How Will This Sweeping New Bill Impact Rundberg?

You’ve probably heard a lot in the past few weeks about ‘the big beautiful bill’ and the variety of ways it will impact everyday Americans, from food access to tax returns. But what is in this legislation? And how will it impact families in Rundberg and across central Texas?

What Is It?

Its government name is H.R. 1, but it’s been dubbed the Big Beautiful Bill Act. It extends many of President Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, but it also changes rules around a whole host of things like food stamps, Medicaid, and immigration enforcement.

Lawmakers passed it just before the Fourth of July.

Healthcare

Over the next 10 years, the bill will cut about 1 trillion dollars from Medicaid, the program that offers government healthcare for children and adults with little income or resources. Many Medicaid recipients will now have to meet a work requirement in order to qualify for the program. This requirement does not extend to states that didn’t expand Medicaid access under the Affordable Care Act. Recipients will also need to pay more when they go to the doctor. The bill requires that enrollees be charged up to $35 for some services depending on their income level.

The ACA marketplace is also going to look different. The enrollment period has been shortened by a month, and policy holders will have to update their information yearly rather than be automatically reenrolled.

It's estimated that about 770,000 Texans will lose healthcare coverage. Roughly 22% of Rundberg residents are enrolled in Medicaid, according to U.S. Census data. Another 22.9% of residents don’t have any insurance. That’s more than double the rate of the rest of Austin.

Food

The other program seeing big changes is the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. Like the name says, the program helps people at or below the poverty line buy food.

The new bill changes a lot of the requirements to qualify for SNAP. Right now, people can be exempt from work requirements if they’re 54 or older, or have dependents. This new bill ups that age to 64. Parents now have to show they’re working if they have kids older than 14. It's estimated that millions nationwide will lose SNAP benefits entirely.

Roughly 17% of residents in Rundberg receive SNAP benefits, or about 1 in 6 households. As of May of this year, over 85,000 individuals in Travis County were eligible for SNAP benefits. And these benefits already were not meeting the need. Feeding America’s Map The Meal Gap survey found that food insecurity rates have been rising. But census data shows the SNAP recipient rate has been going down.

Beth Corbett is the Central Texas Food Bank's vice president of government affairs and advocacy. She says the number of people seeking food assistance has only been increasing since the pandemic hit in 2020. They expect demand to only increase under the new bill.

“There is an estimate from Feeding America that these changes … equate to roughly 6 billion meals. So you're looking at almost a doubling of the need and demand on that charitable network,” Corbett says. “We pivot where we can, but we certainly cannot make up for a doubling in the need and the demand for our services.”

Immigration

Immigration policy is also going to change.

$170 billion is going towards border security and immigration. $45 billion will be used to buy 100,000 more detention beds. Additional money will also be used to hire 10,000 more Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents. This influx of funds now makes ICE the highest funded federal law enforcement agency by far.

Legally immigrating to the U.S. is also going to cost people. HR 1 adds fees to many immigration applications. For example, asylum seekers will have to pay $100 for their application and over $500 for work documents.

Rundberg has a large immigrant community, with residents hailing from every corner of the globe. And ICE activity has been more visible in the area since Trump took office. One family was detained just outside of Dobie Middle School. And a new report showed that the number of people detained by ICE who have no criminal charges or convictions in the last few months has skyrocketed, from 83 in January to 916 in June. This comes just as the Texas legislature also passed new laws that require sheriff’s departments to cooperate with ICE.

Tax Cuts

There are tax cuts included in this bill, but not all Rundberg residents will see the same savings.

For example, the child tax credit is now permanent, and set at $2200. But low-income families can’t claim the full credit. According to the Urban Brookings Tax Policy Center, about 17 million children won’t qualify for the full credit, and a disproportionate number are Black and Latino children. But some families might not qualify at all. Before, only the child had to have a social security card to qualify for the credit. Now at least one parent must also have one. That means families with undocumented parents, many of whom pay taxes using an Individual Taxpayer ID Number, cannot qualify.

There are also tax breaks on tips and overtime pay, but those are set to expire in 2028. A deduction for seniors earning up to $ 75,000 a year would also end in 2028.

How Does It Add Up?

According to the Congressional Budget Office, the wealthiest families will save about $12,000 dollars per year. With the cuts to Medicaid and SNAP, lower income families will pay about $1600 dollars more each year.

The average income in the Rundberg area is roughly $65,000. That puts community members between the lowest household income docile and 4th household income docile in the CBO’s report. According to their report, households in those groups may lose anywhere from $300 to $1500. Residents with incomes closer to $68,000 may get roughly $60 back.

When will people start feeling these changes? It will vary. Some items, like the tax breaks and funding for ICE start now. Medicaid work requirements will start in 2026, but some funding changes won’t kick in until 2028. And we still don’t know when SNAP changes will start–it wasn’t defined in the bill. But spokespeople from the U.S. Department of Agriculture have said there will be no delay in implementing the changes.

*Have more questions about the Big Beautiful Bill? Let us know at news@klru.org. *