Decibel

What Even Is The Big Beautiful Bill?

Clip | 7m 19sVideo has Closed Captions

How will sweeping new legislation impact Rundberg?

07/25/2025

Decibel

What Even Is The Big Beautiful Bill?

Clip | 7m 19sVideo has Closed Captions

How will sweeping new legislation impact Rundberg?

You’ve probably heard a lot in the past few weeks about ‘the big beautiful bill’--but what is it? And because we’re focusing on Rundberg this year, how will it impact families in that community? The Decibel team gets into it.

07/25/2025

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Decibel is a local public television program presented by Austin PBS

Funding for Decibel is provided in part by Texas Mutual and Roxanne Elder & Scott Borders

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- You've probably heard a lot in the past few weeks about the Big Beautiful Bill, but what is it?

And because we're spending the year in Rundberg, how does it affect families that are in that community?

Let's get into it.

(intense orchestral music) First off, what is this thing?

Its government name is H.R.

1 but it goes by the Big Beautiful Bill Act.

It extends Trump's 2017 tax cuts, but it also changes rules around food stamps, Medicaid, and immigration enforcement.

- The yays are 218, the nays are 214.

The motion is adopted.

(crowd cheering) - Lawmakers passed it just before the 4th of July.

So how will it impact people in the Rundberg community?

Let's start with healthcare.

(gentle music) The bill cuts about $1 trillion from Medicaid.

That's the program that offers government healthcare for children and adults with little income or resources.

It's estimated that about 770,000 Texans will lose healthcare coverage.

Roughly 22% of Rundberg residents are enrolled in Medicaid according to US census data.

Another 22.9% of residents don't have any insurance.

That's more than double the rate of the rest of Austin.

The other program that's seen a lot of changes is the supplemental nutrition assistance program, better known as SNAP.

(paper bag crumpling) 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 would also 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 one in six households.

As of May of this year, over 85,000 individuals in Travis County were eligible for SNAP benefits, and these benefits were already not meeting the need.

Feeding America's map the meal gap survey found that food insecurity rates have been rising, but census data shows that SNAP recipient rates have been going down.

- We've seen the demand just going up and up every year.

There is an estimate from Feeding America that these changes, reductions and cuts that came out of this recent legislation equate to roughly 6 billion meals.

So you're looking at almost a doubling of the need and demand on that charitable network.

We pivot where we can, but we certainly cannot make up a doubling in the need and the demand for our services.

That's just not an option for food banks.

You know, ours at Central Texas, or really any across the country, - Immigration policy is also about to change.

(gentle music) 170 billion is going towards border security and immigration.

45 billion will be used to buy a hundred thousand more detention beds and additional money will be used to hire 10,000 more ICE agents.

This influx of funds now makes ICE the highest funded federal law enforcement agency by far.

Legally immigrating to the US is also going to cost people.

H.R.

1 adds fees to many immigration applications.

For example, asylum seekers will have to pay a hundred dollars 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.

One 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.

What about tax cuts?

There are some, but it's unclear how much money Rundberg residents are going to save.

(people chattering) For example, the child tax credit is now permanent and set at $2,200, 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.

Some families might not qualify at all.

Before, only the child had to have a social security card to qualify for the tax credit.

Now, at least one parent must also have a social security card.

That means families with undocumented parents, many of whom pay taxes using an individual tax payer ID number can't qualify for the credit.

Now, there are tax breaks on tips and overtime pay, but those are set to expire in 2028.

There's also a tax deduction for seniors that earn up to $75,000 a year, but that will also go away in 2028.

So how does it all add up?

According to the Congressional Budget Office, the wealthiest families will save about $12,000 per year.

With the cuts to Medicaid and SNAP, lower income families will pay about $1,600 more each year.

In Rundberg, households may lose anywhere from $300 to $1,500.

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 US Department of Agriculture have said there will be no delay in implementing these changes.

If you have more questions about the Big Beautiful Bill and how it's impacting your community, let us know in the comments.