A bill passed by House of Representatives Republicans early Thursday slashing Medicaid health care could leave millions of Americans without insurance coverage, including roughly 21,000 Virgin Islanders, Congressional Delegate Stacey Plaskett warned.
Every Democrat in the House, hoping to preserve Medicaid coverage, voted against the measure. They were joined by two Republicans on the opposite end of the political spectrum, Rep. Thomas Massie (KY-4) and Rep. Warren Davidson (OH-8), who opposed the legislation because they wanted to see further federal funding cuts, Plaskett said in a written statement late Thursday.
“This bill includes the largest cuts to health care in American history,” she said. “In Medicaid alone, funding is cut by more than $730 billion, which will leave 7.6 million people uninsured. The Virgin Islands presently has 21,000 Medicaid enrollees presently, many of whom will be impacted through loss of service or disenrollment.”
The bill didn’t stop at Medicare cuts, targeting nearly $1 trillion in federal funding, including the Social Services Block Grant that provides more than $4.2 million to the Virgin Islands. The bill eliminates federal funding for the Virgin Islands’ Meals on Wheels Program and the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program until 2034, Plaskett said.
The bill also cut $35 billion in funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP, which includes children, working families, seniors, veterans, and people with disabilities. This includes a $1 million cut to the Summer Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT Program), which gives food assistance to children when they cannot rely on school lunches.
“This will impact the more than 15,000 Virgin Islands residents who rely upon SNAP for access to nutritious food for their wellbeing,” the delegate said.
Puerto Rico was hit even harder by the bill’s potential impact. The $35 billion cut includes a $1 billion decrease in funding for the Nutrition Assistance Program in Puerto Rico despite efforts from the island’s lobbyists, led by Republican Governor Jenniffer Gonzalez-Colon and Congressman Pablo Hernandez,” Plaskett said.
“Republicans’ reconciliation bill will make everyday life more expensive for Americans and removes programs which gave opportunities and support for a better life. It is estimated that more than 4 million students will see a reduction, or elimination, of their Pell Grants,” she said.
The bill also took aim at efforts to lower energy costs, increase clean energy manufacturing and jobs, and economic assistance for communities facing the first wave of the climate crisis, Plaskett said. Funding could be yanked from the Virgin Islands Solar for All Program, which provided $62.5 million for homes and businesses.
The all-important rum cover over rate, needed to fund the Government Employees’ Retirement System, did not get a hoped-for increase. Plaskett has gathered bipartisan support for the program but it was ultimately not included in the bill.
“During an 18-hour markup in the Ways and Means Committee for the tax provisions of the reconciliation bill, Congresswoman Plaskett offered an amendment to increase the rate of the rum cover offer, to publicly demonstrate the bipartisan support for this provision. Both Democrats and Republicans emphasized the importance of the increased rum cover over rate. The Ways and Means Chairman, Jason Smith, publicly stated that he would work to advance this, and the Committee is expected to craft a bipartisan tax bill this summer,” Plaskett’s office said in a press release.
“It is unfortunate that at the last minute while trying to find additional funds, the Republicans attempted to remove duty drawback – an export-promotion program that American alcohol and tobacco companies rely upon for a refund of duties paid at the time of import when similar goods are exported. That program saves the alcohol industry alone approximately $30 billion. Because of that concern, the full push of the rum industry was not present for rum cover over as the industry prioritized its efforts on safeguarding duty drawback which represented direct dollars to their industry. It’s also important to recognize that many discretionary provisions that made it into the bill were included to secure the necessary votes to advance the legislation – which ultimately was not the case with the provision for an increased rum cover over rate.”
The U.S. Senate is anticipated to draft an entirely different bill that proposes fewer cuts to critical programs. Then, the Senate bill and House bill will likely be negotiated on a version that can be passed in both chambers of Congress and then be signed by the president, Plaskett said.
“This bill is a wholesale betrayal of the working class and the future of America. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office found that the bottom 10 percent — working- and middle-class Americans will be 4 percent poorer in household wealth under this bill, with most of the benefits going to the top 10 percent of Americans. Not only does the bill make the largest health care cut in our nation’s history, it also makes the largest cuts to food assistance, energy projects and Pell grants. All to give additional money to the wealthiest Americans – an average of $278,000 per year, $762 per day, to the top 0.1 percent of Americans. This bill is cruel, shameful, unfair and unamerican,” Plaskett said.
