Alabama advocacy groups rally in Montgomery, denounce ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WIAT) — Alabama Arise and other advocacy groups are uneasy about a reconciliation bill moving through Congress. They say President Donald Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill” could change Medicaid and SNAP programs, causing some Alabamians to go hungry. But Republicans reassure that won’t happen.

“This is not just a bad policy. It is a moral sin,” said Rev. Valtoria Jackson with the Alabama Poor People’s Campaign.

“You know the old adage, ‘Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. You teach him to fish, you feed him for a lifetime,'” Rep. Mack Butler (R-Rainbow City) said in reference to the federal programs.

Alabamians have a difference of opinion on that bill moving through Congress. Rhonda Mann with VOICES for Alabama’s Children said 200,000 Alabamians are on Medicaid, with 22% of those dollars going to children. Mann said cuts of any kind will affect everyone.

“Medicaid dollars are for services and resources we all use,” said Mann. “And cuts to Medicaid are going to result in increased healthcare costs for all of us and longer wait times.”

According to Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), the Senate Parliamentarian threw out a lot of those cuts.

“As Republicans, we’re gonna have to go back to the drawing board on a lot of this. We don’t want anybody to go hungry,” he explained. “That’s not the point of this. We want everybody to have great healthcare.”

Rep. Butler agreed. He said changes to federal programs will encourage independence among Alabamians.

“And the federal government for so long has been creating and breeding dependency. We absolutely do not want someone going without medical care that needs it, or absolutely without food,” Butler said.

But Sen. Kirk Hatcher (D-Montgomery) said expanding Medicaid would have helped address concerns. As a Head Start director, Hatcher said a quarter of Alabama’s children are living with food insecurity.

“To have not been, I think, responsible enough- and proactive enough- in the last [legislative] session to address the kind of coming issue, certainly in terms of Medicaid expansion, is an abomination,” he said.

The bill has yet to go to the full Senate floor for a vote. If changes are made, it will be sent back to the House of Representatives for final passage.