Washington, DC – Today, Senator Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.) offered several amendments to Republicans’ partisan budget reconciliation package to protect American families. Her amendments would have defended Medicaid from historic billion-dollar cuts, prevented the senseless termination of employees who work to lower health care costs and prohibited extreme tariffs and trade practices that exacerbate the housing affordability crisis.
“If Republicans wanted to keep their promises to the American people and actually lower costs, they would have voted for these amendments,” said Senator Blunt Rochester. “This partisan budget bill fulfills only one promise they’ve made, and that’s to lower taxes for the richest Americans. Our housing crisis has never been greater, and they want to make it even worse with extreme tariffs. Meanwhile, this legislation would strip Medicaid coverage from over 70 million Americans, leaving children, seniors, and people with disabilities to fend for themselves. Lastly, it would continue a rampage of firing critical workers that serve the American people day in and day out,” continued Blunt Rochester. “It is shameful that none of the commonsense Democratic amendments were included in this legislation. Our constituents deserve better than this partisan spending bill.”
The amendments, which Republicans refused to consider, were meant to combat the reckless policies included in the Republican funding bill that will arbitrarily inflict economic pain on American families.
Specifically, Senator Blunt Rochester’s amendments would:
- Block Medicaid cuts that would compromise services to children with disabilities including school-based services, respite care, family peer support services, pre-vocational services, or community transition services.
- Prohibit termination of employees that are key to keeping costs down and ensuring access to critical health products.
- Prevent tariffs and trade practices that increase home building costs.
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Senator Lisa Blunt Rochester represents Delaware in the United States Senate where she serves on the Committees on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs; Commerce, Science, and Transportation; Environment and Public Works; and Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.