Economic Policy
Budget Reconciliation Cuts to the Social Safety Net and their Impact on Black Households
In July 2025, congressional Republicans passed, and President Donald Trump signed, a partisan budget reconciliation package that will reshape the American economy and further erode the social safety net. The bill includes tax cuts that will largely advantage wealthy taxpayers and increase racial economic inequality.1 To partially offset the bill’s costly tax cuts, congressional leadership cut spending by restricting access to and the effectiveness of social safety net programs, limiting support for students pursuing postsecondary degrees, and eliminating incentives to advance innovation and job creation in the climate sector.
The budget reconciliation bill reduces access to the safety net by limiting access to and the benefits of food assistance and healthcare. The law cuts the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Medicaid, and neglects to extend the enhanced premium tax credits for health insurance. As a result, about2 15 million people will lose health insurance by 2034, according to Congressional Budget Office estimates.3 Cuts to SNAP will affect every American receiving the program because, over time, benefits are likely to decrease as a share of the typical cost of food for a family. Additionally, over five million people would be at risk of losing their SNAP benefits due to requirements to report work hours.4
SNAP, Medicaid, and enhanced Premium Tax Credit support significant portions of the U.S. population. SNAP is the nation’s most effective anti-hunger program, providing benefits for one in eight (12.6 percent) Americans.5 SNAP reduces food insecurity and lowers the odds of poor health and healthcare costs for children and their caregivers.6 Medicaid provides health insurance to over 71 million low-income people in the United States.7 Ninety-three percent of Affordable Care Act (ACA) enrollees (19.2 million people) receive premium tax credits, which subsidize health insurance purchased through the ACA marketplaces.8
Cuts to SNAP benefits will significantly affect Black households’ abilities to afford food. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, nearly 3.9 million Black households receive SNAP benefits.9 Even with the current level of food benefits in place, 23 percent of Black households were food insecure in 2023, meaning that they were unable to get enough food because they didn’t have enough money or other resources at some point in the year.10
Cuts to federal health insurance programs will also harm Black households. In 2023, nearly 11.3 million Black people were enrolled in Medicaid.11 Approximately ten percent of the Black population is uninsured, at least in part because a significant portion of the Black population lives in states that have not expanded Medicaid coverage to adults with incomes up to 138 percent of the poverty line.12 Work reporting requirements could put 9.9 to 14.9 million people at risk of losing Medicaid.13 The expiration of the enhanced Premium Tax Credit will also impact a significant portion of Black households. The expiration of the enhanced premium tax credits will increase the cost of insurance premiums. Increased out-of-pocket costs will lead to millions of people dropping their insurance coverage.14 Researchers from the Urban Institute estimate that 760,000 Black people will become uninsured when the enhanced Premium Tax Credit expires at the end of 2025.15 Less than half of all Black people in the United States have insurance coverage through their workplace.16 The increased costs associated with a lack of insurance would be devastating for Black communities, as about one in four Black adults report that they have failed to get medical care because of the cost.17
Policymakers have enacted several provisions to reduce resources available for SNAP and Medicaid, including cost-sharing for states, work reporting requirements, and increased costs for consumers.
Cuts to SNAP programs include requirements that state-level governments pay a greater share of the cost of SNAP benefits. States are required to balance their budgets, so if a state cannot afford to cover this increased share of cost, it would have to either cut costs in other parts of its budget or decrease or eliminate SNAP benefits.18
To decrease the number of people on SNAP and Medicaid, congressional Republicans enacted work reporting requirements for both programs. Despite arguments to the contrary, work requirements do not increase work participation among recipients. Most adults without disabilities who are not enrolled in a Social Security Disability Program, or on Social Security Insurance or Social Security Disability Insurance, and who are not on Medicare, do have jobs.19 Most households that receive SNAP benefits have at least one worker in the household.20 In the SNAP program, requirements that recipients report on work hours decrease SNAP participation and limit SNAP’s responsiveness during economic downturns.21
Cuts to SNAP and Medicaid will make accessing food and healthcare more costly for Americans. The cuts to SNAP include eliminating the USDA’s ability to increase the cost of the Thrifty Food Plan if USDA experts reevaluate and update the items included in the plan. SNAP benefit amounts are based on the Thrifty Food Plan. USDA experts calculate the Thrifty Food Plan by evaluating the cost of a nutritious but cost-effective diet for a family of four.22 Preventing updates could prevent benefits from increasing as food costs increase, which means families would be less able to afford the food they need to survive. The cuts to Medicaid include increased costs in the form of copays for some services for Medicaid enrollees in Medicaid expansion states.
In passing this legislation, Congress and the White House have significantly weakened the social safety net intended to support Americans who are facing economic insecurity. However, state-level policymakers can implement social safety net programs at the state level. During implementation, state lawmakers will have significant opportunities to mitigate harm for their constituents.23 To lessen the impact on their constituents, state policymakers will need to strengthen state-level supports and ensure residents can easily access the resources they need to survive.
The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies is grateful to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities for review of this blog post.
1 Jessica Fulton, Centering Black Households in the 2025 Tax Debate – Joint Center (2025).
2 Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (@centeronbudget.bsky.social), “NEW: The CBO has released its latest estimate on the recently enacted Republican reconciliation bill. About 15M people lose health coverage and become uninsured,” Bluesky, July 21, 2025, 6:05pm.
3 “By the Numbers: Senate Republican Reconciliation Bill Takes Health Coverage Away from Millions of People and Raises Families’ Costs | Center on Budget and Policy Priorities,” June 30, 2025.
4 By the Numbers: Senate Republican Leadership’s Reconciliation Bill Takes Food Assistance Away From Millions of People | Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 2025).
5 Jordan Jones, “Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) – Key Statistics and Research | Economic Research Service,” U.S. Department of Agriculture, June 13, 2025.
6 Stephanie A. Ettinger De Cuba et al., “SNAP, Young Children’s Health, and Family Food Security and Healthcare Access,” American Journal of Preventive Medicine 57, no. 4 (2019): 525–32.
7 “March 2025 Medicaid & CHIP Enrollment Data Highlights,” Medicaid.Gov, June 27, 2025.
8 Gideon Lukens and Elizabeth Zhang, Premium Tax Credit Improvements Must Be Extended to Prevent Steep Rise in Health Care Costs | Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (2024).
9 U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Department of Commerce, “Food Stamps/Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP),” American Community Survey, ACS 5-Year Estimates Subject Tables, Table S2201, accessed on June 18, 2025.
10 USDA, Economic Research Service using U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Current Population Survey Food Security Supplements data.
11 “Distribution of People Ages 0-64 with Medicaid by Race/Ethnicity,” KFF, n.d., accessed June 22, 2025.
12 Breanna Sharer and Gideon Lukens, Health Coverage Rates Vary Widely Across — and Within — Racial and Ethnic Groups (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 2024).
13 Elizabeth Zhang and Gideon Lukens, Medicaid Work Requirements Will Take Away Coverage From Millions: State and Congressional District Estimates (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 2025).
14 Jameson Carter et al., Four Million People Will Lose Health Insurance If Premium Tax Credit Enhancements Expire in 2025 (Urban Institute, 2024).
15 Jessica Banthin et al., The Impact of Enhanced Premium Tax Credits on Coverage by Race and Ethnicity (Urban Institute, 2024).
16 Health Insurance Coverage and Access to Care Among Black Americans: Recent Trends and Key Challenges, Issue Brief No. HP-2024-14 (Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, n.d.), accessed July 3, 2025.
17 Jessica Fulton et al., Pessimism and Hope.
18 Wesley Tharpe et al., House Republican Reconciliation Bill Would Force States to Cut Food Assistance, Health Care, and Other Vital Services | Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (2025).
19 Elizabeth Hinton and Robin Rudowitz Published, “5 Key Facts About Medicaid Work Requirements,” KFF, February 18, 2025.
20 US Census Bureau, “About a Third of Families Who Received Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Benefits Had Two or More People Working,” Census.Gov, accessed July 6, 2025.
21 Lauren Bauer and Chloe N. East, A Primer on SNAP Work Requirements (The Hamilton Project, 2025).
22 US Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service, “SNAP and the Thrifty Food Plan | Food and Nutrition Service,” accessed June 19, 2025.
23 “Toolkit: Using Administrative Advocacy to Improve Access to Medicaid, SNAP, TANF, and WIC | Center on Budget and Policy Priorities,” June 30, 2025.
