Recently, the House passed H.R.1 – the One, Big, Beautiful Bill Act. This is a comprehensive piece of legislation that eliminates more than $1.5 trillion in waste, fraud, and abuse in the federal government while best serving the American people by protecting vital programs and making the tax cuts from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) permanent.

I wanted to take a moment to share the great wins in this bill that serve the American people and their families.

Supporting our Farmers and Agricultural Producers

As a member of the House Committee on Agriculture, I had direct involvement with the committee’s reconciliation process. I am proud that we passed a bill that supports our farmers, strengthens our nation’s agricultural industry, and protects SNAP. Specifically, the One, Big, Beautiful Bill:

• Increases the Dairy Tier I cap
• Invests in agriculture research
• Bolsters trade promotion
• Protects SNAP will restore integrity in the program by:
  • Establishing work requirements for able-bodied adults without dependents
  • Prevents states from administering benefits to illegal aliens and ensures benefits are directed to U.S. citizens and permanent residents
  • Encourages states to administer benefits more efficiently and effectively by tying state cost-sharing to their error rates, starting at 5%. I worked directly with the Agriculture Committee Chairman to ensure cost-sharing rates were proportional to error rates so that states like Wisconsin are not picking up the tab for states with large error rates

While there is $230 billion in savings in SNAP, this is not a cut to the benefits of our most vulnerable populations. These savings come from ensuring that those who are able to work, do work, preserving the program for American citizens and permanent residents, and holding states accountable for their error rates.

Protecting Medicaid

The One, Big, Beautiful Bill also protects Medicaid for those most in need. We refocus the program on American citizens by removing 1.4 million illegal aliens from the benefits roll and stopping 1.6 million people from being enrolled in Medicaid in multiple states at the same time. This will ensure that when states administer Medicaid benefits, they are going to intended recipients such as children, expectant mothers, individuals with disabilities, and seniors.

Preventing Tax Hikes on American Families

Wisconsin’s Third District taxpayers were facing a 25% tax hike if we did not pass this bill. 73,470 families would see their Child Tax Credit (CTC) cut in half, 50,370 small businesses would have been hit with a 43.4% tax rate, and 94% of taxpayers would see their guaranteed Standard Deduction slashed in half. Thankfully, House Republicans worked to make the TJCA of 2017 permanent, saving Americans thousands of dollars in tax increases.

• Prevents the Death Tax from hitting over 2 million family-owned farms who would otherwise have seen their limitation cut in half
• Prevents the Small Business Deduction from ever expiring and increases to 23%
• Increases the CTC by $500 and increases access to the Adoption Tax Credit
• Strengthens the Paid Family and Medical Leave Credit
• Quadruples the maximum Employer-Provided Childcare Credit and adds additional relief for small businesses providing childcare
• Expands Health Savings Accounts for Americans to take control of their healthcare and codifies Trump Individual Coverage Health Reimbursement Arrangements, increasing coverage options for 350,000 individuals

Expanding Educational Opportunities

The cost of higher education continues to rise, often leaving young adults with tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt. We absolutely must work to make four-year colleges more affordable, but we also need to promote alternative education options such as Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs. This bill will help strengthen our future workforce and address student debt by:

• Requiring colleges to have skin in the game by paying a portion of their students’ unpaid loans based on how much of a return on investment the degree provided
• Permitting students to use Pell Grants for short-term, high-quality programs that will lead to good careers like welding, electrical work, Certified Nursing Assistants (CNAs), and Information Technology (IT) technicians
• Streamlining student loan options so students don’t borrow excessive debt they can never repay

Securing Our Borders

President Biden’s policies created the worst border crisis in our nation’s history. However, since President Trump took office, we have already seen massive improvements to our border security, including record-low border crossing numbers and the deportation of criminal illegal aliens. The One, Big, Beautiful Bill builds on the administration’s effort to secure our borders by providing:

• $46 billion for border wall and barrier construction
• $7 billion for recruiting, training, and retaining thousands of USBP agents, customs officers, AMO agents, and support staff
• $5 billion for modernizing and enhancing CBP technology to prevent the flow of illegal aliens and illicit drugs like fentanyl from entering the U.S.

The policies in the One, Big, Beautiful Bill will lower costs for families, return fiscal responsibility to federal spending, and keep Americans safe. It will now head to the Senate and hopefully to President Trump’s desk to be signed into law soon.