A 'tsunami of need' feared as US House close to final vote on Trump tax bill

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00:00The Senate from North Carolina.

00:01It's a nail-biter.

00:03Will Speaker Mike Johnson receive the votes he needs to pass the once-called Big Beautiful Bill?

00:08While lawmakers and citizens alike are waiting anxiously for the result,

00:12advocates for the USA's most vulnerable are voicing grave concerns

00:16over the tax-proposed reduction to assistance programs to offset its tax cuts.

00:21This San Francisco food bank will be particularly affected by the act's slashing

00:25of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits.

00:30This gutting of SNAP, this gutting of America's most effective anti-poverty, anti-hunger tool,

00:37it's going to mean an increase in need.

00:39And it's going to be a tsunami of need.

00:42And food banks are not set up.

00:45Citizens and some immigrants with an income below the poverty line of $15,060

00:50benefit from the program that puts food on the table for an estimated 42 million Americans.

00:56The New York Times reports that the act would strip the assistance from millions

00:59while reducing the amount of benefits received for thousands more.

01:03Health care advocates are none too happy either.

01:06The act's passage would mean significant cuts to the nation's Medicaid program

01:10that provides health coverage to 72 million Americans.

01:13Though Republicans had proposed to embed a rural hospital fund in the act,

01:17the president of an Alaska hospital association says it won't be sufficient.

01:21There is no spinning this as if there's a positive thing.

01:25Even the rural health fund can't be championed as a great thing

01:29because it's an attempt to offset impact that was self-imposed.

01:34Specifically, the nation's rural hospitals, many already at risk of closure,

01:38depend heavily on Medicaid benefits,

01:40which can cover the costs of patients who can't pay for their care.

01:43The proposed reduction would have those hospitals take on the shortfall

01:47and would see 12 million people lose their health coverage.

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