How the GOP’s budget bill could affect Arizona’s 3rd Congressional District

In Arizona’s 3rd Congressional District, one of the most diverse in the country where over 800,000 Arizonans reside, the GOP-led “One Big Beautiful Bill” would hit hard.

Democratic Congresswoman Yassamin Ansari, who represents Phoenix, Glendale, and Guadalupe, voted against the budget bill, calling it a “horrific” budget, and an “all out assault on this district and the people who live here,” at a recent town hall in Central Phoenix. 

“It’s not hyperbolic to say that there will be deaths in our community if this budget passes in its current form,” Ansari said.

Every Arizona Republican voted for the bill, except Rep. David Schweikert, who fell asleep before the vote. 

In its current form, the US House of Representatives’ One Big Beautiful Bill Act would cut $736 billion from the federal Medicaid program, and cause 15 million Americans to lose their health insurance, if the bill is ultimately passed into law. 

In Arizona, an estimated 360,000 people would lose their Medicaid coverage. Ansari’s district includes the highest number of people on Medicaid in the state, about 40% of the district’s residents.

Medicaid is a federal health insurance program free primarily for low-income people that enrolls nearly 80 million Americans, including nearly 2 million Arizonans. Arizona’s Medicaid program is called the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System or AHCCCS, pronounced “access.”

READ MORE: Arizona Republicans vote to take healthcare, food aid away from constituents

The budget bill passed the US House of Representatives on May 22. It is now before the US Senate, which may amend it, vote, and if passed would return to the House once more before hitting the president’s desk.

Medicaid is not the only program that if cut, CD3 residents would be hit hard from.

“SNAP is absolutely vital in our district,” Ansari said. 126,000 people in her district use SNAP benefits, which is 1 in 4 households with children and 15% of the district, she said.

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, provides food assistance to low-income individuals and families, including roughly 1 million Arizonans. It is the largest anti-hunger program in the US and is facing $300 billion in federal funding cuts from the budget bill. 

“Republicans are literally choosing to bail out billionaires instead of feeding those in our communities who need the most help,” Ansari said.

The budget bill, which removes funding and resources for some of the poorest people in America, would save the top earners in America thousands of dollars per year.  

“The Republican budget that’s going through Congress right now is literally the most unprecedented transfer of wealth from the poorest people in this country, in the working class, to the ultra rich and the top 1%,” Ansari told The Copper Courier in an interview.