ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – Senate Republicans and Democrats have been going back and forth all day over President Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’. They’ve been working late into the night as they try to meet President Trump’s deadline of July 4th.
If the bill is passed, the city of Albuquerque leaders fear the city would lose key funding.
The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” coming from the Trump administration, would lead to drastic changes. “This, Mr. President, will make this country safer, stronger, and more prosperous,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-South Dakota).
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The legislation includes increased spending for border security and defense and extends Trump’s tax cuts from his first term. It also fulfills his 2024 campaign promise to remove taxes on tips and overtime pay. “The immediate effect is that we’d have a lot more homeless people on the streets,” said Joseph Montoya, Deputy Director of the city of Albuquerque’s Health, Housing, and Homelessness Department.
But, the bill also includes major cuts to Medicaid, which Joseph Montoya with the city of Albuquerque’s Health, Housing, and Homelessness Department said would increase people living on the streets. “We do know that, statistically speaking, medical bills are one of the major factors in people being able to lose their housing,” said Montoya.
Montoya also fears key funding for affordable housing programs would be lost if the bill passes. “Rental assistance would vanish. Down payment assistance would be completely gone,” said Montoya.
Montoya said they get roughly $6 million in home and other funding meant to develop affordable housing and maintain programs that keep people housed across Albuquerque and employ key city staff. “And his budget request actually completely wipes them out,” said Montoya.
Right now, the city estimates that, at minimum, the city needs 18,000 new units for low and moderate-income people. The only benefit Montoya sees would be the federal low-income housing tax credits.
But he worries they won’t work, “They’re going to be lowering the rates considerably for large corporations, how much they have to pay. So they have no incentive to buy these tax credits because they’re not going to be paying taxes anyway.”
KRQE News 13 reached out to the Republican Party of Bernalillo County for comment. They were unable to respond at this time.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
