U.S. Rep Kelly Morrison Statement on Passage of Republican Budget Bill
July 3, 2025
WASHINGTON, DC – Today, U.S. Representative Kelly Morrison (MN-03) released the following statement on the passage of the Republican budget bill, which passed the U.S. House of Representatives this afternoon on a party line vote.
“Today, President Trump and his Republican majority chose to take health care and food away from children and families in order to give tax cuts to billionaires. This bill will kick millions of Americans off their health insurance, force hospitals to close, and make health care more expensive and harder to get for everyone. It will devastate our state budget, increase costs for Minnesota families, and explode the national debt and deficit. It’s cruel – and Minnesotans deserve better. I’m going to keep working every day for policies that serve all Minnesotans – not just the wealthiest among us,” said Congresswoman Kelly Morrison.
As a doctor for more than 20 years, Congresswoman Morrison has been fiercely opposed to how the Republicans’ dangerous budget enacts the largest cut to Medicaid in our nation’s history, will cause almost 17 million Americans to lose health insurance, will force hospitals, clinics, and nursing homes to close, and will take food assistance away from children and families. It represents the single largest transfer of wealth from the working class to the wealthiest in our nation’s history.
In Minnesota, it has already been reported that the Republicans’ budget will force hospitals to close, cut hundreds of thousands of Minnesotans from Medicaid coverage, increase property taxes, raise energy bills, reduce funding for colleges and students, and leave a $1.6 billion hole in the state budget.
Congresswoman Morrison introduced 12 amendments to try and make this bill work better for the American people. Earlier this week, Rep. Morrison testified at the House Rules Committee in opposition to the Republican budget bill. Watch the full video of Rep. Morrison’s testimony HERE. Read the full transcript of Rep. Morrison’s testimony HERE and below.
Thank you, M. Chair, Ranking Member, members of the committee.
I honestly can’t believe that I am sitting here today again to try to convince my Republican colleagues that it is immoral to sell off the health of the American people in order to cut taxes for multi-millionaires and billionaires.
But that is exactly what the Republicans’ “Big Beautiful Bill” does.
Unfortunately, the Republicans' “Big Beautiful Bill” is even worse than the last time I sat here before this committee, and pleaded with Republicans to not make the largest cut to Medicaid in our nation’s history and upend our nation’s health care system.
But here we are – discussing this bill yet again – and the cuts are even bigger, and the impact on our health care will be even worse.
The Republicans’ budget is a betrayal of the American people.
It is the largest cut to Medicaid in our nation’s history.
$1.1 trillion dollars in health care cuts.
It will kick 17 million Americans off their health insurance.
It will force hospitals to shut down.
It will force nursing homes to shut down.
It will restrict access to reproductive health care.
It will increase health care costs.
It will increase premiums.
It will increase out-of-pocket costs.
It will make more families go bankrupt from medical debt.
It will cripple our nation’s health.
And that's not even getting into any of the rest of the disaster of this bill: the largest cut to food assistance in our nation’s history… killing more jobs in one single bill than ever before in history… increasing consumer energy costs… raising property taxes in all 87 counties in my home state…exploding the national debt… the list goes on.
But I’m a doctor. And today, I want to talk about the unconscionable disaster this bill is for American’s health and our nation’s health care system.
One thing I want every single American to know is that even if you don’t have Medicaid, or even know anyone who uses Medicaid, the Republican budget will affect you too.
It doesn’t matter what insurance you have when your local hospital closes.
And with this budget, hospitals will close.
Clinics will close.
This will be a catastrophe for all of us.
We will all have less access to health care.
It’s incredibly dangerous.
But I don’t want us to lose sight of the human impact of this.
As this bill gets closer to becoming the law of the land, I can’t stop thinking about my patients.
I can see their faces – the faces of the mothers and families I have taken care of. Who got their health insurance through Medicaid.
Do they not matter? Are they somehow less important? Where are they supposed to go to get health care?
80 million Americans get their health insurance through Medicaid. Almost half of all American children get their coverage through Medicaid.
What are you doing?
Where is your humanity?
What is most chilling and soul-crushing throughout this entire process, is that the Republican majority doesn’t care.
They don’t care.
And this isn’t speculative – it isn’t being presumptuous, or guessing about their intentions.
They are literally telling us.
The Vice President of the United States, JD Vance called gutting Medicaid “minutiae” and kicking millions of Americans off their health insurance “immaterial.”
Republican Senator Mitch McConnell said Americans who are concerned about losing Medicaid will "get over it."
Republican Senator Joni Ernst defended the life-threatening gutting of Medicaid by saying “Well, we are all going to die.”
As we sit here today, I am outraged by what Republicans are doing to future generations.\
I never want to hear Republicans say they are the party of families ever again.
Half of all children in the United States of America get their health care coverage through Medicaid.
One in every four children in the United States of America get food assistance through SNAP.
Republicans are taking away health care and food from our children in order to prioritize billionaires and perpetuate wealth inequality.
It’s wrong. It’s immoral. It’s unconscionable.
We haven’t even begun to unpack all the ways in which this bill is a moral abomination and honestly an embarrassment of a piece of legislation.
If you were serious about putting together a good budget for the American people, you wouldn't try to shove it through on an artificial deadline.
You wouldn’t force debate through the dark cover of night.
You wouldn’t vote on it without even reading the text of the bill.
But the Republican majority is just unquestioningly doing the President’s bidding.
They have ceded all their power to the President, who is beholden to his billionaire class.
The more the American people learn about this bill, the more they hate it.
You’ve seen the polls. You’ve received the calls and emails. You know the American people don’t want it.
That’s why I’m submitting an amendment to scrap the whole bill.
Listen to the people you were sent here to represent.
So, let’s start over. Write a bill for the American people. Not the billionaires.
##
Issues:
Reproductive Rights
Economy
Health Care