Dear Community Member,

This week, the U.S. House of Representatives held markups on Speaker Mike Johnson’s partisan budget reconciliation bill.  The Majority’s legislation would give nearly $3.8 trillion in tax breaks primarily to billionaires, gut an estimated $2 trillion from essential programs that serve working families, and add $7 trillion to the national debt over the next decade.

The Majority is using budget reconciliation, which is a process that allows them to bypass a Senate filibuster and pass budget-related legislation with a simple majority.  While reconciliation allows for partisan passage of a bill, it comes with strict rules requiring that provisions must significantly impact the federal budget and not add to the deficit after 10 years.

The House Committees on Ways and Means, Energy and Commerce, and Agriculture met earlier this week to mark up sections of this bill, including changes to the tax code, cuts to programs like Medicaid, and reductions to SNAP.  On Friday, the House Budget Committee met to review each of these sections which will be part of the larger legislative package.  By a vote of 16-21, the bill ultimately failed to advance out of the House Budget Committee.  This will force the Republican Majority to regroup, continue to negotiate amongst themselves, and try again.  We have been notified of another Budget Committee markup at 10:00 PM on Sunday night and I’ll be heading back to Washington, D.C. to continue this work.

Rep. Panetta summarized the harms of the partisan budget bill. Press play on the above video or click HERE to watch his remarks.

The centerpiece of Speaker Johnson’s sweeping partisan bill is a series of changes to our tax code.  I sit on the House Ways and Means Committee, the chief tax-writing committee in the House of Representatives.  During markup, my colleagues and I opposed this package and used every legislative tool available to us to address the deficiencies of this legislation, raise awareness of the harm it would do to working families, demonstrate that the Majority opposes commonsense proposals to support families, and slow consideration of this purely partisan proposal.

For more than 17 hours, we fought it out in a committee markup that lasted all day and all night.  During the markup, my colleagues and I introduced amendment after amendment to fix the bill and try to make it bipartisan.  Our amendments were aimed at reorienting and refocusing this legislation on the concerns of working families like protecting the Affordable Care Act, expanding the Child Tax Credit, bolstering Social Security, and checking President Donald Trump’s terrible tariff policies.

I led the fight on amendments specifically addressing the bill’s dangerous debt and deficit implications.  I also fought for fixes to the bill’s insufficient Medicare reimbursement rates that would directly impact providers and hospitals serving California’s 19th Congressional District.  Unfortunately, every amendment was rejected along party lines.

Rep. Panetta discussed the issues with the Majority’s reconciliation bill. Press play on the above video or click HERE to watch his remarks.

We are fighting back, because fundamentally this partisan bill fails working families, undermines our economic security, and explodes our fiscal foundation, all to pay for tax cuts for billionaires.

If the tax provisions passed, the top 0.1% of earners would gain $255,000 in 2027 alone.  That's $700 every day. Yet, Americans earning less than $50,000 per year would see an average benefit of only $265.  That's less than $1 a day. Put another way, the benefit for billionaires is 310 times greater than those for working families.  That’s unacceptable.

Additionally, to help pay for this scheme, the Majority proposes to slash programs that working families rely on like Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act, SNAP, and more.  The $715 billion that this legislation would slash from Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act would strip health coverage from nearly 14 million Americans. In California’s 19th Congressional District, 163,000 people, or one in four residents, are covered by Medicaid.  This includes 50,000 children and 26,000 seniors.

Cuts to the Affordable Care Act would mean higher premiums for millions more, an average of $411 more for young adults and over $1,200 for older Americans.  These are not just numbers on a page.  They represent real people in our communities who would be forced to choose between their health care and household bills.

The bill also includes the deepest cuts to food assistance in the history of the United States, slashing SNAP benefits for nearly 11 million Americans.  In the 19th Congressional District more than 60,000 people rely on this program to put food on the table.  These cuts would be devastating to food security in our community and country, hurting working families at a time when some are struggling to make ends meet.

The unequal nature of these tax changes and cuts to key programs would undermine our economic security and explode our nation’s fiscal foundation.  The federal debt, now exceeding $36 trillion, would grow by another $7 trillion over the next decade.

This kind of fiscal recklessness would increase interest rates, making everything, from buying a home to financing a business more expensive.  The nonpartisan Cato Institute has stated that the bill is likely to increase growth by only 0.6%.  That’s nowhere near enough to offset the fiscal damage brought on by this legislation.  In fact, this bill is expected to reduce investment, lower wages, and have little impact on total national income.  As a legislator, I understand the challenge of balancing fiscal discipline with the need for economic growth.  But, this bill fails working families while worsening the fiscal health of our nation.

Rep. Panetta spoke out against the Majority’s reconciliation bill. Press play on the above video or click HERE to watch his remarks.

These fights matter. Speaker Johnson’s Majority is slim and splintered.  Meanwhile, Democrats in Congress are united in our opposition to this legislation.  The failure of this bill in the House Budget Committee demonstrates just how divided the Republican Majority is on this partisan package.  This is not the end of this process, far from it.  The Majority on the House Budget Committee will try again to pass this budget reconciliation bill on Sunday night.  I’ll fly back from California early Sunday morning to push back on this partisan package.  I’m committed to using every legislative tool available to ensure the legislation is stopped or changed in a bipartisan manner.  This is a fight for fundamental programs, fiscal responsibility, and working families in California’s 19th Congressional District and across the nation.

It is well past time for Speaker Johnson and President Trump to put aside partisan politics and work with Democratic Members of Congress to create policies that invest in working families and the future of our country.

Thank you, as always, for staying informed and engaged.

Sincerely,

Jimmy Panetta
United States Representative
19th Congressional District, California