President Donald Trump’s so-called “Big Beautiful Bill”—the federal megabill that slashes health care, raises the deficit, and lowers taxes for the rich—is now law. The next fight is coming to a statehouse near you.
The Trump-GOP budget bill will cut more than $1 trillion in Medicaid and food assistance alone over ten years—the biggest reduction in history. This will strip more than ten million people of their health care and cut food assistance for more than twenty-two million families.
And by shifting costs onto the states, Congress is setting up state lawmakers and governors to take the fall for the damage.
For example, the bill shifts billions in costs for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to the states. It will require state governments to set up entire new bureaucracies to satisfy Congress’ thirst for paperwork traps. And while the bill’s tax cuts for the wealthy are permanent, many of the tax cuts for working families will end after 2028.
In coming months, the bill is also likely to cause higher prices at the grocery store, skyrocketing health insurance premiums, and painful utility bills. Families are going to be worse off financially as a result. Classrooms and cafeterias will have to do more with less. Communities all across the country will be squeezed and states will face enormous pressure to adapt.
But after working in state policy for many years, I have hope that state and local lawmakers can rise to the occasion. State representatives, senators, and governors—often with deep ties to the communities they live in and represent—take their jobs seriously and personally.
And when they don’t, their friends, families, neighbors, and fellow residents can help ensure they remember their roots.
In the short term, there are really only two options for states: State lawmakers can either pass on the pain to their constituents and the families that depend on them, or they can go on offense and show how well policy can serve communities when you put real people at the heart of it.
They need to get going now. As in right now.
States can pass legislation that raises the revenue needed to turn Congress’ historic betrayal into an example of state legislators being heroes for the people. To do this, state leaders should be calling for special legislative sessions before the end of the year. Colorado is starting one soon, and New Yorkers are demanding that their state leaders do the same to get in front of a potential disaster.
This shouldn’t be a hard decision. Congress and Trump’s big bill are uniquely and historically unpopular. For months, Americans protested and lobbied against this harmful federal budget at hundreds of events all across the country.
Momentum, justice, and math are on the side of state leaders who act proactively to respond. But there will be no sympathy for lawmakers who drag their feet—those who “monitor the situation” without taking action as their constituents lose their health care, go hungry, or worse.
Thankfully, we’re seeing courage at the state level from leaders who’ve put families first.
Governors like Maryland’s Wes Moore, Minnesota’s Tim Walz, and my own governor, New Mexico’s Michelle Lujan Grisham, have worked with legislators to revise their tax codes to make the wealthiest residents pay their fair share. They’re part of a new cadre of state leaders who are willing to do what’s needed to fund the futures that our children, families, and communities deserve.
Heroes don’t waste time in a crisis. We need state leaders to get to work.
This column was produced for Progressive Perspectives, a project of The Progressive magazine, and distributed by Tribune News Service.