Editor’s note: CHN sent the letter below to the all members of the U.S. House of Representatives opposing the spending package on November 11, 2025.

Dear Representative:

On behalf of the Coalition on Human Needs, I strongly urge you to vote NO on the spending package (H.R. 5371) expected on the House floor this week given that it does not rein in skyrocketing health costs by including provisions to extend the enhanced ACA premium tax credits and protect vital health programs. The need to prevent the ACA enhanced credits from expiring is urgent Every day you delay means more people will become uninsured as they despair over unaffordable premium increases.

Congress must also protect Congressionally approved funds from being frozen or rescinded by the administration, along with extending expiring funding to stop efforts to “run out the clock.” Instead, please work with colleagues and Leadership to come together on a bipartisan basis to end the shutdown by addressing these issues.

The Coalition on Human Needs is made up of human service providers, faith groups, policy experts, and civil rights, labor, and other organizations concerned with meeting the needs of people with low incomes.  From our partners and networks across the country, every day we hear concerns expressed about rising costs of basic needs, including health care. While making tax provisions that largely benefited the wealthy and large businesses permanent in this summer’s budget package, Congress failed to extend the enhanced Affordable Care Act (ACA) premium tax credits. We are in a health care crisis, and the combined impact of Republicans cutting nearly $1 trillion from Medicaid this summer and not extending these tax credits would decimate health care in this country for years to come. Extending the ACA tax credits is politically popular and morally necessary. Many Americans are experiencing sticker shock over skyrocketing premiums due to the loss of these tax credits. Without the enhanced tax credits, most people on the health care exchange will see their premiums more than double  and people in every state and Congressional District (many lower-income workers) will lose coverage altogether. Modeling shows this will lead to a loss of jobs in every state along with reduction of state GDPs and lost State/Local tax revenue. We urge members of Congress to immediately work together to avert this looming health crisis.

Instead of addressing the impact of skyrocketing premiums as families begin the process of enrolling in health plans for next year, we are deeply disappointed that the proposal before you does not include extending the ACA premium tax credits. CHN urges you to vote no on the package or other proposal that does not include the extension of the enhanced ACA Premium Tax Credit to prevent its expiration at the end of 2025. Ultimately, the Coalition on Human Needs supports the Protecting Healthcare and Lowering Costs Act of 2025 to repeal all of the health care provisions in H.R. 1 and make permanent the enhanced Advanced Premium Tax Credits for purchasing marketplace health insurance plans. We hope you will look to undo the damage of H.R. 1 and instead strengthen basic needs programs including Medicaid and SNAP.

We are particularly outraged that the Trump administration is fighting in court to stop families from getting SNAP benefits in order to maximize the pain during the shutdown, instead of dealing with rising health costs. On this Veterans Day, it’s worth noting that 1.2 million veterans participate in the SNAP program (and many more are eligible), and as CHN’s member organization MAZON noted: “As food pantries report growing numbers of veterans seeking emergency assistance, and Republicans in Congress and the Trump administration continue to weaponize hunger, we need to do more than hold parades. We must truly honor our heroes by ensuring they have the resources they need to feed themselves and their families.” We are disappointed that the spending package moving through Congress does not hold states “harmless” for their efforts to get supports to families experiencing a lapse in SNAP benefits and ensure that SNAP participants won’t be used as political pawns again if there is another lapse in appropriations next year. We also strongly support proposals to undo – and at a minimum delay — the harm of last summer’s historic cuts to food assistance.

Our members know that federal funding enacted through bipartisan appropriations bills is critical to everyone, from people with disabilities to children to the elderly, and impacts communities across the country. Federal appropriations are essential resources for community priorities nationwide, including access to affordable housing, public education, funding for nutrition programs such as WIC and Older Americans Act programs, care for children and adults, taxpayers looking for assistance from the IRS, and staffing to help Social Security beneficiaries. As you know, typically Congress appropriates funds for these and many other services through a lengthy bipartisan process.

Through our networks of national organizations and thousands of local and state groups, we are hearing about and from people in communities across the country who are being harmed by the administration’s unilateral attacks on access to food assistance, housing programs, early childhood services and funding for public schools, afterschool programs, mental health services, and more.  It is worth noting funding freezes or cancellations come on top of historic cuts to basic needs programs included in this summer’s budget package and rising costs of living, squeezing low- and moderate-income families from multiple angles.

Instead of negotiating in a bipartisan manner to stop the Administration’s cancellations of Congressionally approved spending, we have been frustrated that many policymakers have allowed the Administration to unilaterally cancel funding or pass a rescissions package with a simple majority in the Senate, undoing bipartisan compromise to enact appropriations bills. We urge Congress to recognize that a deal is a deal – without the assurance that bipartisan spending legislation is adhered to, Congress is effectively giving up its Constitutional power of the purse. Congress must include enforceable instructions on how congressionally approved funding must be spent in spending legislation, along with extending expiring funding to stop efforts to “run out the clock.”

From our partners and networks across the country, every day we hear concerns expressed about rising costs of basic needs, including health care. While making tax provisions that largely benefited the wealthy and large businesses permanent in this summer’s budget package, Congress failed to extend the enhanced ACA premium tax credits. We recognize the urgency of this moment for action on health costs, given that 20 million Americans have begun the process of shopping for health coverage through Affordable Care Act marketplaces with the start of open enrollment on November 1. We appreciate that policymakers on both sides of the aisle recognize that families may drop plans to continue health coverage when they see unaffordable premiums –  the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office issued updated projections in September that forecast that millions will be uninsured without Congressional action.

By refusing to negotiate in a bipartisan manner to stop the administration’s cancellations of Congressionally-approved spending and help millions of people afford health insurance, the House and Senate majorities have inflicted tremendous pain on people and communities across the country.

We urge you to vote no on the spending proposal before you this week, and instead work with colleagues and Leadership to come together on a bipartisan basis to address rising health costs and protect funding for local communities.

Sincerely yours,

Deborah Weinstein,
Executive Director