget to write appropriations bills, which is the actual spending legislation, with one bill for each of the different buckets of government spending. Passing a budget is typically a long process with lots of back and forth and negotiations.
Last year, instead of doing the normal budget and spending process, Congress passed "Continuing Resolutions," which simply fund the government at preexisting levels. Republicans wanted to wait to do a budget bill, with the hope that they would control both the White House and Congress come 2025. They got their wish, but now we're behind in this process, which is why government funding will run out on March 15th.
The budget that was passed by the House directs committees to make very, very dramatic cuts to government spending. For example, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce has been directed to slash more than $800 billion, which likely means deep cuts for health care.
You wouldn't necessarily know it by the name of the committee, but Energy and Commerce controls the budgets for Medicaid and Medicare, which is why these programs are on the chopping block.
I hope you were able to learn something from this email. Our lawmakers need to work for us, and we can be better advocates when we're equipped with knowledge.
More soon,
Katie
PS: I filmed a video discussing the Republican budget. Click here to watch the whole thing.
We must take back the House in 2026 to stop Republicans from cutting our health care while making their billionaire friends richer.
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