Write a new simple attractive title based on the title from UnidosUS: Federal cuts hurt Texas families – especially in the Rio Grande Valley and dont use quote marks

By Dayna Reyes, Reporter

MCALLEN, Texas – Federal cuts hurt Texas families, especially in the Rio Grande Valley.

This was the message coming out of a roundtable discussion hosted by UnidosUS in McAllen and featuring Stan Dorn, director of the Health Policy Project for UnidosUS, U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, and community advocacy groups.

Congress passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) in 2025, making the largest cuts to Medicaid and food assistance in American history, Eric Holguín, Texas state director for UnidosUS, pointed out. He said OBBBA, combined with the expiration of Affordable Care Act (ACA) health tax credits, has raised the cost of food and health insurance for numerous Texas families will putting jobs and state and local services at risk. 

Holguín provided a fact sheet listing the impact of the federal cuts. The fact sheet said there is now less help paying for food, with 1.5 million Texas families projected to lose some or all SNAP benefits. There is projected to be a loss in benefits of $83 a month for Texas families.. Around 650,000 Texans, including 340,000 children, have already lost all their SNAP, the fact sheet stated, with more than half being Latinos.

One million people in the Rio Grande Valley, nearly all of whom are Latino, relied on SHNAP to help buy groceries in 2024, making them vulnerable to the federal cuts, the fact sheet stated. Just $6.18 a day is the average SNAP amount per person in Texas. Around 280,000 families in the Valley, including 180,000 families with children already did not have enough food to eat in 2024. Nearly all of them were Latino, the UnidosUS document stated. 

As for the higher health insurance costs, 1.4 million Texans are projected to become uninsured, including 700,000 Latinos, the fact sheet stated, with a 66 percent increase in health insurance costs already hitting three million Texans who buy ACA insurance.

Average health insurance cots skyrocketed from $890 to $1,700 a year for 300,000 Valley residents who buy their own ACA insurance, the fact sheet stated. It pointed out that for 19 consecutive years, Texas has been America’s wort state in covering children, with 14 percent of Texas uninsured in 2024. This is more than twice the national average. Two-thirds of those children were Latino. 

Ninety-seven percent of the Valley’s 64,000 uninsured children are Latino. And one third of all Valley residents – 400,000 people – rely on Medicaid or the ACA for insurance, making them vulnerable to federal cuts. 

As for economic and budge damage, the UnidosUS fact sheet said 200,000 Texans are projected to lose their jobs due to OBBBA and the expiration of ACA tax credits – the second-highest job losses for any state.

An $800 million drop in state and local revenue resulting from OBBBA will require offsetting cuts to state and local services or higher taxes, the fact sheet stated. And, more than $800 million in SNAP administrative and benefit cots are shifting from the federal government to Texas, forcing event deeper cuts to state services. 

“More than 80 percent of Texas’ Latino voters van’t afford the essentials of life or are barely making ends meet,” Holguín said. “The changes enacted through OBBBA, combined with the expiration of enhanced ACA premium tax credits, are expected to deepen these challenges for Texas families.”

Here is the analysis of some of the community leaders at the roundtable discussion:

Dalinda Gonzalez-Alcantar, CEO of the Boys & Girls Club of McAllen:

Dr. Rashmi Chandran, CEO of AltaCair Foundation, and Dr. Sujan Gogu, a sports and pain medicine specialist:

Tania Chavez, president of La Unión del Pueblo Entero:

Editor’s Note: The above news story is the second in a four-part series on the UnidosUS roundtable discussion. Click here to read Part One.