The real-life impact of the GOP’s reconciliation bill is just beginning.
Faced with expiring tax breaks for an ultra-rich sliver of the population and expiring subsidies that make health care affordable for 22 million Americans, the GOP chose to renew the tax breaks—and allow the subsidies to expire.
That decision is the reason for the government shutdown causing carnage all around us, not the Senate’s failure to rubber stamp the stopgap measure the House passed on Sept. 19. Since then, the Senate has voted down the House bill more than a dozen times. Yet Republican leadership refuses even to negotiate over the real issue: affordable health care.
Now, in addition to losing access to health care, more than 40 million people could go hungry. Federal funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is running out and USDA, which administers the program, refuses to tap contingency funds earmarked for just such emergencies.
Opportunities for the 7.5 million students with disabilities—15% of the student population—are being curtailed. Management of special education is moving from the Department of Education to Health and Human Services, but not the experts who helped parents navigate complex systems and ensured compliance with IDEA and other civil rights laws—nearly all of them have been fired or forced out.
Millions more will suffer as federal funding runs out for WIC, Head Start, and other early childhood programs—the courts, air traffic control, and much more.
Americans want the government to reopen. The overwhelming majority—78%, according to the latest KFF Health Tracking Poll—also want to renew the subsidies that make health insurance affordable for entrepreneurs and others whose employers don’t offer or help pay for coverage.
Now, more than ever, it is important to speak up. Tell Congress what you think!
In Solidarity,
Kimberly Johnson Trinca
National Education Association
The Trump administration’s plan to move special education out of the Department of Education threatens our progress in meeting the needs of vulnerable students.
This bill is a response to the Trump administration’s rescission of the protected areas policy, which placed certain spaces off-limits to ICE and other federal agencies.
CHEER:Reps. Don Bacon (R-NE), Michael Turner (R-OH), Rob Bresnahan (R-PA), Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), Michael Lawler (R-NY), Nick LaLota (R-NY), Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY), Jeff Van Drew (R-NJ), Chris Smith (R-NJ), David Joyce (R-OH), Andrew Garbarino (R-NY), Zach Nunn (R-IA), Mike Bost (R-IL), Derrick Van Orden (R-WI), Thomas Kean Jr. (R-NJ), and Pete Stauber (R-MN) signed a letterurging leaders of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees to maintain language in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that would restore collective bargaining in the Department of Defense (DoD).
CHEER:Sen. Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD) introduced the Shutdown Student Loans for Feds Act (S. 3070), which would require the Department of Education to pause student loan payments for federal workers—including contractors and military personnel—if a government shutdown lasts more than two weeks.
