Federal Legislation Will Cut Essential Services for Tens of Thousands of Arkansas Families

Here’s what’s happening

On July 4, President Donald Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act into law. This legislation will worsen hunger and strip health care coverage from millions of families — to partially offset trillions in tax cuts. It includes the largest cuts to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program in history and takes away food assistance and health coverage from lawfully present immigrants. All while adding to the national debt.

The legislation increases costs for low-income Arkansans by taking away health care coverage and the SNAP benefits they use to buy food for their kids; increasing the cost of electricity; and making college less affordable. It is an attempt to undermine the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid, which have saved countless lives by expanding health care coverage and making it less expensive. 

For more than half a century, the federal government has been committed to cutting poverty, but this legislation abandons our shared vision of creating a country in which everyone has a fair shot at opportunity. At Arkansas Advocates, we hope senators stand up for Arkansans and demonstrate a real commitment to help struggling people in this country by rejecting this reckless plan. 

Watch: How the OBBBA will Harm Arkansas

Here’s more information about the state-level impact of this legislation.

• We estimate that 131,000 Arkansans are likely to lose health coverage, including those who lose Medicaid and private insurance coverage because of the loss of enhanced tax credits that make Marketplace coverage affordable for lower-income families.
• It will force our state to pick up the tab for as much as 15% of the benefits in the SNAP program, or about $82 million. (If the new state cost share were in effect today, it would cost the state $55 million, or a 10% match.) In addition, the state’s share of administrative costs will go up next year by 50% to $68 million, another added cost that Congress passed along to the states. These new costs may risk the program altogether, because Arkansas could choose not to share these costs and just opt out of the program. This would put the 240,000 Arkansans enrolled in the program at risk of hunger and further economic insecurity. 
• It will significantly expand SNAP’s already harsh work requirements, requiring parents of school-age children to meet red-tape laden requirements even in summer when their children are not in school. This will jeopardize SNAP eligibility for 25,000 Arkansans.  
• It will require veterans, people experiencing homelessness, and youth who have aged out of foster care to meet those same work requirements. Under current law, they’re exempt from such requirements because policymakers recognized that those community members have experienced different forms of trauma — as well as other complications like trouble obtaining identification — that that make it more difficult to gain and maintain employment.
• It takes away eligibility for health coverage and SNAP from refugees and other immigrants who are living and working in the Arkansas legally. (It does maintain eligibility for green card holders and COFA citizens, such as those from the Marshall Islands.)
• It will increase energy prices while cutting jobs. It cuts more than $500 billion from clean energy tax credits, threatening two-thirds of planned projects nationwide. In Arkansas, that may lead to energy prices going up by more than 9% while our state loses 4,500 in clean-energy jobs.  
• It makes college less affordable with changes to Pell Grant eligibility rules. This may result in 13,400 low- and middle-income Arkansas students losing all federal aid and another 29,200 students losing some aid.   
• At the same time, the much-touted tax cuts are skewed. It gives Arkansans with the top 1% in income (those earning more than $668,900 a year) an annual tax cut of $48,810. Meanwhile, the lowest-income families in our state (those earning less than $24,600) would receive just $40. Many would also lose Medicaid and SNAP, resulting in a loss.   
• While the legislation increases the Child Tax Credit from $2,000 to $2,200 per child, only higher-income families will be able to take the full credit. Those who work but don’t earn as much won’t be able to take the full credit. As many as 243,000 children in Arkansas are in families who will be denied the full credit. 

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