WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a release, the ACLU criticized the Senate’s approval of H.R. 1, a massive budget package also known as the “so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” or OBBBA.
The bill, passed under the Trump administration earlier in 2025, is a sweeping budget reconciliation package that permanently extends Trump-era tax cuts while slashing funding for Medicaid, food assistance and clean energy programs.
Deirdre Schifeling, chief political and advocacy officer with the ACLU, described the measure as “a reckless attack on our health care, our civil liberties, and our very ability to survive.”
The ACLU said the bill would “gut Medicaid, cut off access to Planned Parenthood services for Medicaid enrollees, and restrict higher education opportunities,” while redirecting funds toward “a dramatic and permanent increase to an immigration detention and deportation apparatus.”
According to the ACLU, the expansion of this system “is denying due process and violating human rights.” The group emphasized Medicaid’s role in millions of lives, stating, “Medicaid is a lifeline for more than 70 million people, including more than 15 million people with disabilities.”
The ACLU also warned that “nearly 12 million people throughout the nation could lose their health insurance coverage under this bill.” Medicaid not only covers mental health services but also provides treatment for opioid use disorder and funds health care for workers who help disabled and elderly individuals remain in their homes and communities, rather than being placed in dehumanizing institutions.
The ACLU reported that the Senate’s version of OBBBA “slashes Medicaid funding by at least nine hundred billion dollars, imposing the largest cuts ever in the history of the program.”
Following the Senate vote, Schifeling issued a public statement condemning the Senate’s approval of the bill and questioning its legitimacy: “Every day that passes, more and more Americans are seeing this bill for what it is.”
“That’s why the Senate rushed through this bill as fast as it could,” the ACLU said, criticizing lawmakers for making the bill harsher and accusing them of ignoring the needs and health of vulnerable groups such as children, adults and individuals with disabilities.
“We shouldn’t be kicking millions of people off Medicaid and denying lifesaving care to fund the Trump administration’s extreme deportation machine,” the ACLU stated.
“The American people did not vote for this,” the group said, and affirmed that they “will make sure that constituents remember the catastrophic harm this bill does and hold lawmakers accountable.”
