WASHINGTON (DTN) -- In a nearly party line vote, the House of Representatives on Tuesday night passed a budget resolution that will help pass $4.5 trillion in tax cuts, but the plan calls for steep cuts in social programs such as nutrition, which imperils the likelihood of a farm bill.

The bill, which passed on a 217-215 vote, details specific budget plans for different committees in the House. It presses cuts to an array of social programs such as Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) while increasing the budget for immigration enforcement and encouraging lower regulations in the energy sector.

It sets up Republicans in both the House and Senate to pass a budget reconciliation bill without having to garner 60 votes in the Senate as well.

"This is the first important step in opening up the reconciliation process," said House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., after the vote. "We have a lot of hard work ahead of us, but we are going to deliver the America First agenda. We are going to deliver all of it, not just parts of it. And this is the first step in that process."

The bill sets up a plan to extend the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act by giving the House Ways & Means Committee authority to pass $4.5 trillion in tax cuts over the next decade. A slew of provisions in that law are set to expire at the end of 2025. President Donald Trump has pressed to make those tax cuts permanent as well as pass other tax cuts he campaigned on such as ending taxes on Social Security income and taxes on both tips and overtime.

Without an extension of the 2017 tax cuts, U.S. farmers would face nearly $8 billion in higher taxes next year, according to a USDA Economic Research Service report released in 2024. Farmers would see higher tax rates, especially with off-farm income, that would increase their taxes by $4.4 billion. The Qualified Business Income Deduction also provides farmers with nearly $2.2 billion in tax breaks. Reductions in the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) at $634 million and the estate tax, at $647 million, combine for another $1.3 billion in tax savings for farmers.

NATIONAL DEBT PUSHED HIGHER

The bill presses for Congress to cut $2 trillion in spending over the next decade. Still, the budget resolution carries large annual deficits that will push the national debt from $37.6 trillion in fiscal year 2025 to $55.6 trillion by fiscal year 2034.

Under the bill, committees that oversees Medicaid and Medicare will be required to cut spending $880 billion over the next decade. That will likely raise concerns about the finances for rural hospitals that already have been under pressure, especially in states that did not increase Medicaid eligibility under the Inflation Reduction Act.

The House Agriculture Committee must come up with $230 billion in spending cuts through FY 2034. It's expected Republicans on the committee will press to cut $23 billion a year from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

STEEP CUTS TO SNAP AND MEDICAID

Rep. Angie Craig, D-Minn., the ranking member of the House Agriculture Committee, criticized the bill for steep cuts to SNAP and Medicaid to pass a package of tax cuts. Craig said the tax package would mainly help the wealthiest Americans at the expense of lower-income people. Craig said the cuts to programs such as SNAP jeopardize any bipartisan support for a farm bill.

"Today, House Republicans voted to increase the national debt, cut health care for children, gut nursing home care for seniors, take food away from struggling families and screw over the middle class -- all to lower taxes for billionaire campaign donors and Wall Street bankers," Craig said.

"Cutting $230 billion from SNAP hurts the farmers who grow our food, the truckers who haul it, the manufacturers that produce its packaging and the grocery stores that sell it," Craig continued. "These cuts endanger hundreds of thousands of jobs along a food supply chain that starts in rural America and ends at dinner tables in every community across the country. This betrayal of hardworking Americans will hurt the economy and threatens the farm bill coalition necessary to pass a bipartisan farm bill."

Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., was the only Republican to vote against the bill. He said the bill would increase the annual deficit and assumptions made in the bill on economic growth were unrealistic.

"Under the rosiest assumptions, which aren't even true, we're going to add $328 billion to the deficit this year, $295 billion next year," Massie said.

Massie added he has seen these proposed 10-year budget plans fail multiple times as well after two or three years.

Chris Clayton can be reached at Chris.Clayton@dtn.com

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