On Friday, June 6, United Way of Metropolitan Dallas hosted a Federal Budget Briefing Virtual Lunch & Learn to unpack how the federal budget reconciliation process could shape the future of critical services in North Texas.
As Congress debates potential cuts to essential programs, we are closely monitoring how these decisions could impact our region—especially programs like Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which provide vital support for healthcare and food access. Cuts in these areas would harm our neighbors and impede progress toward our community-wide Aspire United 2030 goals in education, income and health.
The virtual event brought together policy experts to explore:
- The federal budget reconciliation process and what’s currently on the table
- The potential impact of proposed cuts to safety net programs like Medicaid and SNAP
- How these changes could affect the Texas state budget and local communities across North Texas
- Actionable ways to advocate for the protection of these essential programs
Read on to learn more about the engaging briefing and what the federal budget process could mean for North Texas.
Making Sense of the Local Impact of the Federal Budget
Hillary Evans, vice president of Policy and Advocacy at United Way of Metropolitan Dallas, moderated the discussion. She opened the session by highlighting the deep connection between federal budget priorities and local policy outcomes.
“No matter how you’re entering this discussion, there’s a lot of information and misinformation out there in this ever-changing federal policy landscape,” she said. “The purpose of this briefing is to inform and focus on what we can do. We will be providing an overview of the federal budget process and where we are currently in the process, developing a deeper understanding of how the federal budget affects Texas and our North Texas communities, particularly through an economic impact lens. And then we want to leave you with tangible ways to engage in advocacy and stay informed.”
The event served as both an educational resource and a call to action, empowering attendees to stay informed and involved in shaping policies that directly affect the well-being of North Texans. It featured a panel discussion with some of our community’s leading change agents, each of whom have firsthand experience with how the federal budget cuts have impacted the community in the sectors of education, income and health:
- Daniel Bouton, vice president of health and wellness, United Way of Metropolitan Dallas
- Lynn Cowles, director of health and food justice, Every Texan
- Kelsey Mellette, director of federal policy and advocacy, United Way Worldwide
View a video for the full event below, or read on for highlights from the Q&A.
Insights From Local Policy Experts
Hillary Evans: Kelsey, Congress is using budget reconciliation as a strategy to fast-track the “One Big, Beautiful Bill Act,” or the tax and spending plan that’s working its way through Congress. Could you level set us as to what budget reconciliation actually means and where things currently stand? Also, how does President Trump’s proposed budget factor into the federal budget process?
Kelsey Mellette: Budget reconciliation is a special legislative tool that can be used to fast-track high-priority legislation that changes spending, revenues or the debt limit. In practice, this means tax policies and changes to mandatory or entitlement spending, such as programs like Medicare, Medicaid and SNAP. Notably, budget reconciliation cannot be used for any changes to Social Security.
In the Senate, reconciliation bills are not subject to the 60-vote threshold of typical legislation and instead can pass with 51 votes. That’s why it’s been a really appealing process when one party controls the White House, the House of Representatives and the Senate, but doesn’t have the full 60 votes in the Senate to pass legislation through the normal process. To get the process started, it’s a little technical, but the House and Senate agree to an annual budget resolution that sets their overall budget plan for the year.
So talking about the fiscal year 2025 Bill, the one Big Beautiful Bill Act is really intended to be the centerpiece legislation of President Trump’s first-year agenda with a few goals: to reauthorize the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, raise the debt ceiling, and increase defense and border spending. But I know we’ve heard a lot from our network on some of the key areas of concern from the budget. The president’s budget proposes to eliminate AmeriCorps funding and the entire Corporation for National and Community Service and then Head Start. Another cut that we’ve heard about from the network that I think folks are tracking is the cut to the maximum annual Pell Grant, which helps low-income students support post-secondary education. But the president’s budget is just a recommendation, and I encourage people to remember that Congress has the ultimate decision on what is funded and at what levels.
Evans: Lynn, given your expertise in healthcare and food access, could you explain specifically how programs like Medicaid and SNAP could be affected in Texas? What would be the overall economic impact if these proposed cuts go through?
Lynn Cowles: The effects that we’ll see in coverage in Texas are vast, and because Medicaid is a complicated program, they extend into many different populations and in many different ways. The first thing that I wanted to cover, in case anyone is not totally steeped in this world, are some of the key programs that we’re going to see cut by these budget proposals. So, Medicaid is a no-cost healthcare program for low-income children, for seniors, for disabled people and for pregnant people in Texas.
There are some things that the federal government requires Medicaid to cover. Right now, there’s not a whole lot in the bill that tries to make changes to coverage services, but some services that are covered by Medicaid are optional in states. Medicaid covers primary care and specialist care. If a kid needs to go get an injury checked out and then they need to see a radiologist for an x-ray and then maybe they need to see a dentist, all these things are covered by Medicaid, but dental care is actually like an option. So, states opt into dental care. If the federal government takes money away from the Medicaid program, then states have to deal with that somehow. And oftentimes states will cut optional programs to deal with the lack of funding that’s coming from the federal government when we see cuts like this.
But we have never actually seen cuts like this before, so we don’t know yet and state lawmakers don’t know. And we’re all waiting to see what happens with the Senate, how reasonable senators are actually going to be with the level of these devastating cuts that they feel comfortable with in thinking about their constituents, and whether or not state lawmakers are going to have to cut things like kids’ dental care or nursing home care for seniors or long-term services and supports like in-home assistive devices for people with disabilities and whatnot. So, these are just some of the big things that Medicaid covers for folks in Texas. And all of these things are at threat with budget cuts this big.
SNAP is also called food stamps. These are direct dollars. It’s a bit easier to explain the federal cuts to SNAP because basically what the federal government is suggesting is to reduce the amounts that the federal government sends to states to put onto people’s Lone Star cards or to provide direct dollars for people to spend on food.
So what we’re talking about here is just less money for food, not like program cuts, not service unavailability or anything. So SNAP cuts are much more direct. And so we’ll talk about how the messaging differs a little bit or how we can think about these things when we’re really trying to get to our lawmakers and say, “Look, this is going to affect your community and people are going to suffer.”
The SNAP cuts are really important. The Affordable Care Act cuts are really important. Those are also dollars sent from the treasury to people who get health insurance in Texas. If we lose those dollars, then fewer people will be insured. Medicaid in the children’s health insurance program is already really, really lean. In Texas, we don’t cover as many people as other states cover because the Texas legislature has never expanded Medicaid eligibility to low-income adults. And that is a key population that a lot of these federal budget cuts are targeting right now. Because Texas never opted into the availability of Medicaid for low-income adults, that population has never had Medicaid in Texas, so they’re not at risk of losing it like they are in other states.
Evans: Daniel, could you discuss some of the healthcare access programs that United Way of Metropolitan Dallas supports?
Daniel Bouton: United Way of Metropolitan Dallas has several programs, but I’m going to talk to you about Healthcare Navigator, which is federally funded and works to increase access to healthcare and healthy food in 16 counties in North Texas. So, when we talk about the impact these funding cuts would make in communities, it’s just huge. Our funding comes from the Affordable Care Act, and this federal funding allows United Way to hire, train and deploy Healthcare Navigators into communities that are in critical need to receive these services. Our navigators walk individuals and families through the healthcare options. They not only explore the health insurance options, help them apply, help them walk through the complexities of the application, but also help them apply for SNAP. I know that we’re talking about SNAP and how it cuts would impact our communities. Our navigators really, really take the time to complete these applications to make sure that the documentation that is necessary for the application to go through and approve it is completed the right way.
Evans: Daniel, how can this work continue in terms of being able to navigate around these cuts? It’s obviously going to look different.
Bouton: I think that there are many things we can do to continue the work. It is with conversations like this one, how do we engage, how do we get involved, how do we advocate for programs like Healthcare Navigators and how do we speak up to stop some of these funding cuts that we know are critical.
Let’s just talk about real-life impact. So, as we reach out to our legislatures to talk about this, let me just talk to you about SNAP and the consequences of these cuts. We know that SNAP and WIC are critical lifelines for millions of people in Texas. Our children are going to skip meals or rely on cheaper, unhealthy foods. Our parents are going to skip meals because we need to feed our kids. We know that students are going to struggle academically. We know that a child who is hungry is not going to perform the same way. We also know that food insecurity will lead to chronic stress and health issues. The USDA’s latest study tells us that the average SNAP benefit is around $6.10 per person per day. So, let’s just talk about a 10% funding cut. What does that mean? It means that a family loses about $74 a month. That is huge for a family. That is $74 less to be able to buy healthy food. Households then are forced to buy cheaper or less healthy food. Recent research from Harvard says that people who have access to less healthy food see higher future healthcare costs. So that is $1,400 more per person that we will spend on their health. So again, just giving you the consequences of these funding cuts and then quantifying the economic impact.
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