Budget Reconciliation: no direct threat to CACFP but families and providers in the community would suffer
- Samantha Marshall
- May 16
- 4 min read
Updated: May 22
Updated: 5/22/2025
The House of Representatives passed the reconciliation bill. It is now headed to the Senate. The Senate can/will make changes to the House bill, and it will then go to the Senate. They will make their changes to the bill and can pass in the Senate with a simple majority through the budget reconciliation process.
Take action opportunities below.
There is a lot of discussion occurring in the community and the media about what many call the "reconciliation package or referred to by the President as "One, Big Beautiful Bill" (The Baby Monitor, May 16, 2025) and we thought you might have questions about how this impacts the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) and our community at large.
As we know, the CACFP enables caregivers of children and adults to provide nutritious meals in care settings. The CACFP supports children and adults receiving meals through CACFP often rely on social safety net programs, as do the workforce providing the care. These proposed cuts deeply impact our CACFP community. Details below but if already know you want to take action you can do so in these ways:
From the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC)
Take Action: Use the FRAC Action Network to send a message directly to your Members of Congress ahead of next week’s anticipated House floor vote and urge them to vote “No" on the budget reconciliation bill. Target Republican Members in states that would experience severe program cost shifts (see Page 3). Visit FRAC’s Legislative Action Center for advocacy resources, including FRAC’s budget reconciliation leave-behind, a model letter-to-the-editor, and a national data fact sheet on SNAP participation. Be sure to use FRAC’s digital toolkit to get loud on social media.
RSVP: Virtual Town Hall/Rally to Stop the House Reconciliation Bill
Join FRAC’s SNAP Director Salaam Bhatti, and a host of national advocates, for a virtual town hall/rally hosted by Public Citizen, Coalition on Human Needs, Americans for Tax Fairness, and others, on Monday, May 19, 7:30–8:30 p.m. ET. Get briefed by experts on the harmful provisions contained in the House budget reconciliation bill and how we can use our collective voices to urge House Members to vote no before the floor vote next week. RSVP here.
From Zero to Three
What you can do:
It’s not too late to stop this legislation from moving through Congress! Reach out to your Representative today and voice your concerns.
Even if you've already contacted them, it helps to continue making calls and sending emails.
Every bit of advocacy contributes to maintaining critical support systems for families.
No Direct Cuts to CACFP
To start, there are no direct cuts to CACFP. Reimbursements and policies on not on the table for the Food Program in these talks or this reconciliation bill that was passed through the Committees in the U.S. House of Representatives this week.
It could impact access to CACFP, WIC, and other nutrition programs through categorical eligibility as Medicaid and SNAP access could become restricted through policy changes proposed in this reconcilation bill package.
Deep Concern for Medicaid, SNAP, and other Essential Programs
Supplemetnal Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)
The House Agriculture Committee's reconcillation bill would cut $300 billion from SNAP over 10 years with major shifts in policy change. "The bill fundamentally overhauls SNAP by shifting federal benefit responsibilities to states already stretched thin with underfunded and understaffed state agencies. For the first time in the program’s history, states would be required to cover 5 to 25 percent of food benefit costs and 75 percent of administrative costs. This unfunded mandate dismantles Congress’s commitment to ensuring no American goes hungry" (FRAC, May 15, 2025). One of the (many) dangerous things the way this bill creates cuts, is that when policy changes in this way - it's incredibly hard to undo or reverse; think of how and when tiering was created and how hard it has been get rid of this policy change to save money and target federal spending - this is the same thing. Learn more about the specifics here.
Medicaid
The Energy and Commerence and Ways and Means committees passed a bill out of committee that woul dcut $625 billion dollars and "would cause roughly 8 million Ameicans to become uninsured, according to a preliminary estimate from the Congressional Budget Office" (Pifer, R., Healthcaredive, May 15, 2025). The impact cuts like this would have on babies can be found here.
Additional Essential Programs
The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), and the Social Services Block Grant (SSBG) are smaller programs but equally as important for our communities as "cuts to TANF and SSBG would risk child care access for up to 40,000 children" (First Focus on Children & Zero to Three, May 2025).
Head Start
We saw in the President's skinny budget that Head Start funding was not cut. Additionally, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. shared that Head Start funding would be preserved at the FY 2025 funding levels. Learn more here.
What Happens Next?
The bill will be brought to the floor and the entire House is expected to vote on it next week. The goal is to get the vote prior to the Memorial Day Recess beginning May 23. If it passes out of the House of Representatives, it will go to Senate. They will make their changes to the bill and can pass in the Senate with a simple majority through the budget reconiciliation process.
As I was writing this, FRAC sent out an Update which shared that the House Budget Committee rejected the reconciliation package, 16–21, as conservative, Freedom Caucus Republicans pushed for deeper spending cuts. The House Budget Committee is now slated to reconvene Sunday night at 10 p.m. This delays the process and reinforces the need for additional advocacy as Republicans could add deeper cuts to pay for tax cuts for state and local tax deductions (SALT), which is a priority for moderate Republicans in blue states. Budget Committee action is required to move the reconciliation process forward before the House Rules Committee meets to set the terms for the floor debate. Speaker Johnson (R-LA) has announced a goal of House passage before the Memorial Day Recess, slated to begin on May 23. (FRAC Update, May 16, 2025).
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