Topline
It has been exactly one year since President Donald Trump signed his landmark spending legislation—dubbed the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act”—into law last Fourth of July and while many of the bill’s provisions have yet to come to fruition, there are several major ways the legislation has already made its mark.
Key Facts
SNAP enrollment has fallen: More than 3.5 million people have lost access to food assistance as states implement eligibility changes and stricter processes for applying as outlined in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA).
“Trump Accounts” launched: Millions of newborns will start to receive $1,000 in government-funded seed money on July 4 for new Roth-IRA style investment accounts established by the bill and now available for anyone under the age of 18.
Half a million have lost health coverage: About 500,000 moderate-income New Yorkers who were dropped from their health insurance plans on July 1 were among the first to lose coverage of an expected 5 million who will no longer be insured at the end of the year due to mandated reductions in Medicaid and Affordable Care Act coverage.
Trump tax cuts made permanent: Most of the individual tax cuts from the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act Trump signed in his first term were made permanent instead of being allowed to expire, including lowering federal income tax brackets and increasing the standard deduction.
More immigrants have been arrested: The OBBBA allocated roughly $191 billion to the Department of Homeland Security for increased immigration enforcement, which has funded a push to hire 10,000 new agents, raise detention capacity and increase surveillance technology—and a 25% increase in immigration arrests since this time last year.
Hospitals are cutting services: As patients lose Medicaid coverage, hospitals are gearing up for what they anticipate will be higher uncompensated-care costs and some have already started laying off workers, cutting services and closing clinics, while several hospital associations have warned financially fragile hospitals could be forced to close.
Clean-energy investment has slowed: The OBBBA made it much harder for developers of clean energy projects to qualify for lucrative federal tax credits, and companies have now delayed or canceled projects that would have generated about 7 gigawatts of renewable-energy capacity (enough to power New York City on an average day) and more than $121 billion in planned wind, solar and battery investments is now considered to be at risk.
Child care tax benefits expanded: The bill expanded the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit to incentivize employers to provide child care and allow families to claim more child care expenses on their taxes (policy experts have noted the changes will have a minimum impact on very low-income families who already have little or no federal income tax liability).
Adoption tax credits expanded: The OBBBA made $5,000 worth of the existing adoption tax credit (up to $17,280 per eligible child in 2025) refundable, meaning adoptive families who owe little or no federal income tax can get the unused portion directly into their pockets as a refund from the federal government.
Medical, law school borrowing capped: Provisions of the OBBBA that went into effect this week have capped federal loans for professional programs—including medical, dental and law school—at $200,000, despite the education easily costing up to $400,000, which CNN reports has some students reconsidering entering the medical field.
CHIEF CRITICS
Critics have argued that the OBBBA disproportionately benefits wealthy people by implementing individual tax cuts and offsetting the cut to revenue with reductions to Medicaid, nutrition assistance and clean-energy incentives. Economists and policy organizations argued the bill would increase income inequality because higher-income households received the largest tax benefits, while lower-income households were forced to bear the impact of the spending cuts. All Democrats in Congress vehemently opposed the bill and three Senate Republicans—Susan Collins of Maine, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Thom Tillis of North Carolina—voted against it. Collins and Tillis broke ranks primarily over concerns that the legislation’s Medicaid cuts would harm their constituents, while Paul was critical of its massive impact on the national debt.
CONTRA
Supporters argued the act would prevent large tax increases and provide financial certainty to families and businesses. They also said the bill would spur economic growth and encourage investment and manufacturing. They defended Medicaid cuts and reform by claiming they’d reduce waste, fraud and abuse of the program.
Key background
The bill signed last Fourth of July, which contains hundreds of provisions, is the backbone of Trump’s domestic spending agenda. It raises the debt ceiling by $5 trillion and is estimated to increase the budget deficit by $2.8 trillion by 2034. The bill passed Congress by a 51-50 vote in the Senate (Vice President JD Vance had to break a 50-50 tie) and a 218-214 vote in the House of Representatives despite universal Democratic opposition in both chambers.