AUSTIN (Nexstar) — Congress continues to debate President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) — the sweeping domestic policy agenda and tax cut extension. But as the White House touts savings for the American taxpayer and a reduction in spending, Democrats are voicing concerns about changes to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
Specific changes to SNAP and Medicaid — and other provisions in the bill — could have significant impacts in Texas.
Changes to SNAP
According to the nonprofit Feeding Texas, Texas issued an estimated $7.2 billion in SNAP benefits in fiscal year 2024. In May, over three and a half million Texans qualified for SNAP, according to the state. Currently, the federal government foots the bill for all of the benefits, even as states administer them. But under the Senate version of the bill, most states — including Texas — would now be required to pay for part of the program.
States that have a payment error rate — the average of the amount the state overpays and underpays benefits to recipients — of higher than 6% will now be required to pay anywhere from 5-15% of the cost. Alex Jacquez, chief of policy and advocacy for economic policy group Groundwork Collaborative, said that unexpected cost might put states in a difficult position.
| Payment Error Rate | Percentage of SNAP State is Responsible For |
| 0-5.99% | 0% |
| 6-7.99% | 5% |
| 8-9.99% | 10% |
| 10%+ | 15% |
“The way that this hurts beneficiaries is that states do not have the money budgeted to pick up hundreds of millions of dollars in new SNAP spending,” Jacquez said. “And in particular, if they don’t know whether they’re going to be responsible for 5% next year, 10% the year after that, 15% the year after that, it makes it incredibly difficult to budget.”
Jacquez said ultimately, states may not be able to afford to pay for the program and could reduce benefits or opt out of the program completely.
Still, states with an error rate lower than 6% will still receive complete assistance from the federal government, an incentive to distribute benefits more accurately. Jacquez said that improving accuracy would require more funding for the program, not less. He worries that recipients are being punished for errors made by states.
“This doesn’t just punish those who got improper payments again … it punishes the entire SNAP population in Texas and in other states based on error rates from the state’s program,” Jacquez said.
Currently, SNAP recipients are capped at three months of using the program in a three year timespan, unless they meet a work requirement. While the current structure allows exemptions for those with school-age children and those over 54, the OBBBA would create stricter work requirements for SNAP. Once children turn 15 (instead of 18), parents would no longer be exempt from work requirements under the Senate version of the bill. The bill would also raise the age for exemption from the Able Bodied Adult Without Dependents work requirement from 54 to 64.
State Rep. Gene Wu, D-Houston, called the changes to SNAP a “disaster waiting to happen” for Texas. His primary concern comes with how the cuts could impact children during the summer, when they are not receiving school lunches.
“This highlights the absolute objective cruelty of what is going on,” Wu said. “We’re talking about the most vulnerable people in our whole state, people who are desperate, people who are starving, and by the large part, these are children who are poor and are desperate because they’re not in school.”
Changes to Medicaid
The other major change comes to the Medicaid program, which provides health insurance for low-income Americans. The bill would create work requirements for Medicaid, meaning recipients would be required to have a job to receive benefits, with exemptions for those with disabilities and children.
The OBBBA would also change Medicaid by shifting some of the cost onto states, reducing Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act over time, though Texas never passed ACA expansion. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that millions of people could lose Medicaid coverage nationwide if the bill becomes law. Texas had over 4 million enrolled in Medicaid in 2024 — around 15% of the state’s population.
Wu specifically criticized the Medicaid cuts as targeting the most vulnerable.
“We’re providing services for the absolute most vulnerable, most desperate people in our society,” Wu said. “To say we’re not going to provide the basic health care that people need to be healthy … that’s not just evil, it’s also really stupid.”
With the implementation of work requirements, Jacquez said his concern is that states could spend more money on administrative costs trying to ensure that recipients are meeting work requirements than it saves through cuts.
But Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, called criticism of work requirements by Democrats “propaganda” in a Senate floor speech, defending them as protecting Medicaid and SNAP for those who deserve the benefits.
“The Big Beautiful Bill will strengthen and safeguard our safety net for those who actually need it,” Cornyn said. “That money should not go to able-bodied adults. It should go to children, disabled, and pregnant women. That’s the original target of Medicaid.”
Extending 2017 tax cuts
Ultimately, cuts to federal spending on Medicaid and SNAP are aimed at footing the bill for extending the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which cut taxes across the board, but primarily for corporations and top earners. The 2017 tax cuts were estimated to add more than $1 trillion to the deficit, and the CBO estimates that extending them could add more than $3 trillion over the next decade. Republicans dispute that number, saying the 2017 tax cuts are already in place, so they do not add to the deficit.
Jacquez spoke in opposition to the cuts, accusing them of taking money from the poor and giving it to the wealthy.
“This is a choice that Republicans have made,” Jacquez said. “They are going to cut taxes for the wealthy and for large corporations, and they’re going to pay for it on the backs of the basic needs programs for food assistance and for health care the millions of people rely on.”
What about AI regulation?
One other provision of the OBBBA is the prohibition on states regulating artificial intelligence technology.
Gov. Greg Abbott signed House Bill 149 into law, a sweeping AI regulation bill, in this year’s legislative session. But the Senate version of the OBBBA says that states can not enact AI regulations for the next five years if they want to receive certain funds authorized in the bill, though that is a lesser restriction than the initial House version.
State Sen. Angela Paxton, R-McKinney, sent a letter Monday to Cornyn and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, telling them to remove the provision of the bill preventing AI regulation.
“In addition to overturning this important Texas legislation, the proposed Al moratorium in the
OBBBA violates the principle of federalism inherent in the Tenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution,” Paxton wrote. “Texas, and every other state, has a right and a duty to legislate on Al.”
17 Republican governors also sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., asking for the AI provision of the bill to be removed, though Abbott was not one of the signees.
The Senate is still undergoing debate on their final version of the bill, and it will have to pass the House again before it is sent to the president.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
