SCHUMER: THE HOUSE’S EXTREME DEBT CEILING “PLAN” IS A GUT PUNCH TO UPSTATE NY– WILL SEND US CLOSER TO DEFAULT & JEOPARDIZING VITAL PROGRAMS UPSTATE FAMILIES RELY ON; SENATOR BREAKS DOWN IMPACTS THAT WOULD RIPPLE THROUGHOUT NY

Senator Says Extreme Cuts In McCarthy’s “Default On America (DOA)” Plan Will Hammer Upstate Communities; According to Non-Partisan Analysts, Plan Would Increase Risk Of A Recession, Cut Jobs & Hurt NY Families

Schumer Lays Out Cuts That Will Hurt Upstate Families Most — With Millions At Risk Of Losing Lifesaving Benefits Like SNAP, +2 Million NYers On Medicaid, And Investment in American Manufacturing, Small Biz, And Workforce Training On Chopping Block; Upstate Communities Will Be Among Hardest Hit

Schumer: House’s Extreme Job-Killing, Cost-Spiking “Plan” Has Upstate NY’er’s Left in the Lurch and Paying the Price

Following the release of the House’s extreme default plan and with a vote imminent this week, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer today broke down the devastating gut punch that could hit Upstate families, workers, and small businesses. Schumer explained how this last-minute plan being rushed through the House cuts vital programs that Upstate New Yorkers rely on most like SNAP and Medicaid, slashes federal heating assistance seniors rely on, and rips away billions in investment in American manufacturing, small business assistance, and workforce training needed to make Upstate manufacturing projects successful and keep these jobs in our communities. The senator said it is time for Members of the House to stand up to these extreme cuts and for Democrats and Republicans to come together, as they have always done before regarding the debt ceiling, to pass a clean bill and ensure America continues to pay its bills on time.

“The current extreme plan in the House may as well be called the Default on America Act because it would be a gut punch for families across Upstate New York. It will slash lifesaving benefits like SNAP and Medicaid, make it harder for seniors to heat their homes, weaken support for our veterans, and rip away investments in workforce training, small businesses, and manufacturing that will result in jobs in Upstate NY being sent back to China. The House plan is a lose-lose—we either default on the national debt, or we default on Upstate New York through extreme cuts that will harm millions,” said Senator Schumer. “Put simply, this extreme job-killing, cost-spiking plan has Upstate New Yorkers paying the price. We need Members of the House, including those in New York, to stand up to these cuts and the extreme wings of their party so that we can come together as we always have to work in a bipartisan fashion to pass a clean bill to raise the debt ceiling and ensure we do not default for the first time in our nation’s history.”

According to Moody’s, the House plan’s extreme cuts would be devastating for short-term economic growth. Compared to simply avoiding default, the House proposal would reduce our country’s GDP by 0.65 percentage points and potentially push our economy into a damaging recession.

Schumer broke down the ways in which the House’s “Default On America” plan will explicitly harm Upstate New Yorkers.

GUT MEDICAID BENEFITS FOR OVER 2 MILLION NEW YORKERS

• Jeopardize Medicaid Coverage For 2+ Million New Yorkers: The proposal would force extreme work requirements that would add substantial bureaucratic red tape to Medicaid, putting the health and coverage of millions at risk. You can find how many individuals in New York would be at risk of losing coverage, broken down county by county here. Below is a regional breakdown of how many New Yorkers could lose Medicaid coverage under the proposal—

 

SLASH FEDERAL HEATING AND COOLING ASSISTANCE FOR UPSTATE NEW YORK

• Reduce Funding for The Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program By $880 Million Nationwide: The proposal would leave families and seniors unable to heat or cool their homes during periods of extreme weather, which could be devastating for struggling families, particularly those in Upstate New York who especially rely on these programs. New York is one of the largest recipients of LIHEAP funding. A cut of this magnitude would mean that LIHEAP programs will be forced to reduce the average benefit by over $400 or cut off benefits to over a million households, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

CUT WORKFORCE TRAINING, SMALL BUSINESS, AND MANUFACTURING INVESTMENTS SENDING UPSTATE JOBS OVERSEAS

• Cut Tens of Billions Over the Next Decade from Innovation and STEM Workforce, Including Over $20 Billion From the National Science Foundation, $17 billion From DOE’s Office of Science, and $100 Billion From the National Institutes of Health: This would endanger the majority of federal investments in basic research and STEM education and training that are integral for preparing Upstate New York’s workforce for major chip fab and technology manufacturing projects. These cuts also impact critical R&D centers like Cornell’s CHESS facility, the University of Rochester’s Laboratory for Laser Energetics, Brookhaven National Laboratory, and research programs at universities across every region of the state, costing New York jobs and risking U.S. leadership in innovation to China, with potentially jeopardizing our national security. That means workers in places like Syracuse, Rochester, Buffalo, Albany, and communities across Upstate would lose out on federal investments they need to ensure major projects like those spurred by the CHIPS & Science Act are a success.
• Endanger Implementation of The Bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act: The proposal would halt implementation of programs from the CHIPS and Science Act and job creation across New York, including those related to research security to protect against technology transfer to China. This would be devastating for Upstate New York which in the past year has become a major hub for innovation and semiconductor investment especially in Central New York, Western New York, the Mohawk Valley, the Capital Region, and the Hudson Valley.
• Slashes Department of Labor Workforce Training Programs By $16 Billion Over The Next Decade: This cut denies New York workers the skills they need to compete in a global economy, and makes it harder to get skilled workers for the major investments in New York’s chip industry, clean energy economy, and efforts to rebuild infrastructure across the country. These critical workforce programs are focused on addressing worker shortages and skills gaps in high-need industries through apprenticeships and other workforce development programs.
• Jeopardize Upstate Clean Energy Manufacturing Jobs: The proposal repeals incentives for domestic manufacturers that would rebuild domestic supply chains and position America as a leader in the clean energy transition. The proposal would be an enormous loss for New York workers and manufacturers who have an opportunity to thrive as a result of the clean energy transformation the IRA is already driving across the country. In New York, that includes $68 million from General Motors to create 100 new jobs by expanding the Rochester plant to build battery cooling lines for electric vehicles, $30 million from General Electric to bring wind turbine manufacturing in Schenectady, and $68 million from Zinc8 for advanced energy storage in Ulster County. These are the types investments threatened by repealing the incentives from the Inflation Reduction Act.
• Abandon American Workers and Keep America Dependent on Chinese Goods: The proposal would remove incentives that benefit American workers and businesses, including incentives for companies that use American-made materials, direct support for clean energy manufacturers, and guarantees that new clean energy jobs are good jobs that pay prevailing wages. After the passage of the bipartisan infrastructure law and the Inflation Reduction Act, America surged past China with more than $200 billion in new electric vehicle and battery manufacturing incentives. Solar manufacturers have announced a more than 500 percent increase in U.S. solar manufacturing capacity. This proposal would instead surrender those investments to overseas competitors.
• Remove Income and Price Restrictions on Electric Vehicles: The proposal repeals requirements that EVs be built in North America, and eliminates income restrictions. These changes cut out American automakers, granting tax breaks to millionaires for buying EVs made in China.
• Hurts Small Businesses Working to Recover From The Pandemic:  Capping the Small Business Administration’s Entrepreneurial Development programs as proposed by the House plan would cut funding for these critical programs and mean the SBA serves 125,000 fewer small businesses on accessing affordable capital and technical assistance to grow and thrive.

RIP AWAY SNAP BENEFITS FOR OVER 53,000 NEW YORKERS

• Cut Over $144 Million in SNAP benefits for 53,000+ New Yorkers: The proposal would increase the age for people subject to the SNAP time limit from 49 years old to 56 years old and eliminate some specific flexibilities allowed to New York to provide exemptions from the strict time limits to people who are at risk of losing their SNAP benefits.
• Remove SNAP Benefits from The Most Vulnerable New Yorkers: The proposal would put low-income women, caretakers, people experiencing homelessness, some veterans, and young people aging out of foster care most at risk of losing their SNAP benefits.

ELLIMINATE OR REDUCE PELL GRANTS AND MAKE COLLEGE MORE EXPENSIVE FOR NEARLY 1 MILLION NEW YORKERS

• Eliminate Pell Grants Altogether for 5,000 NY Students and Make College More Expensive for 998,000 Students: The proposal would reduce the maximum award by nearly $1,000 for the remaining 998,000 New York students who receive Pell Grants—making it harder for them to attend and afford college.
• Cancel President Biden’s Student Debt Relief Plan: The proposal would keep much needed emergency student loan relief of up to $20,000 from 998,000 approved applicants across New York recovering from the effects of the pandemic. It would also block the creation of new, more affordable student loan payment plans.

DECREASE FED FUNDING FOR SCHOOLS ACROSS NEW YORK

• Cut Approximately $319 Million in Title I Funding for New York Schools Serving Low-Income Children: The proposal would impact an estimated 1,540,000 students and reducing program funding to its lowest level in almost a decade—a cut equivalent to removing more than 4,900 teachers and specialized instructional support personnel from classrooms.
• Slash Mental Health Support for Students by $18 million for NY Schools: The proposal would limit educators’ abilities to address student mental health issues, including through violence, suicide, and drug abuse prevention, by cutting Title IV, Part A funding for New York schools by millions.

ELIMINATE 30,000 LAW ENFORCEMENT JOBS ACROSS AMERICA AND WEAKEN SECURITY AT THE NORTHERN BORDER

• Wipe Out Nearly 30,000 Law Enforcement Jobs Across America: The proposal would cut $8 billion from the Department of Justice (DOJ) in FY 2024 alone. Over the next decade, the cuts to DOJ would exceed $80 billion.
• Weaken Border Security and Immigration Enforcement: The proposal would significantly reduce border patrol staffing and technological capacity. A cut of 22% would result in Customs and Border Protection needing to furlough all of its border patrol agents. The lost time from furloughing agents for a few months would be the equivalent of losing over 5,400 agents, nearly 30% of the existing workforce. CBP would also lose the capacity to hold over 7,000 noncitizens and have no funding for medical care, leading to significant strain on services in border states and communities.
• Jeopardize the Operation of More Than $640 Million In Border Security Technology: The proposal would prevent Border Patrol from having the resources to operate and sustain the equipment and capabilities. These cuts would severely hinder efforts to strengthen security along the northern border and combat transnational criminal organizations as Border Patrol would lose the ability to operate hundreds of surveillance towers and other equipment along the northern border, including critical communication capabilities for agents.
• Cripple Our Nation’s Trade, Travel, and Inspection Capabilities: The proposal would result in reduced ability to seize illegal narcotics, such as fentanyl, crossing into the United States from the northern border. The House plan would result in furloughs of all CBP officers and staff responsible for inspections of people and cargo at air, land, and sea ports of entry. Reducing CBP’s inspection capabilities would allow over 350,000 pounds of narcotics and thousands of counterfeit products to enter our country, posing significant risks to the North Country community and beyond.

INCREASE POLLUTION AND BRING FIGHT AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE TO A SCREECHING HALT

• Repeal Incentives to Bolster Energy Security and Fight Climate Change: The proposal would repeal the Inflation Reduction Act’s tax credits for clean energy and energy security. Since the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, America has seen more than $240 billion in private investments in energy security, supporting more than 142,000 jobs, including more than 13,000 new jobs in New York.

RIP SUPPORT AWAY FROM OUR NATION’S VETERANS

• Cut Valuable Medical Research to Improve the Lives of Our Nation’s Veterans: The proposal would likely impact funding for programs outside of the four VA medical care accounts are counted within traditional NDD. A cut of $200 million in VA Medical research would require staffing reductions of thousands of positions and limit efforts to address the impacts and prevalence of Traumatic Brain Injury, cancer, and other diseases among veterans after their service, and would limit furthering of suicide prevention efforts.
• Threaten VA’s Ability to Protect Veterans from Cyber-Attacks: The proposal would cut $1.2 billion in funding for VA Information Technology would require a reduction in staff by at least 500 employees, likely delaying efforts to modernize systems and subsequently leaving the Department and veterans open to aggressive cyber security breaches.
• Delay Modernization of VA Facilities: The proposal would cut $456 million in major and minor construction projects to modernize VA hospitals, clinics, and other buildings, or expand capacity at cemeteries.

SLASH ACCESS TO HEALTHCARE FOR MILLIONS OF NEW YORKERS

• Cut Off Access to Primary Health Care Services by Slashing Support for Community Health Centers: The proposal would hurt some of the most vulnerable communities in Upstate New York by slashing Community Health Centers by over $400 million. CHC’s are a cornerstone of Upstate NY’s healthcare system, especially for rural and underserved areas, but cuts of this magnitude would be devastating and would risk reducing the only affordable healthcare option in many areas. Community Health Centers are where 30 million people across America find diagnosis and treatment, often the only health care option they have. One in 11 people in the U.S. relies on a HRSA-funded health center for medical care, and CHC’s serve 1 in 5 people living in rural communities.

 

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