Dear Friend,

Republicans rammed Trump’s Big Ugly Bill through Congress to the President’s desk in time for their self-imposed July 4th deadline. After the Senate Parliamentarian completed the “Byrd Bath,” Senate Democrats introduced amendment after amendment to protect essential programs like Medicaid, SNAP, and Planned Parenthood — lifelines for millions of Americans. But Republicans rejected each of them during a marathon that dragged late into the night. Here’s a list of those amendments and how each fared. The bill then passed on a tie-breaking vote cast by Vice President Vance.  

In a nutshell: The Senate made a bad bill even worse, with more draconian cuts to Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) totaling $1.02 trillion over the next ten years.

Back in the House, Democrats stood united in firm opposition to the bill.

We offered over 400 amendments in the Rules Committee to make the bill better. Republicans ruled them all out of order.

Led by the Congressional Black Caucus, I joined over 100 House Democrats to seek unanimous consent to consider an amendment protecting against any cuts to Medicaid and SNAP. Republicans refused to do so.

When Republicans tried to debate the bill in the dead of night for only one hour, Leader Jeffries used his record-breaking “magic minute” to speak for nearly nine hours to outline how the Big Ugly Bill strips health care and food assistance from millions of Americans and funds tax cuts for the wealthiest few Americans at the expense of everyone else.

Despite these and other efforts, House Republicans rammed through the Big Ugly Bill on a 218 to 214 vote Thursday afternoon, and President Trump signed it into law the next day.

Read on to see how this bill threatens Virginians and families across the country.

MORE CUTS, MORE HARM TO VIRGINIANS

So what did the final version of the Big Ugly Bill do? Raise costs for all of us.

In a nutshell, it strips millions of Americans of health insurance, including over 300,000 Virginians, while raising health care costs for everyone else and putting rural hospitals and free clinics at risk; guts food assistance; eliminates tax credits — and jobs — in the clean energy sector, raising utility bills; increases the deficit by $3.4 trillion; and raises the debt ceiling by $5 trillion. 

With over 600,000 Virginians on both Medicaid and SNAP, this bill hits these folks twice as hard and forces them to choose between going to the doctor and feeding their families.

When we rip away support for those vulnerable Virginians, it doesn’t just hurt those families.

Without coverage, those Virginians just delay care, get sicker and increase costs for everyone else. The bill also shifts more Medicaid and SNAP costs to the states, which are already grappling with the budget implications of President Trump’s trade war, purge of federal employees and withholding of federal funds. This additional cost shift will force the Virginia General Assembly to make the difficult choice between raising taxes or cutting essential services.

Every Virginian will feel the impact of this bill.

You can read the House Budget Democrats’ preliminary analysis of the bill’s major provisions by subject matter here.

Who does the bill benefit? The ultra-wealthy.

In fact, this bill to enact the President’s agenda has been called the largest transfer of wealth from the poor and middle class to the ultra-rich in U.S. history with the bottom-earning 80 percent of Americans paying for tax cuts for the wealthiest few.

Congressional Republicans and the Trump Administration have decided this country can’t afford aid for our neighbors in greatest need, but we can cut taxes and create tax loopholes for the ultra-wealthy — a staggering moral failure in the name of fiscal responsibility.

If we can’t afford to feed American children or cover lifesaving health care for working families, we certainly can’t spare billions to lock in lower corporate taxes and cut estate taxes.

It begs the question: Who are House Republicans working for?

The American people, or President Trump and his billionaire donors?

I joined CNN on July 4th to lay out what happens next and how Americans will pay the price.

MY BRIGHT SPOT: FOURTH OF JULY AND CELEBRATING OUR DEMOCRACY

Last week, we celebrated America’s 249th birthday. The Continental Congress voted to declare independence from Great Britain on July 2nd — a date John Adams thought would be celebrated as the “most memorable epoch” in American history and should be marked with “Pomp and Parade, with shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires, and Illuminations.”  Two days later, the Congress ratified and published the Declaration of Independence, marking July 4th as the national holiday Adams envisioned.

Today, we take Thomas Jefferson’s most famous work for granted. At the time, it was outlined a revolutionary idea: that government derived its power from the people in order to protect their fundamental rights:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

—That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,... 

For 249 years, America has strived to live up to that promise for all of its people. As we commemorate 250 years of the American Revolution, that ideal reminds us how far we have come and how far we still have to go.

Even in these difficult seven months of the 119th Congress, I remain hopeful. I believe in our democratic republic. I believe in the people. I will never stop fighting for Virginians and for all Americans who deserve a voice and a fair shot.

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