WV senators back GOP megabill expected to make deep social safety, energy cuts

The One Big, Beautiful Bill Act now goes before the House of Representatives after drawing critical support from Sens. Shelley Moore Capito and Jim Justice, both R-W.Va., in a 51-50 vote capped by tiebreaking approval from Vice President JD Vance. The House will look to concur with changes made by the Senate to the legislation, for which no Democrats have voted.

“No matter how Senators Capito and Justice try to spin it, the facts are that hospitals will close, seniors will be thrown out of nursing homes, more people fighting cancer will be cut off from treatment, and more working families will face higher costs — while billionaires line their pockets even more,� Ellen Allen, executive director of West Virginians for Affordable Health Care, a health care advocacy nonprofit, said in a statement following the Senate vote Tuesday.

Chelsea Barnes, government affairs and strategy for Appalachian Voices, a regional environmental and miner advocacy nonprofit, in a Tuesday statement called it “incredibly disappointing� that Capito, Justice and other Appalachian senators “voted to increase costs for rural Americans, increase the risk of hospital closures and stymie energy development needed to meet rising demand.�

“The bill will raise energy costs and make it harder to keep the lights on,� Steven Nadel, executive director of the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, an energy waste-focused research group, said in a statement Tuesday. “No one asked Congress to make their energy bills even higher.�

Capito and Justice defended their support in Tuesday statements after 26 hours of debate on the bill.

“I was proud to vote in favor of this commonsense legislation that not only delivers on the promises we’ve made to the American people, but will put West Virginia and our entire nation on a path to greater economic growth, national security, energy independence, and opportunity,� Capito said.

“Passing President Trump’s agenda out of the Senate provides lasting tax relief, establishes common-sense reform to our social programs while protecting those who are most vulnerable, and represents a refocus on placing the American dream back in reach for all Americans,� Justice said in a X post.

Estimate: About 17 million fewer people to be insured 

But the bill is expected to impose requirements that result in cuts to Medicaid and SNAP that risk hospital and nursing home closures while dramatically reducing federal health care spending in rural areas.

The bill will result in about 17 million more people without health insurance, the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health policy research group, projected Tuesday.

“If all of this comes to pass, it would represent the biggest roll back of health insurance coverage ever due to federal policy changes,� the Kaiser Family Foundation said Tuesday, citing the bill as well as the looming expiration of enhanced premium tax credits and the Trump administration recently finalizing a rule that would result in more people becoming uninsured.

Either the budget bill under Senate consideration or as passed last month by the House would cut off coverage for at least 69,000 West Virginians and increase the state’s uninsured rate by 70%, according to an analysis released last week by Families USA, a nonpartisan health care consumer advocacy group.

But Capito has rejected West Virginia health advocates’ warnings the bill would lead to devastating health outcomes in the state.

“[T]he only people [who] are going to lose a benefit are the people that don't deserve a benefit to begin with,� Capito said in a call with reporters Thursday.

Rep. Riley Moore, R-W.Va., echoed that prediction from Capito, his aunt, in a roundtable discussion on CNN Sunday.

“No one’s going to lose Medicaid who currently needs Medicaid,� Moore said.

Deep SNAP cuts expected 

The bill would impose a new cost-sharing formula tied to payment error rates that would shift many SNAP costs to states while narrowing exceptions for work requirements for able-bodied adults.

There were more than 273,000 recipients of SNAP benefits in West Virginia in February — more than 15% of the state’s population.

Under a portion of bill text released last month, West Virginia could face a cost shift of up to $84 million in fiscal year 2028 if it has a SNAP payment error rate of 10% or higher — as it did in fiscal year 2023 — according to an analysis by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a progressive think tank.

“The unfairness of this legislation is almost palpable,� Just Harvest, a Pittsburgh-based antihunger advocacy group, said in a statement Tuesday.

Fewer jobs, higher bills expected from energy cuts 

A tax on solar and wind energy projects inserted into the bill during its Senate advancement was removed.

The bill would preserve tax credits for solar and wind projects via the Inflation Reduction Act, which was enacted with no Republican support in 2022, for projects that begin construction up to one year after the bill’s enactment. But projects that start construction after that would need to be placed into service before 2028 to qualify for the credit.

The bill would fast-track the phaseout of a wide array of tax credits for wind, solar and other renewable energy while creating a new advanced manufacturing tax credit for metallurgical coal.

The bill would cut off a hydrogen production tax credit at the end of 2027, moving forward its phaseout from the end of 2032. The tax credit is viewed as key for the Appalachian Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub, or ARCH2, and other regional hydrogen hubs selected to receive billions of dollars of investment through the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act passed in 2022.

"The phase out of clean energy tax credits and vital federal programs will have immediate and long-lasting negative impacts on our communities,� Stephen Herzenberg, codirector of ReImagine Appalachia, a coalition of economic and environmental leaders, said in a statement Tuesday.

Herzenberg called the investments “instrumental� in creating union jobs, attracting private investment and setting up Appalachia as a hub for what he called “clean and efficient� manufacturing.

San Francisco-based climate policy firm Energy Innovation LLC has projected that changes in the similar House-passed budget reconciliation bill would result in:

• The loss of 2,000 jobs in West Virginia by 2030 and nearly 3,300 jobs by 2035, due to a drop in new domestic energy and manufacturing investments
• Increase household energy spending in West Virginia by an average of nearly $160 per year in 2030 and more than $410 per year in 2035 due to increased capital, fuel and operating expenses, with households paying $1.5 billion in increased energy bills through 2035

"The consequences will be felt directly by families and businesses across our region,� Herzenberg said.