[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 85 (Tuesday, May 20, 2025)]
[House]
[Pages H2151-H2152]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   MEDICAID AND SOCIAL SECURITY CUTS

  (Mr. Espaillat of New York was recognized to address the House for 5 
minutes.)
  Mr. ESPAILLAT. Mr. Speaker, tonight in the middle of the night and in 
darkness, away from the view of the American people, hidden in some 
committee room in the Capitol, the Rules Committee will meet. They are 
scheduled to meet at 1 a.m. in the morning when Americans are sleeping 
and when families are resting awaiting the next day.
  They are scheduled to meet to discuss at length Medicaid cuts. More 
than one-half of the residents in the district that I have the 
privilege to represent, the 13th Congressional District, encompassed by 
Harlem, east Harlem, Washington Heights, Inwood, and the northwest 
Bronx, more than

[[Page H2152]]

one-half--close to 500,000 of my constituents--are Medicaid recipients. 
They receive primary and emergency healthcare. Almost 4 million 
residents in New York City, one-half of the city, rely on Medicaid.
  Mr. Speaker, this discussion that will be held in the middle of the 
night when most Americans will not be tuned in is a life-and-death 
discussion about cuts to perhaps the most important Federal program 
that impacts the daily health and life of people across the country, 
the Medicaid program.
  Again, over 3 million New York City residents are also enrolled in 
the New York State Medicaid Pharmacy program, the so-called OTC 
program, the Over-the-Counter program, which allows coverage of 
prescription drugs and certain over-the-counter medication and goods, 
including food. So this is a life-and-death discussion that our 
Republican colleagues are having in the middle of the night after 
promising the American people that Medicaid will be safe from deep 
cuts.
  Republicans have spent time and will spend time delivering a bill 
that will devastate--again, Mr. Speaker, will devastate Medicaid 
enrollment rates. This, again, will happen in the middle of the night. 
They are scheduled to meet at 1 a.m. in the morning.
  Mr. Speaker, 14 million Americans will lose their healthcare, and 
safety net hospitals will be in danger of closing. Yes, even senior 
homes, nursing homes, will be facing severe cuts and potential closing, 
and people could die. This is a life-and-death discussion, Mr. Speaker. 
All of this is to pay for severe tax cuts for the very wealthy.
  The bill will require harsh work requirements for Medicaid 
recipients. It will force people who are ill or sick to go to work to 
receive the benefits that the program offers that will terminate 
coverage for millions of low-income Americans including seniors, 
children, and veterans.
  Republicans also have introduced a $300-million cut to the SNAP 
program, yes, on food stamps, which would impact 300,000 people in my 
district, many of them children and seniors who rely on the benefit to 
eat.
  Mr. Speaker, 35 percent of them are children.
  This will be the largest cut to the Food Stamp Program in our 
Nation's history. In the middle of the night, Republicans will cut 
Medicaid and will cut food stamps when people are not watching. This is 
nothing more than a GOP tax scam that gives billions of dollars in tax 
breaks to millionaires and gives nothing back to working-class families 
but empty stomachs and Medicaid debt to the working class.
  Mr. Speaker, the billionaire wins and families lose with this bill. 
Let's fight back.

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