By Vy Tran
LOS ANGELES, CA — Activists are raising alarm this week over the House of Representatives’ newly proposed “Reconciliation Bill,” which they say escalates immigration enforcement while slashing healthcare support and critical safety net programs for working-class Americans. The Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA) is among the groups expressing concern.
Dubbed the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” by President Donald Trump, the legislation would cut healthcare access for working families, eliminate financial aid programs for college students, and reduce retirement benefits for federal employees.
The bill would significantly reduce funding for “services in healthcare, food and nutrition, education, and other safety net programs for millions of the most vulnerable,” CHIRLA stated in a press release.
According to the University of Pennsylvania’s Penn Wharton Budget Model, the bill is projected to generate modest long-term economic growth—but at the cost of weakening the social safety net for lower- and middle-income households.
“As of May 22, 2025, the Penn Wharton model scores the legislative text as currently written against current law,” its report noted. “On a dynamic lifetime basis, lower-income households and some in the middle class are worse off, despite positive economic effects.”
CHIRLA Executive Director Angelica Salas released a statement that same day condemning the proposal.
“A nation’s budget reflects its values and priorities,” Salas said. “This is one of the most warped, cruel, and destructive budgets in our nation’s history. We urge the Senate to strike it down and question the disturbing path this administration seeks to take—regardless of cost, lives lost, or communities destroyed.”
She further warned that the House’s approval of a $150 billion budget increase to fund President Trump’s immigration agenda would signify “an increase in lawlessness and cruelty.”
Salas criticized the bill as an “unprecedented move” lacking essential checks and balances.
In a separate analysis, Higher Ed Dive reporter Ben Unglesbee highlighted the bill’s potentially devastating effects on higher education, noting it would “add new financial pressures on U.S. colleges and students while extending the tax cuts instituted in 2017.”
Among the proposed changes: elimination of subsidized federal loans for undergraduate students and Direct PLUS loans for graduate students starting July 1, 2026. The bill also proposes restrictions on Parent PLUS loans and raises the full-time enrollment threshold from 24 to 30 units per academic year to qualify for aid.
American Council on Education (ACE) President Ted Mitchell warned of the sweeping consequences. In a May 21 letter to House leaders, Mitchell wrote the bill would have “a historic and negative impact on the ability of current and future students to access postsecondary education, as well as on colleges and universities striving to carry out their vital educational and research missions.”
Mitchell also warned that proposed changes to Pell Grants would be “crippling,” potentially stripping eligibility from “some 700,000 students.”
Republicans on the House committee have defended the proposed higher education reforms, framing them as efforts to “strengthen accountability for students and taxpayers, streamline student loan options, and simplify student loan repayment,” according to Higher Ed Dive.
But critics remain unconvinced.
“And to what purpose?” Salas asked. “To give tax breaks to—and fill the pockets of—the wealthy and powerful.”
She and others view the legislation as “a testament to the administration’s misguided and elitist agenda.”
The Reconciliation Bill, Salas concluded, is “making those already in power even more powerful while damning everyone else.”
