Concurrent Resolution on the Budget for Fiscal Year 2025

Floor Speech

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Mr. BISHOP. Mr. Speaker, the House will vote on the Senate revised budget resolution this evening.

The budget resolution requires seven House committees to cut a minimum of $1.5 trillion in mandatory spending combined over the next decade. Of that amount, at least $880 billion is directed to come from the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Most budget experts have agreed that it would require deep cuts in Medicaid to produce these savings.

In my home state of Georgia, Medicaid is a lifeline for its low- income populations, seniors, disabled individuals, and children. It is the primary source of long-term care, the single largest payer in the country for behavioral health services, and a principal source of insurance for pregnant women and children with disabilities.

One of the proposals that is now being discussed in Congress to achieve Medicaid savings is adding work requirements. In fact, Georgia added work requirements to its Medicaid program in July 2023 through its Pathways to Coverage program. It is currently the only state to offer Medicaid coverage to low-income adults that is contingent on work and other qualifying activities.

According to the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, however, there have been significant problems since this experiment in Medicaid reform was established two years ago. It is failing to achieve its two primary objectives of enrolling people in health care and getting them to work.

Georgia's Pathways to Coverage program is supposed to cover nearly a quarter-million low-income Georgians who can prove they are working, studying or volunteering. Only about 6,500 of them, however have been able to gain and maintain coverage.

In Georgia's Second Congressional District, which I represent, some of the poorest counties have fewer than 10 enrollees despite having high percentages of uninsured populations.

The Georgia Budget and Policy Institute also found that Georgia's Pathways to Coverage program created burdensome red tape and paperwork for state agencies and Medicaid recipients.

Georgia's experience offers a stark warning for the Nation as Republicans consider steep Medicaid cuts and work requirements for low- income Americans. The focus must be on increasing enrollment in health insurance for people who need it. The focus should not be on wasting taxpayer dollars and creating more administrative burdens.

We want people to be healthy so that they can work. It shouldn't be the other way around.

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