For Immediate Release: July 1, 2025
Contact: Renee Alves, (559)-916-5939
Charleston, WV— Today, the U.S. Senate passed a sweeping reconciliation package that contains historically large cuts to Medicaid and SNAP, two programs that disproportionately benefit the Mountain State. This legislation generates deep harm for the most vulnerable Americans to fund tax cuts for our nation’s wealthiest. The WVCBP’s executive director, Kelly Allen, issued the following statement in response:
West Virginia’s Senators, Shelley Moore Capito and Jim Justice, have the shameful distinction of having voted for the largest cuts to Medicaid and SNAP food assistance in program history, despite representing a population and economy that benefits greatly from both programs. This is the most harmful legislation for the safety net and low-income households in a generation. It increases economic hardship and poverty for millions of households, shifts hundreds of millions of dollars in food and health costs onto our state’s budget, and simultaneously increases the national debt by trillions of dollars.
West Virginians across the state will be harmed as a result of this package, rushed through the Senate under the guise of an arbitrary deadline without a single hearing in Washington or town hall in West Virginia.
Senators Capito and Justice’s votes take food off the tables of children and veterans and deny Medicaid assistance to parents of older children, rural residents, and coal miners who lose their jobs through no fault of their own—West Virginians we all would agree are deserving of a little support during a difficult time. Tens of thousands of West Virginians will lose their health and food assistance because of this legislation, but the impacts do not end there.
For the first time in history, SNAP food assistance for entire states will be at risk, with a provision that shifts costs rather than generating actual savings, requiring that state budgets absorb a share of SNAP benefits that is expected to cost West Virginia more than $500 million through 2034 or force the state to withdraw from the program altogether. As a result of the loss of federal investment, thousands of jobs in energy, construction and building trades, health care, and the food sector will be lost in West Virginia alone. Rural hospitals are expected to reduce services or close their doors altogether as they see fewer reimbursements and increased uncompensated care. Charitable food and health providers will see a spike in need that they’ve already warned they cannot absorb.
On average, forty percent of U.S. households will be worse off financially as a result of this package. Their meager tax cuts will be far outweighed by the higher health care and food costs they are saddled with. Everyday West Virginia families are not who this package was designed to benefit; rather we are the ones being forced to shoulder the costs of extending tax cuts skewed to the wealthiest households in America: the cuts to food assistance and health care generate enough to pay for tax cuts for people making incomes over $500,000 per year.
We strongly urge our U.S. House members, Representatives Carol Miller and Riley Moore, to take this opportunity to stand up for their constituents by demanding a more thoughtful and measured approach. What is imperative is to get this done right–not to get it done quickly. Legislation that takes health care and food assistance away from everyday West Virginia families in order to pay for a fraction of tax cuts skewed towards the nation’s wealthiest households is unacceptable.
If West Virginia’s members of Congress think that by foisting painful decisions onto state lawmakers and delaying the implementation of harmful provisions they can escape accountability for the consequences of this bill, they can be assured that is not the case. The WVCBP and our partners will follow the implementation of this bill, assess the impacts of the policies borne out of this legislation, and do our job to educate West Virginians on the effects.
