Severe budget cuts are under consideration in Congress that would raise Arkansas families’ costs for health care, food, and other basic needs. 

Members of Congress are considering budget resolutions that would set the stage for deep cuts to Medicaid and SNAP benefits, which provide food and health care to hundreds of thousands of Arkansas children and their families. The blueprints under consideration are designed to cut these essential programs while extending tax cuts that chiefly benefit the wealthy, as well as increase funding to border security and military spending. Importantly, the proposals would not reduce the deficit. In fact, the resolutions allow for increases in the federal deficit while calling for cuts in spending in budget areas that help families meet basic needs.  

The proposals will be debated in the Senate this week (the week of Feb. 17) and in the House next week (the week of Feb. 24). While they’re separate and call for different amounts of spending reductions, both are designed to require deep cuts to Medicaid and SNAP: 

• The resolution in the U.S. House calls for the House Energy and Commerce Committee to reduce spending by $880 billion over 10 years, which Congressional leaders have indicated they would do primarily by cutting Medicaid. In Arkansas, that’s jeopardizing insurance coverage for more than 850,000 people, including more than 400,000 children.  

• The proposal also directs the House Agriculture Committee to reduce spending by $230 billion, which leaders suggested would primarily come from cuts to SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. More than 400,000 Arkansans annually use SNAP at some point in the year to help buy groceries. More than 170,000 of Arkansas SNAP recipients are children.  

• The Senate proposal is opaquer, but it includes a directive to reduce spending in certain committees’ jurisdictions, including the Senate Agriculture Committee, which oversees SNAP policy and is led by Arkansas Senator John Boozman.  

The budget proposals would be extremely harmful. And they do nothing to fulfill elected officials’ promises of easing economic burdens or bringing down the price of groceries.  

If you want to make your voice heard, see this alert for more information on how to respond to the proposals. For more information on how federal contributions fuel the Arkansas state budget, see our blog post here.