Baumgartner, Newhouse help House pass Trump’s ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ after GOP state lawmakers warn of Medicaid cuts

WASHINGTON – Two Republicans from central and Eastern Washington voted on Thursday to pass President Donald Trump’s signature bill to cut taxes and boost spending on immigration enforcement, after their fellow GOP lawmakers who represent the same areas in Olympia warned against the legislation’s cuts to Medicaid.

Reps. Michael Baumgartner of Spokane and Dan Newhouse of Sunnyside helped narrowly pass what Trump has dubbed “One Big, Beautiful Bill” – now the legislation’s official name – by a vote of 215-214. Two of their GOP colleagues voted no, another slept through the vote after the House pulled an all-nighter to rush the bill through before its Memorial Day recess, and one Republican voted “present,” lamenting that the bill doesn’t do enough to reduce the federal budget deficit.

The package would make permanent the sweeping tax cuts Republicans passed during the first Trump administration in 2017, which are set to expire at the end of the year, and it includes additional short-term tax cuts that would further reduce government revenue.

“This bill delivers the largest tax cut in American history, saving the average American $5,000 a year and cutting taxes by 15% for working families,” Baumgartner said in a statement. “In Eastern Washington, it protects 467,500 taxpayers from a looming 25% tax hike and increases funding for much needed technology to bolster border security. It’s not a silver bullet for D.C.’s $7 trillion spending problem, but it’s a strong start, and a major win for Eastern Washington.”

According to an analysis by the nonpartisan Tax Foundation, the average taxpayer in Baumgartner’s 5th congressional district would see their taxes increase in 2026 by nearly $2,400 and in Newhouse’s 4th congressional district by more than $2,000 if Congress doesn’t act by year’s end. Those tax hikes would be higher in districts west of the Cascades.

If Republicans succeed in passing a bill by Dec. 31, they will keep tax rates largely flat, with some additional tax cuts for tips, overtime wages and other provisions Trump promised during his campaign. GOP leaders have made contradictory claims that making the 2017 tax law permanent represents a historic tax cut and effectively costs nothing, because extending the existing tax cuts would keep government revenue on its current trajectory.

To pay for the additional tax cuts and spending, the bill would cut spending on Medicaid by imposing new restrictions intended to prevent unauthorized immigrants and young, able-bodied Americans from receiving the government-funded health insurance. The Congressional Budget Office, a nonpartisan agency that provides information to lawmakers, estimates that the legislation would result in at least 8.6 million people losing their health insurance.

When the Affordable Care Act was passed fifteen years ago states were allowed to expand Medicaid coverage up to individuals at 138% of the federal poverty line. About 90% of that cost is covered by the federal government.

Under the new bill, states would not receive that 90% back of what they spend. Instead, the federal government would provide states with a lump sum based on their population per capita, regardless of the state’s actual Medicaid costs. This change could significantly shift the cost of Medicaid expansion to the states, incentivizing them to roll back the Obamacare expansion or cut spending elsewhere to cover the costs.

That Medicaid expansion reimbursement would also be cut an additional 10% to states that provide Medicaid coverage to undocumented immigrants.

As of last year, undocumented immigrants in Washington are eligible for Medicaid if their income is under 138% of the federal poverty line. The expansion is fully funded by the state, but the new bill would still cut Medicaid reimbursement across the board if Washington state does not remove Medicaid eligibility for undocumented immigrants.

In a letter to Washington’s entire congressional delegation on Wednesday, 23 Republican state lawmakers asked their federal counterparts to protect Medicaid for the state’s residents. Like Idaho and many other states, Washington expanded Medicaid to cover more people after Congress passed the Affordable Care Act of 2010.

“If federal funding for the expansion population is cut or federal financing is reduced, Washington will have to use significant state funds to fill the gap,” the GOP lawmakers wrote. “Without federal funding, we will be forced to make further cuts to health care, endangering local health care organizations and eliminating coverage for many constituents.”

Noting that a quarter of Washingtonians are enrolled in the state’s Medicaid plan, Apple Health, the state legislators said they support the goal of rooting out “waste, fraud and abuse” but warned that Washington “will be among the states hardest hit by Medicaid losses,” partly because the federal government contributes a relatively small portion of the state’s Medicaid budget.

“We urge you to protect Medicaid,” they wrote. “We can’t afford to lose local health care resources, and our rural communities will not be able to ride out the economic shockwaves that are sure to follow if this program is significantly cut. Simply put, we cannot lose another rural hospital or clinic, nor another long-term care facility. We depend on a stable health care system, and we’re counting on your leadership to ensure Medicaid’s survival.”

Letter co-signer Leonard Christian said he signed the letter to protect the rural hospitals in his rural state Senate district in Eastern Washington.

“Our hospitals are already suffering with the biggest tax increase ever in state history, and so the hospitals are already in pretty bad shape,” said the Republican. “If we cut Medicaid as well, the reality is many of our rural hospitals would close pretty quickly. They’re hanging on by a thread.”

While Christian wants to see a smaller federal government, he believes Congress should look elsewhere.

“When it comes to lives and having hospitals be available for folks, there’s other things we need to be looking at cutting before this,” he said.

Christian also criticized state Democratic leaders who have made undocumented immigrants eligible for Medicaid – saying the policy has put strain on an already fragile health care system.

“We’re just continually piling more people on a system that’s already in trouble. The state’s been irresponsible in this for many years,” he said.

The more than 1,000-page House bill contains a wide range of GOP priorities, headlined by a major spending boost for border security and immigration enforcement. It includes $46.5 billion for construction of barriers along the U.S.-Mexico border, $45 billion for immigrant detention facilities and $4 billion to hire more Customs and Border Patrol officers.

It also increases spending on the military by $150 billion, including $25 billion to start building a new missile defense system Trump has dubbed the “Golden Dome,” combining his admiration for Israel’s Iron Dome system with his personal affinity for gold. And it would raise the nation’s borrowing limit by $4 trillion, allowing the government to avoid defaulting on its debt, which now exceeds $36 trillion.

To offset that additional spending and the new tax cuts, the legislation aims to cut costs by rolling back Biden-era energy policies and reducing spending on Medicaid and SNAP, the nutritional assistance commonly known as food stamps.

Estimates published Tuesday by the Congressional Budget Office projected that the bill would increase the deficit by $3.8 trillion through 2034, and would cause a decrease in resources for the lowest-income 10% of Americans and an increase in resources for the highest-earning 10%.

Facing opposition from Democrats and even some Republicans to cutting health care and food aid for low-income Americans while enacting tax cuts that would benefit the nation’s highest earners, GOP leaders scaled back their initial plans for Medicaid. They landed on a set of restrictions intended to remove unauthorized immigrants and young, able-bodied Americans from the government-funded health insurance program.

Democrats and other opponents of the Medicaid reforms say the new requirements are onerous and will result in more people losing their health insurance. In a call with reporters on Wednesday, Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., spoke alongside CEOs of rural hospitals in Asotin and Klickitat counties who warned that cutting Medicaid funding could force some hospitals to close.

“The House Republicans are now trying to cobble together what I believe is a serious attack on Medicaid,” Cantwell said. “It undermines the program by shifting the burden to the states and making the entire healthcare system more expensive. When you think about it, if you cut Medicaid, and you cut people on Medicaid, they’re not going to stop having health care needs. They’re just going to go to a more expensive, unfunded setting to get that care.”

Republicans counter that their bill will preserve Medicaid for those who need it most while cutting costs. In a statement on Thursday, Newhouse said he had voted “to restore fiscal sanity in the federal government.”

“We have made real, common-sense reforms to strengthen the integrity of Medicaid, protecting the program for low-income families, seniors, and those with disabilities,” he said. “By implementing work requirements for able-bodied adults without dependents, and preventing those here illegally from accessing the program, we are protecting Medicaid for those who truly need it most.”

In a Thursday press conference Governor Bob Ferguson called the bill passed by Congress “cruel and harmful.”

“Our state will change in fundamental ways if this goes forward,” the Democrat said. “As governor, obviously we’re doing everything we can to persuade the Senate to walk back from the brink of an action that would have truly dire consequences for many thousands of Washingtonians.”

According to Ferguson, the bill would cost Washington state approximately $2 billion in federal funds in the next four years if it is passed. At least 200,000 out of 2 million Washington Medicaid recipients would lose their coverage by the end of next year, he said. Ferguson did not say how his office calculated this initial projection.

“Hospitals will close in Washington state, in rural parts of our state, and in urban parts of our state. You can just take that to the bank. That’s going to happen,” he said.

Harborview Medical Center CEO Sommer Kleweno Walley said the Seattle hospital could close parts of its operations if the bill were passed.

Harborview, our Board of Trustees and our King County elected officials will have to have some incredibly difficult conversations about what parts of Harborview can stay open and what parts we have to rethink,” she said at the Governor’s press conference of the level 1 trauma center.

The bill now goes to the Senate, where the GOP majority plans to make changes before sending it back to the House, using a procedure called budget reconciliation to sidestep the Senate’s usual 60-vote supermajority requirement and overcome universal opposition from Democrats. If both chambers can pass the same version of the bill, it will go to Trump’s desk to become law.