Senate passes the Big Beautiful Bill. What will that mean for Californians?
The Senate Tuesday narrowly passed the Big Beautiful Bill full of President Donald Trump’s campaign promises —promises that critics warn could mean millions of Californians could get tax breaks, but many could find it tougher to qualify for Medi-Cal and food assistance.
The bill now goes to a bitterly divided House, where passage is not assured. The House hopes to begin consideration of the bill Wednesday. Trump hopes to have it on his desk this Friday for Independence Day.
Politically vulnerable Republicans such as Rep. David Valadao, R-Hanford, have serious concerns about the changes in Medicaid, called Medi-Cal in California. State Democrats appeared almost unanimously opposed to the bill.
The Senate vote, after a marathon of debate and amendments that stretched more than 24 hours into Tuesday morning, was 51 to 50. Vice President JD Vance broke a 50-50 tie. California Democrats Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff were opposed.
The bill, they said, is too tilted to helping the wealthy.
“In this bill, we borrow trillions from our kids, and for what, so the rich can have a bigger boat, so corporate CEOs can have more money, so a company can buy back more of its stock, so we can be richer than our neighbor, while his neighbor has no home at all? “ Schiff said in a Senate floor speech.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, counted just before the vote that tax cuts will promote economic growth, and that the spending cuts will make a difference. “We are also rooting out waste, fraud and abuse in federal spending programs,” he said.
Trump pledged during his 2024 campaign to keep the lower tax rates enacted during his first term, and add new provisions, such as no tax on tips. Most of those rates are due to expire at the end of this year.
The tax breaks and other provisions will add about $3.3 trillion to the already-huge federal debt over the next 10 years, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
That estimate, about $1 trillion more than the original House bill, is a figure that a lot of Democrats and Republicans find outrageous–and is causing problems with conservatives in the House.
Trouble in the House
Valadao’s concerns are centered on Medicaid. The House bill would cut about $880 billion nationwide from the program; the Senate proposed cutting even more.
The California Health Care Foundation, an independent nonprofit group that specializes in health studies, has estimated that about two-thirds of people in Valadao’s district get aid from Medi-Cal. The majority Latino district includes most of Kings County and parts of Tulare and Kern counties.
Valadao voted for the House version of the bill, but he had problems with the Senate measure.
“Protecting Medicaid is essential for the vulnerable constituents we were elected to represent. Therefore, we cannot support a final bill that threatens access to coverage or jeopardizes the stability of our hospitals and providers,” he said in a June 24 letter to congressional Republican leaders signed by 15 other House Republicans, including Rep. Young Kim, R-Anaheim.
The final version of the bill is expected to impose strong work requirements on able-bodied recipients and reduce the funding for care. Valadao and others are particularly concerned about the fate of rural hospitals and care; the Senate bill includes a $25 billion fund to help less-populated areas.
That still was not enough to convince many senators that their constituents would not be hurt by the cuts.
Sen. Thom Tillis, R-North Carolina, voted against moving ahead with the bill Saturday and made a surprise announcement the next day he would not seek re-election.
Battle over Medicaid
“As the President has said numerous times, there will be no cuts to Medicaid,” the White House said in a fact sheet sent out on Sunday.
Nonsense, Tillis said in a Senate floor speech.
“I’m telling the president that you have been misinformed,” Tillis said. “You supporting the Senate (bill) will hurt people who are eligible and qualified for Medicaid.”
Also at risk is the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, called CalFresh in the state. It provides lower-income people with monthly benefits so they can buy food.
About 5.3 million people in California used the help last year, the state Legislative Analyst’s Office said. Last week, Gov. Gavin Newsom warned that “hundreds of thousands of Californians who need food assistance will be at risk of losing it, and it will punish working people by ending their eligibility.”
The Senate bill, though, does continue current tax rates and adds some breaks.
For California, it would mean a break for state and local tax deductions. They were capped at $10,000 per filer in the 2017 law, but current legislation would raise the limit to $40,000 as long as a filer’s income was less than $500,000.
The House wanted to make the change permanent. The Senate agreed to the adjustment through 2029.
Republicans from California, New York and other high tax states had said that without such a change, they wouldn’t back the bill. Rep. Michael Lawler, R-New York, a key player in the negotiations, called the change “meaningful relief for middle-class families.”
The bill also would allow qualifying seniors over 65 an extra tax deduction of $6,000, or $2,000 more than in the House version.
Individuals earning less than $75,000 and joint filers with modified adjusted gross incomes of less than $150,000 would be eligible. The extra deduction would be in addition to the additional deduction seniors already receive.
This story was originally published July 1, 2025 at 9:14 AM with the headline "Senate passes the Big Beautiful Bill. What will that mean for Californians?."
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