NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — Patient advocacy groups and anti-hunger organizations urged Tennessee Senators Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty to vote against a provision in President Donald Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill" that could reduce federal spending on Medicaid and SNAP benefits by hundreds of billions of dollars over the next decade.

Organizations, including the American Cancer Society, the American Lung Association, and the Tennessee Caregiver Coalition, stood in front of Sen. Blackburn and Sen. Hagerty's Nashville offices Tuesday to push back against the proposed cuts.

“These programs exist for a reason, and it’s for the people who need it the most, so whenever we look at cutting it, I think it’s informative to look at who we would be taking from, what we would be cutting, what that would mean for Tennessee families," said Ashlie Bell-Seibers, director of Family Voices of Tennessee, a program of the Tennessee Disability Coalition.

The proposed cuts would reduce federal spending on Medicaid by at least $600 billion over the next decade and reduce federal spending on SNAP by at least $300 billion over the next decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

For Tennesseans, that means an estimated 77,000 could lose access to Medicaid, according to an analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation, and 57,000 could lose access to SNAP benefits, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

Jeannine Carpenter with the Chattanooga Area Food Bank told reporters Tuesday 1.1 million Tennesseans are food insecure, and the cuts to SNAP could be devastating for those who can't afford to put food on the table.

“These SNAP cuts hurt our neighbors, they hurt the people working in our hospitals, in our factories, they hurt the people who might be next door to you, and you don’t realize it," Carpenter said.

However, Republicans argue the cuts are to eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse.

"Reduce spending and permanently lower taxes for families and job creators, secure the border, unleash American energy dominance, restore peace through strength and make government work more efficiently," Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, said.

Advocates in Tennessee hope they see beyond the budget line and consider the lives behind it.

“A trillion dollars isn’t just fraud, waste, and abuse. It’s vital services, it’s healthcare, it’s in-home nursing that’s keeping families working, keeping families together, and it could be devastating, it will be devastating if those cuts are made," Bell-Seibers said.

The U.S. House of Representatives has already passed the "Big Beautiful Bill." The Senate is set to debate the bill soon.

Republicans hope to send the bill to President Trump's desk by July 4.

News Source : https://www.wkrn.com/news/tennessee-politics/tn-advocates-urge-sen-blackburn-hagerty-to-vote-against-medicaid-snap-cuts/