Nebraska advocates call on House 'to do the right thing' after Senate OKs Medicaid cuts
By Andrew Wegley, Lincoln Journal Star
(July 1, 2025)
After Republican U.S. Sens. Deb Fischer and Pete Ricketts of Nebraska helped send President Donald Trump's domestic policy bill back to the House on the narrowest of margins Tuesday, Democrats and advocacy groups panned the move and shifted their attention to the House Republicans representing the Cornhusker State in Congress.
Fischer and Ricketts joined 48 other GOP senators and Vice President JD Vance in the 51-50 vote to advance the sweeping measure, which would extend tax cuts enacted in 2017 and boost defense spending while cutting $1 trillion in the next decade from Medicaid.
The bill's steep cuts to federal nutrition aid and the government insurance program that covers about 346,000 Nebraskans raised alarm among advocates, who had warned that proposed SNAP cuts would shift millions in federal costs onto the state while Medicaid cuts could cost more than 100,000 Nebraskans their health coverage and force six hospitals in rural parts of the state to close.
A bipartisan group of state lawmakers had warned Fischer and Ricketts that the SNAP cuts "pose serious risk to Nebraskans," while rural health advocates warned the senators about what the proposed Medicaid cuts would mean for the state's most vulnerable.
In the hours after Tuesday's vote, some of the same advocates issued statements skewering the bill and the Senate.
Jane Kleeb, the chair of Nebraska's Democratic Party, said Republicans "will stop at nothing to harm working and middle-class Americans. All so they can give huge tax handouts to billionaires."
Jeremy Nordquist, the president of the Nebraska Hospital Association, said the bill "doubles down on long-term Medicaid cuts that will undermine our rural hospitals and health care services across Nebraska."
“Rural communities deserve stability, not political games that kick critical decisions down the road," he said in a statement.
In her own statement following Tuesday's vote, Fischer made no mention of the cuts and instead pointed to provisions on the bill that extended the 2017 tax cuts, invests security spending and makes permanent a paid family and medical leave tax credit Fischer first worked to pass in Trump's first term.
"(The bill) keeps taxes low, boosts small businesses, strengthens our military, supports farmers and ranchers and makes energy more affordable for everyone," Fischer wrote, later adding: “I urge the House to take up this bill and send it to the president’s desk so we can deliver on our promises to empower working families and keep America safe, strong and prosperous.”
Ricketts, meanwhile, called the bill "a once-in-a-generation opportunity to deliver for Nebraska."
“This legislation will result in increased security, strength, and prosperity for the American people," he said in a statement. "The bill restores critical pro-growth business provisions and makes them permanent, benefitting Nebraska farming, ranching, and small business. Most of all, this is a win for families in Nebraska — creating a brighter future for our country.”
While Fischer called on the House to send the bill to Trump's desk, advocates in Nebraska called on representatives to amend the bill and send it back to the Senate, which deepened Medicaid cuts included in the version of the bill House Republicans sent to the chamber in May.
Nordquist called on Nebraska's House members — GOP Reps. Mike Flood, Don Bacon and Adrian Smith of the state's 1st, 2nd and 3rd congressional districts — to "stand firm and send the bill back to the Senate with the provisions that support rural hospitals and preserve access to care for all Nebraskans."
Angie Lauritsen, the director of the political advocacy group Nebraska For Us, called on Bacon in particular "to do the right thing when it matters most." The 2nd District congressman announced Monday he wouldn't seek reelection to the House next year.
"His legacy is on the line," Lauritsen said. "He can either stand with working Nebraskans or be remembered for helping pass a bill that rips away health care, food and opportunities from the very people he should be helping.”
In a press conference Monday, the retiring Republican called some of the changes emerging from the Senate in recent days “concerning," but he hasn't signaled whether he'll vote for or against the bill this time around.
In a social media post Tuesday, Smith called the Senate's passage of the bill "great news for Americans" and said it was "time for us to come together in the House to send this bill" to Trump's desk.
Flood, who did not return a phone call seeking comment Tuesday, has already faced intense backlash over his support for the bill, which he has pinned in part on the bill's spending reductions that the 1st District congressman has said will help address the federal deficit.
The version of the bill the Senate returned to the House on Tuesday would add at least $3.3 trillion to the national debt — $1 trillion more than the version House Republicans passed in May.
