July 3, 2025 – After a long night of convincing ultra-conservative and moderate holdouts to vote with their party, followed by a nearly nine-hour, impassioned speech staged by Representative Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York), Republicans passed their massive tax bill, complete with sweeping changes to food assistance and many other provisions that will have profound impacts on the food system. President Trump is expected to quickly sign the bill.
“We are going to make this country stronger, safer, and more prosperous than ever before and every American is going to benefit from that,” Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) said right before lawmakers cast their votes, as his Republican colleagues whooped and whistled in celebration.
The bill includes the biggest-ever changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the nation’s largest hunger-relief program. Expanded work requirements are expected to lead to 5 million Americans losing their grocery benefits, while a $65 billion cost-shift to states could lead to states cutting benefits or discontinuing SNAP altogether. Cuts to healthcare could compound the struggle low-income Americans will face in putting food on the table, with 11.8 million people expected to lose Medicaid coverage and 4.2 million losing Obamacare (Affordable Care Act) insurance plans. Farmers rely disproportionately on those plans.
“Pregnant women, children, seniors, single mothers, the disabled, and the low-income Americans among us receiving Medicaid and SNAP will have the peace of mind of knowing that we’ve made these safety nets stronger with our reforms,” Johnson said.
During his record-breaking speech on the floor, Jeffries read letters from families who rely on food aid and farmers in states around the country, calling the bill “an assault” on healthcare, nutritional assistance, children, veterans, farmers, and everyday Americans. “Millions of Americans, our fellow Americans, are at risk of going hungry,” he said.
While the majority of Americans will see slightly lower taxes, the tax breaks in the bill will disproportionately benefit the wealthiest families. Families in the lowest income brackets will see their resources significantly reduced, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
The bill includes $67 billion for commodity farm payments, but Democrats on the House Agriculture Committee pointed to the fact that farms and other sectors of the food chain will also be hit by the SNAP cuts as families’ purchasing power dwindles. They estimate the cuts will lead to a $25 billion drop in farm revenue over 10 years. SNAP is also responsible for close to 250,000 grocery jobs.
“Today marks a grave turning point for our country, one which leaves rural communities and farmers behind and places us on the road toward increased hunger, less prosperity, and fewer opportunities for working families,” said Angie Craig (D-Minnesota), the top Democrat on the committee. Craig said the inclusion of SNAP cuts and some farm bill provisions in the bill will also make it harder to pass a farm bill, leaving other farm programs stuck in limbo.
The bill could also affect farmers and the broader food system by allocating historic resources toward the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigrants, which is already impacting food and farm workers. It includes $121.5 billion in new funding for hiring and training more Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers, expanding detention centers, and building the border wall. It will also prevent some immigrants in the country legally, including refugees and asylum seekers, from accessing food aid and healthcare assistance.
Finally, the bill will deal a huge blow to the transition to renewable energy at a time when farmers are increasingly confronting the impacts of climate change. It will eliminate Biden-era tax credits for solar and wind farms and other renewable infrastructure projects unless they come online before the end of 2027, a provision that will stop many projects because they often take years to get permits, raise funds, and construct. (Link to this post.)
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