HARRISBURG, PA – Today, FWD.us released new polling and a new report, “Cutting Health Care, Supercharging ICE,” detailing how federal budget decisions cut hundreds of billions of dollars from health care, food assistance, and other programs while dramatically increasing spending on immigration enforcement are impacting families and communities across Pennsylvania. 

One year ago, Republicans in Congress passed President Trump’s signature budget legislation, cutting nearly $1 trillion from health care. Between that bill and the spending bills since, they have funneled a quarter trillion dollars to ICE and the Department of Homeland Security to terrorize communities. The new FWD.us report shows that Pennsylvania is projected to lose an estimated $6.1 billion in federal funding by 2029 as a result of changes to Medicaid, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies, even after offset funds from the Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP). 

Among the report’s key findings for Pennsylvania: 

• More than 210,000 fewer Pennsylvanians are receiving SNAP food assistance, while 119,040 fewer people are enrolled in Medicaid and CHIP compared with 2025. 
• 26 hospitals and medical facilities have closed or are closing, and Pennsylvania is projected to lose 26,200 health care jobs as a result of changes to the ACA and Medicaid, even after factoring in RHTP funds. 
• At the same time, DHS has spent $206.9 million purchasing two warehouses to expand ICE detention capacity in Pennsylvania. The state had 23 ICE detention facilities as of July, holding an average of more than 2,000 people each day, and 12,714 immigrants have been arrested across the state since January 20, 2025.

Read the Pennsylvania Fact Sheet here.

The new polling commissioned by FWD.us shows voters strongly question these spending priorities. In a July national survey of likely voters, 60 percent said spending hundreds of billions of dollars on immigration enforcement while cutting funding for health care is unacceptable, compared with 28 percent who said immigration enforcement should be funded even if it requires cuts elsewhere.

Congresswoman Mary Gay Scanlon (D-PA-5) said: “Congressional Republicans have made their priorities clear. While American families are struggling to put food on the table and afford housing and health care, they have cut funding for health care, hunger relief and cancer research so they can spend billions on Stephen Miller’s mass deportation fantasies and give billions in tax cuts to billionaires and big business. Working class families and our most vulnerable neighbors are already feeling the effects of last summer’s federal budget cuts. Pennsylvanians deserve a government that works for them, so I will continue to fight for a federal budget that invests in our communities and our kids' future.”

Congressman Chris Deluzio (D-PA-17) said: “The Trump Administration and Republicans in Congress are taking hundreds of billions of public dollars from health care and shoving it into its mass deportation regime. And the American people are boiling mad. This data is a useful resource to show how this country is getting sicker, poorer, and more lawless under full Republican control.”

Todd Schulte, President of FWD.us, said: “Pennsylvania families are losing health coverage and food assistance, hospitals are closing, and thousands of health care jobs are at risk, while the federal government directs extraordinary resources toward immigration detention and enforcement. This is a question of priorities and whether taxpayer dollars are being used to strengthen Pennsylvania communities or take away resources families rely on. Pennsylvanians deserve investments that lower costs, expand access to care and help communities thrive.”

Felicity Rose, Vice President of Research and Policy at FWD.us and author of the report, said: “The scale of what Pennsylvania stands to lose is significant: $6.1 billion in federal funding, tens of thousands more people projected to become uninsured, more than 26,000 health care jobs, and critical food assistance for hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvanians. At the same time, DHS spent $206.9 million purchasing two warehouses in Pennsylvania as part of its effort to expand immigration detention capacity. And many of the most consequential cuts to Medicaid and SNAP have not even taken effect yet. These numbers show just how much is at stake for Pennsylvania families and communities if these funding decisions stand.”

The Pennsylvania findings are part of a broader national shift in federal spending priorities. The reconciliation bills directed $113 billion to ICE alone, including funding for nearly 100,000 detention beds, roughly 14,600 additional officers and staff, and expanded deportation operations. It also created a $27 billion fund within the Department of Homeland Security without specific line-item allocations or regular reporting requirements

Read the full report from FWD.us here.