Gov. Bob Ferguson slammed the Trump tax bill approved by Congress on Thursday as “an abomination” that will slash billions from health care and food aid and could force him to call lawmakers back for a special legislative session.
In a phone interview Thursday as the U.S. House narrowly voted to pass the $4.5 trillion tax-cut bill, Ferguson criticized it as “hurting the most vulnerable Washingtonians all for tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans.”
“It makes no sense, except for a MAGA Congress and Donald Trump. We as a state are going to be dealing with the repercussions of this for years,” Ferguson said.
Ferguson’s office estimated the state will lose $3 billion a year in federal Medicaid dollars, and the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projected nearly 330,000 Washington residents will lose Medicaid coverage or health insurance obtained through the Affordable Care Act.
“We will see hospitals, both rural and urban, closed as a result of this legislation,” Ferguson said.
A detailed analysis of the bill’s impact on Washington’s budget was not immediately available, but the biggest effects are likely to be in Apple Health, Washington’s version of Medicaid. It currently covers almost 2 million residents, or 1 in 5 Washingtonians. In rural Washington counties, about 70% of births are covered by Apple Health, according to Ferguson’s office.
Ferguson and state lawmakers had anticipated big federal cuts as they wrestled with a multibillion-dollar shortfall in the state’s two-year $78 billion budget that passed the Legislature earlier this year. But Ferguson said Thursday the scope of the federal bill’s cuts will make the fiscal situation “dire.”
He said calling lawmakers back for a special session this year is something that will have to be considered. “I will definitely be having conversations with legislative leaders and my team,” he said, offering no immediate timeline for a decision.
State House Majority Leader Joe Fitzgibbon, D-West Seattle, said no meetings with the governor have been scheduled. If a special session were proposed, Fitzgibbon said lawmakers would need to see a proposal about what legislation would be considered.
“We’re still kind of absorbing it, but I’m certain we will need to be in conversation with both the governor and the Senate about what this means for Washingtonians,” Fitzgibbon said.
Absent a special session, lawmakers will return to the state Capitol in January for their regularly scheduled session, which will include passage of a supplemental budget.
After a series of temporary holdouts from some members, U.S. House Republicans passed what Trump called the “big, beautiful bill” 218-214 Thursday, with all but two voting for it.
Washington’s two Republican House members, Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Sunnyside, and Michael Baumgartner, R-Spokane, voted for the plan, citing tax cuts that GOP leaders argue will boost the economy.
Baumgartner praised the package, which locked in Trump tax cuts passed during his first term, as a “bold, serious step toward getting our economy back on track and restoring real accountability in Washington, D.C.”
“Hardworking Americans deserve a government that rewards work, drives growth, and knows when to get out of the way,” Baumgartner said in a Thursday statement. “The One Big Beautiful Bill does just that — keeping more money where it belongs: in the pockets of working families.”
The bill adds temporary new tax deductions on tips, overtime pay and auto loans. It also includes a $6,000 deduction for older adults who earn no more than $75,000 a year. And it boosts the $2,000 child tax credit to $2,200, although millions of lower-income families will not qualify for the full credit.
Democrats from the state’s congressional delegation, meanwhile, slammed the final House vote, accusing their Republican colleagues of betraying Americans before the Fourth of July weekend.
All Democrats — including eight from Washington state’s delegation — opposed the policy package, which contains $4.5 trillion in tax breaks and over $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid and food stamps and also targets Affordable Care Act plans.
“The most outrageous and immoral part is that this is all so billionaires and large corporations can get yet another massive tax break,” U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Medina, said in a statement. “It is clear who Republicans stand with, and it is not working families.”
The bill will also affect about 1 million Washingtonians who use SNAP benefits to buy food. It reduces benefits to the average household under the Thrifty Food Plan by $56 per month, Ferguson’s office said.
It will require more than 130,000 Washingtonians to meet new work requirements to keep their benefits. Washington will also be on the hook for an additional $88 million in administrative costs, and the state’s share of the benefit costs will rise by at least $100 million.
State hospital leaders referred to the bill as a “disaster” that will deepen financial losses. Larger health care systems, including in the Seattle area, will likely have to consider cutting or consolidating services, but rural hospitals, which are more financially fragile, at risk of closing altogether, said Cassie Sauer, president and CEO of the Washington State Hospital Association.
“Our hospital leaders are very ground down by the notion of, ‘Am I going to have to close my labor and delivery or my mental health services?’” Sauer said. “It just makes me feel sick.”
Hospital emergency, trauma and inpatient care are generally considered to be “core services,” she said. “Everything else is at risk,” Sauer said, noting that labor and delivery, home health, urgent care, and occupational therapy services will likely be some of the first to go.
Astria Health, based in Sunnyside, Yakima County, said the bill will likely mean changes to services, consolidation or a merger.
“We have stretched resources as far as they can go,” Brian Gibbons, Astria’s president and CEO, said in a statement. “But no health system — especially one serving multiple underserved communities — can continue reallocating funds without consequences.”
The bill would impose a nationwide requirement that some people work, volunteer or pursue an educational program to receive Medicaid coverage. Some people are exempt from the requirement.
The bill would also restrict some federal funding to state programs, including Washington’s directed payment program, which it uses to pay some Medicaid providers at higher rates.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
