Black Lawmakers and Democrats Pushing Back on Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill"

Black lawmakers and community leaders from across New York — including Rochester — are sounding the alarm on former President Donald Trump’s sweeping “One Big Beautiful Bill,” calling it a direct threat to health care, economic justice, and communities of color throughout the state.

The Senate advanced the legislation Saturday by a narrow 51-49 margin. It would extend Trump-era tax cuts, slash federal spending by trillions of dollars, and overhaul Medicaid and other safety-net programs, with critics warning it disproportionately harms low-income and minority communities.

Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D–Brooklyn and House Democratic leader, rejected the bill as “a trojan horse,” warning it “would rip health care away from millions — especially seniors, Black and Brown families, and working-class Americans.”

“This bill is a trojan horse,” said Jeffries, a leading voice in the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC). “It’s being sold as tax relief, but it would rip health care away from millions — especially seniors, Black and Brown families, and working-class Americans.”

Jeffries joined New York Governor Kathy Hochul earlier this month to warn that up to 1.5 million New Yorkers could lose Medicaid coverage if the bill becomes law. State hospitals could face an annual shortfall of $3 billion, they said.

Rep. Yvette Clarke, D–Brooklyn, CBC chair for immigration, said the bill is “a cruelty agenda masked in patriotic language,” adding that urban communities are already stretched thin.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, speaking from Rochester on June 16 at Jordan Health’s Woodward Center, called the legislation “a betrayal of millions” — citing local impacts such as 40,000 Rochester-area residents losing health insurance and 25,000 facing cuts to SNAP food benefits

State Assemblyman Demond Meeks, a Black Rochester Democrat, joined Sen. Gillibrand at the Rochester event to say, “Medicaid is a lifeline… Cuts to Medicaid would mean fewer doctor visits, longer wait times… and closure of community health centers”—calling it “not just bad policy—it’s a moral failure.”

State Senator Jeremy Cooney also spoke at Glasgow Health, warning that Rochester community clinics could lose $300 million annually, and that rural hospital closures would follow .

At the federal level, Sen. Tim Scott, R‑S.C., noted he supports tax relief but urged caution.

Scott, the lone Black Republican in the U.S. Senate, expressed muted concern. Though he supported the 2017 tax law and remains open to aspects of Trump’s proposal, Scott told reporters he was reviewing the bill’s long-term impact on the national debt and Medicaid.

“I believe in tax relief,” Scott said, “but not at the cost of our nation’s most vulnerable.”

Other Black Democratic lawmakers have been more forceful.

Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D‑Mass, called the bill a “death sentence for the poor.”

Rep. Al Green, D‑Texas, warned of worsening racial health disparities in the South.

Sen. Angela Alsobrooks, D‑Md, pledged to fight “economically unequal under the guise of growth.”

Back in Rochester, Mayor Malik Evans, held a roundtable in April denouncing what he described as the “manufactured chaos” of Trump-era policies — although his remarks were broadly aimed at the Trump administration, they underscored local leadership’s vigilance.

Democrats are deploying procedural tactics in the Senate — including forcing a full 940-page reading — to delay the vote, highlighting that this “big, beautiful” bill may be anything but for communities that rely on Medicaid, SNAP, and local health infrastructure.

“This bill is not beautiful,” Jeffries said. “It’s brutal.”