Rep. Mann, ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ would devastate Kansas’ neediest | Opinion

On June 16, The Kansas City Star published a guest commentary by U.S. Rep. Tracey Mann, in which he waxed poetic about the “benefits” of the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act now being debated in Congress. What Rep. Mann fails to mention are the massive cuts in health care and food access contained in the bill, and the devastating effects these cuts will have on the lives of our Kansas neighbors, including thousands of his constituents.

As a pastor living in rural Kansas, I have watched as cuts to U.S. Department of Agriculture funding have limited access to fresh, healthy food at our local food pantry. On top of that, we’ve just received the news that older adults in south central Kansas, including my own mother, will lose the Meals on Wheels program starting July 1. Now, more than ever, our state needs more investment for our vulnerable neighbors, not less.

The budget reconciliation bill would significantly cut the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for the nearly 188,000 people in Kansas who rely on it to put food on the table for themselves and their families. The majority of these Kansans are children, older adults and those living with disabilities. SNAP dollars are spent in community grocery stores, small businesses and local farmers markets, supporting jobs and generating local sales tax revenue. Any cuts to SNAP would have an immediate impact on our farmers, grocers and local economy. Rep. Mann ignores the real harm these cuts would cause to Kansas families and the agricultural economy alike.

This bill would also cut funding for Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act exchanges, threatening vital services for our most vulnerable populations, including thousands of children and older Kansans. Local hospitals, like Lindsborg Community Hospital in my community, would be in danger of closing.

All this would happen while still adding $2 trillion to the national debt over the next 10 years, because of the legislation’s large tax cuts for the wealthiest among us.

Budgets are moral documents — they reflect our values. A government that is “of the people, by the people, for the people” is a government that serves the interests of its people. Therefore, our federal budget must align with our values. For people of faith, our values are determined by our sacred texts. I am a Christian pastor, and Scripture is clear: God cares for the most vulnerable among us — children, the poor, the widowed, the immigrant, the stranger (see Isaiah 58, Jeremiah 7, Zechariah 7, Matthew 25, Hebrews 13, just to name a few) — and so we as a nation are called to care for the vulnerable, too.

This One Big Bad Bill is antithetical to the values reflected in Scripture. Where God asks us to care for the sick, this bill slashes funding for Medicaid and the ACA. Where God asks us to feed the hungry, this bill requires burdensome restrictions to access food. Where God asks us to welcome the stranger, this bill finances the indiscriminate targeting of our immigrant neighbors.

Rep. Mann’s support of this bill is deeply troubling, but his vote has already been counted in the House. As people of faith, we call upon Sens. Roger Marshall and Jerry Moran to vote no on this bill that will harm real Kansans, and real people across our state and nation. We call upon Marshall and Moran to work with elected officials on both sides of the aisle to create a budget that reflects our shared values as people of faith and as citizens of the United States, committed to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for all, not just those with money and power.

Now that would be the perfect gift to the American people and, more important, a sacred offering to the God of us all.

This story was originally published June 20, 2025 at 5:04 AM with the headline "Rep. Mann, ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ would devastate Kansas’ neediest | Opinion."