The Vermont Natural Resources Council has been holding forums across the state since October to discuss the impact of the federal One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The final meeting occurred virtually today.
The Vermont Natural Resources Council, or VNRC, characterizes the bill, passed in July, as “ugly” and “pose(s) a distinct harm to Vermonters.” The group held forums in Middlebury, Essex Junction, Bennington, White River Junction, and Brattleboro to discuss how residents and communities can take action.
Its last meeting, conducted virtually, included representatives from advocacy groups discussing the impact of the bill on Vermonters.
The meeting was moderated by Vermont Conservation Voters Executive Director Dan Fingas.
“This past summer the U.S. Congress and president jammed through one of the most destructive bills of the modern era. It was a low point for our country, but hardly the only attack we’ve been facing from our current federal administration and Congress: the federal shutdown; layoffs of thousands of federal workers; the stealing of millions of dollars of legal funds for solar, health care, food assistance and the systematic attempt to make it as hard as possible for anyone to get federal assistance, including our municipalities engaging in flood recovery. This has been a dark time for all of us but we are in this together,” Fingas said.
Hunger Free Vermont Executive Director Anore Horton noted that 10-percent of Vermont’s population, or 63,000 people, are participating in 3-Squares Vermont – what the state calls SNAP, which is under attack by the federal administration.
“This program brings $12 million every month into Vermont to go into our food system. It goes directly to people to buy food," Horton explained. "This budget bill, this budget reconciliation bill, it’s the largest cut to the SNAP program nationally in the history of the program. And it enacted a lot of different very complicated funding cuts and eligibility changes to the program.”
About 1 in 4 patients at Planned Parenthood of Northern New England are low income, and according to Planned Parenthood of Vermont Action Fund’s Jessica Barquist, those people rely on Medicaid for primary health care.
“What we’re seeing with H.R.1 is attacks directly on Planned Parenthood, but more broadly, attacks on health care and the funding of health care," Barquist said. "And so putting it into the context of where Vermont is already really struggling, these effects of this bill are going to be really disastrous to Vermont as a whole.”
During the forum, Fingas shared a question submitted online and directed at Public Assets Institute Fair Share for Vermont Campaign Director Anika Heilweil.
“If those in charge of the federal government refuse to act to head off all this harm that’s going our way, and it seems like they are going to refuse to act," Fingas read, "how do you think Vermont as a state could, and probably more importantly should, respond to protect its residents?”
“The state legislature and the Scott administration need to increase state revenue by clawing back tax cuts for the wealthiest Vermonters," Heilweil asserted. "Through increased state revenue we’ll be able to better mitigate the effects of federal funding cuts and protect Vermonters, make needed investments and just make this entire situation less bad.”
The advocates suggested that individual Vermonters lobby state elected officials to support initiatives and pass legislation that protect Vermonters against negative provisions in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
