Listening Session
Changes Impacting You

Thanks to everyone who joined last night's listening session.

A number of topics were discussed. Top issues below:

Securing our Border

Today the border is more secure and our communities are safer.

Congress's action includes:

• Investing $175 billion to keep Americans safe
  • Hiring 3,000 new Border Patrol agents and 5,000 new Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers to address illegal immigration, drug smuggling, and human trafficking
  • Allocating more than $46 billion to build and modernize the wall

These reforms are working. In fact, in June 2024 under Joe Biden there were 130,415 encounters at the southern border. In June 2025 there were only 9,306 encounters—equivalent to a 92.8% decrease.

Strengthening Medicaid

Medicaid was strengthened for Americans that the program was designed to serve.

This includes recent reforms that:

• Root out waste, fraud, and abuse
• Implement work requirements for able-bodied, childless adults of 20-hours per week
• Ensure citizenship verification for program recipients
• Protect Medicaid for every American whom the program was designed to serve, including pregnant women, children, and disabled Americans

Congress strengthened the program for those that the program was designed to serve including pregnant women, children, or disabled individuals. In fact, estimates show that spending on Medicaid will continue to increase over the next decade.

For example, this year Medicaid spending is projected to be just over $650 billion. Under this bill, estimates project that Medicaid spending will exceed $800 billion by 2035.

Helping Our Seniors

I strongly support Social Security and Medicare.

Our government made a promise to seniors and those who are at or nearing retirement that these programs would be there to protect them. Reckless spending and dysfunction in Washington have put these programs at risk. As we work to address our broader spending challenges, I am committed to protecting important programs, including Social Security and Medicare. H.R. 1 provides more than $1 trillion in savings while protecting these programs.

While in office, I've worked to protect seniors by introducing legislation capping the cost of prescription drugs for seniors and increasing penalties on scammers.

Lowering Costs

Lowering costs has been a top priority for myself and many families across Wisconsin. Under current law, without changes, taxes would have increased 22% for Wisconsin families at the end of this year—equivalent to $1,500 per family. Last month, the House passed H.R. 1 to prevent this tax hike and deliver for Wisconsin families.

This bill also:

• Provides a new $6,000 tax deduction for seniors, up to $75,000 annually for single filer or $150,000 for joint filers
• Helps American workers by ending taxes on tips and overtime
  
  • Ends taxes on  tips up to $25,000 for individuals making $150,000 or less annually.
  • Ends taxes on overtime up to $12,500 for individuals making $150,000 or less annually
• Makes the Child Tax Credit permanent and increases it to $2,200 per child

I'm proud to support these initiatives and will continue working to reduce costs for American families.

Thank you to everyone who attended my listening session.

I always appreciate the opportunity to hear from you about important topics affecting our community. We cannot afford to ignore the issues impacting every American family.

In case you missed my listening session, please fill out my survey below to share what issues are most important to you.

As always, if you have any questions or need assistance with a federal agency, do not hesitate to contact my office.

On Wisconsin,

Bryan Steil
Member of Congress

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