PRESS RELEASE
May 23, 2025 
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Alex McCausland, Communications Manager, amccausland@nmvoices.org, 562-305-9766 

ALBUQUERQUE, NM – Early Thursday morning, May 22, 2025, the U.S. House of Representatives approved a dangerous budget bill that would cut health care and food assistance for the most vulnerable to pay for tax cuts for the wealthiest in our county. This bill will increase inequity in our communities, causing harm to low- and middle-income families here in New Mexico and across the country. The bill includes the largest cuts to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in history and takes away food assistance and health coverage from lawfully present immigrants.

In response, New Mexico Voices for Children Executive Director Gabrielle Uballez issued the following statement:

“At NM Voices for Children, we believe budgets are moral documents that reflect our values and priorities. This week’s reconciliation bill fails that test—it falls short of advancing economic equity and racial justice, and we strongly oppose it,”  Uballez said. “This bill prioritizes profits over people by promising tax cuts for the wealthiest in this country and cutting essential services like Medicaid and SNAP that our children and families rely on.”

Over 830,000 New Mexicans rely on Medicaid for health coverage, and Medicaid is the largest payer of health care in New Mexico. The current cuts to Medicaid that national policymakers are proposing will leave thousands of New Mexicans without affordable health care coverage and push tremendous costs onto state budgets, all to provide tax cuts for the ultra wealthy.

Nationwide, millions of people rely on SNAP benefits, and the same is true for those living in New Mexico. SNAP is an anti-poverty measure that reduces food insecurity, and the reconciliation bill would put about 148,000 New Mexicans at risk of losing a portion, if not all of their food assistance benefits. A third of New Mexican children rely on SNAP. 

New Mexico puts people first by ensuring that children, families, and those most vulnerable have access to life-saving services such as health care, food assistance, and utility assistance. This so-called “big beautiful bill” does nothing but add an ugly outlook for our communities, especially children and families who will experience loss of services if this bill is signed into law. 

For more than half a century, the federal government has been committed to cutting poverty, but this bill abandons our shared vision of creating a country where everyone has a fair shot at opportunity. The bill now moves to the Senate, where senators have the chance to denounce these devastating cuts that will erase years of progress. We thank our Congressional delegation for being strong champions for New Mexico and taking a stance to protect struggling people in this country by rejecting this reckless plan.

FROM CBPP → 

Additional Information About the Reconciliation Bill

Key details include:

  • More than $800 billion in cuts to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplaces over ten years, resulting in about 15 million people losing health care coverage.

  • Nearly $300 billion in cuts to SNAP, which would take away or cut food assistance for millions of people including 2 million or more children—and could end the program entirely in some states.

  •  An average tax cut of roughly $90,000 to households earning more than $1 million a year in 2027, while low-income households receive an average of just $90 from the tax cuts — and bear the brunt of cuts to Medicaid and SNAP.

  • Millions of children in working families with low incomes left out of even the temporary increase in the Child Tax Credit.

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New Mexico Voices for Children is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization advocating for policies to improve the health and well-being of New Mexico’s children, families and communities. 625 Silver Ave. SW, Suite 195, Albuquerque, NM 87102; 505-244-9505 (p); www.nmvoices.org