• While the 2025 budget reconciliation bill has justifiably garnered widespread criticism for gutting Medicaid to the tune of over $700 billion and cutting food assistance (SNAP) to children, it also conceals a number of lesser-known, but equally awful, provisions. These measures reshape everything from civil rights and education to environmental policy, immigration, and military spending, following the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 proposals.

Below is a look at these “hidden” parts of the budget bill and who stands to benefit.

• Crippling Court Enforcement

The bill prohibits using federal funds to enforce court orders against executive branch officials found in contempt. This undermines the judiciary’s authority and essentially allows members of the executive branch to ignore legal accountability without consequence.

Who Benefits: Presidents and executive officials facing court scrutiny, especially those involved in politically sensitive investigations.

• Eliminating the IRS Free File Program

This provision repeals the IRS’s Direct File program, a free government-run service that allowed taxpayers to file returns without cost. The bill pushes millions of taxpayers back toward fee-based private tax preparation services by removing this option.

Who Benefits: Companies like Intuit (TurboTax) and H&R Block.

• Expanding Immigration Detention

The bill allocates an unprecedented $45 billion to build and operate new immigration jails, over 13 times ICE’s current budget. It also legalizes the indefinite detention of immigrant children and adds costly application fees: $3,500 for families trying to reunite with children, and $1,000 for asylum seekers.

Who Benefits: Private prison contractors and major Republican contributors such as CoreCivic and GEO Group.

• Silencing Nonprofits

The bill grants the federal government sweeping authority to revoke the tax-exempt status of nonprofits deemed ‘terrorist-supporting’—a vague and politically malleable classification just begging to be abused. For example, if Trump decides he’s been wronged by the Environmental Defense Fund, he could have it declared as “terrorist supporting” and have its tax-exempt status taken away.

Who Benefits: Political actors aiming to suppress opposition movements.

• Blocking AI Regulation for 10 Years

This provision places a decade-long moratorium on state and local governments regulating AI or automated decision systems. It mandates the repeal of existing laws, stripping communities of their ability to oversee technologies that affect housing, employment, credit, and policing. It is a 180 degree turnaround from the federal government’s position that specific issues like education and reproductive rights belong to the states. It may have something to do with the hundreds of millions of dollars the tech billionaires contributed to Trump. 

Who Benefits: Big Tech – think Jeff Bezos, Sergei Brin, Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, and Elon Musk – all major Republican donors.

• Estate Tax Windfall

Raises the estate tax exemption to $15 million for individuals and $30 million for couples, eliminating the estate tax for all but the wealthiest 0.08% of Americans. To be fair, a lot of this is inflation from the last time the dollar amounts were set. 

Who Benefits: Multi-generational wealth holders and ultra-rich families. These are also the same individuals who have contributed significantly to the Republican Party.

• Weakened Child Tax Credit

Although the child tax credit has been increased from $2,000 to $2,500 per child, eligibility thresholds have been tightened. Not all children will benefit. The bill prevents 4.5 million children from qualifying for benefits. 

Children are denied benefits if their parents file taxes using an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) instead of a Social Security number.

ITINs are issued by the IRS to people who need to file taxes but aren’t eligible for a Social Security number—typically immigrants (including undocumented ones) who still work and pay taxes.

Even if a child is a U.S. citizen, they may still be denied tax benefits if their parents use an ITIN to file their taxes. This rule affects millions of mixed-status families, where the children are citizens but one or both parents are not.

Who Benefits: Anti-immigrant groups like the Heritage Foundation and the federal treasury..

• School Voucher Subsidies

The bill provides $20 billion in tax credits for individuals who donate to voucher or private schools. Donors of appreciated stock avoid capital gains tax.

Who Benefits: Wealthy donors, private education corporations, and private schools.

• Obamacare Subsidy Rollback

What it does: Premium subsidies under the Affordable Care Act expire at the end of 2025, making insurance unaffordable for many.

Who Benefits: Private insurance companies and fiscal conservatives.

• Gun Silencer Tax Repeal

What it does: Removes the $200 excise tax on gun silencers, which critics warn could endanger public safety. This will make it cheaper to buy a gun silencer so that people can’t hear gunshots. Gun suppressors would also defeat municipal software that is capable of locating gunfire.

Who benefits: Gun manufacturers and firearm rights groups.

• Ban on Gender-Affirming Care via Medicaid

What it does:
The bill prohibits the use of Medicaid and CHIP funds for any form of gender-affirming care, including hormone therapy, puberty blockers, and surgeries. It also strips gender-affirming procedures from the list of essential health benefits under the Affordable Care Act.

Further, it codifies a binary, biological definition of sex, limiting legal recognition of transgender and intersex individuals.

Healthcare providers and civil rights organizations warn that this could deny medically necessary care to thousands, particularly to young people.

Who benefits: Anti-LGBTQ+ advocacy groups and political factions seeking to restrict transgender healthcare access.

• Tax on Remittances

What it does:  A 5% tax is imposed on all international money transfers.

Immigrant families who send money to loved ones in countries like Mexico, the Philippines, or Nigeria will face new, higher costs, decreasing the amount of support these families receive. This provision has been framed as a revenue-raising measure, but critics argue it is a punitive tax targeting immigrant labor.

Who benefits: Federal revenue collectors, at the expense of low-income immigrant families.

• Changes to Federal Student Aid

What it does:

• Ends Subsidized Federal Loans: Students will now accrue interest while still in school, significantly increasing debt burdens.

• Tightens Pell Grant Access: Eligibility requirements are increased, limiting support for low-income students.

• Expands “Workforce Pell Grants”: Redirects funding toward trade programs and vocational education.

• Abolishes Gainful Employment Rules: For-profit schools are no longer required to demonstrate graduates’ job outcomes, opening the door to predatory practices. This will repeat the abuses of private training schools that took advantage of students, left them with worthless training, and a barrel full of debt. Think now bankrupt IT&T and Trump University.

Who benefits:  For-profit educational institutions and career training firms.

• Termination of Green Energy Tax Credits

What it does:  Several key environmental tax credits set to last until 2032 will now expire in 2025. These include:

• Commercial Clean Vehicles Credit

• Residential Solar and Wind Energy Credit

• Home Efficiency Improvement Credit

• EV Charging Station Credit

This rollback will stall progress in reducing carbon emissions, as both individuals and companies face higher upfront costs for green upgrades. The amount of CO2 in the atmosphere will increase. The average temperatures will increase. Antarctic glaciers will melt. Sea levels will rise, and coastal cities will flood. 

Who benefits:  Fossil fuel producers and utility conglomerates competing with renewables. 

• Expansion of Border Security and Deportation

What it does:  A whopping $70 billion is allocated to expand border infrastructure and enforcement. Breakdown:

• $46.5B for border wall construction

• $5B for CBP facility upgrades

• $4.1B to hire thousands of new agents

• $2.7B for surveillance systems

• $2B for processing centers and staff

• $1B for AI-based border inspection tech

The goal is to increase deportation capacity to 1 million individuals annually.

Who benefits:  Private contractors in surveillance and detention, and political platforms favoring mass deportation.

• Creation of “Trump” Savings Accounts

What it does: Parents receive a $1,000 government-seeded savings account per child, with no income-based contribution caps. While marketed as a middle-class relief measure, most low-income families will unlikely have surplus funds to contribute and build wealth through these accounts.

Who benefits:  Wealthier families who can fully capitalize on tax-deferred savings.

• Increase in SALT Deduction Cap

What it does:  The bill raises the State and Local Tax (SALT) deduction cap from $10,000 to $40,000 for households making under $500,000/year. While popular in high-tax states, it disproportionately benefits upper-income earners in urban regions. It will alleviate the balance of payments problem for many blue states, such as New York, that send more money to the federal government than they receive back. Currently, money from donor states is used to balance the budgets of mainly red “taker” states, such as Speaker Johnson’s Louisiana.

Who benefits:  Taxpayers in states like New York, New Jersey, and California who itemize their deductions.

• Empower the Treasury to Revoke Tax-Exempt Status

What it does:  Grants the Treasury authority to revoke a nonprofit’s tax-exempt status if deemed “terrorist-supporting,” with minimal due process. Critics argue that this measure could be used against environmental groups, social justice nonprofits, or political dissenters.

Who benefits:  Political figures aiming to silence adversaries or controversial grassroots movements.

• Increased Defense Spending on Uncrewed Systems

What it does: The bill includes $150 billion in new defense funding, focused on autonomous military systems, including aerial drones, marine drones, surveillance AI, and cyber-attack infrastructure. This represents a significant investment in non-human combat systems.

Who benefits:  Defense contractors like Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, and drone manufacturers.

• Eliminate COVID-19 Employee Retention Tax Credit (ERTC) Claims

What it does: This retroactively closes businesses’ eligibility to file or claim ERTC refunds related to pandemic-era payroll support. Many small and mid-sized businesses planned around this credit. Now they will face unexpected shortfalls.

Who benefits: Reduces federal spending obligations, but at the expense of business stability and recovery. Large businesses will benefit.

Act Now Because They Passed It While You Were Sleeping

This bill was passed in the dead of night, when the public was asleep. Many of its most dangerous provisions—targeting civil liberties, green energy, free speech, and basic healthcare—were never openly debated. They were slipped into hundreds of pages, passed quietly, and now threaten the rights and well-being of millions.

If any part of this bill disturbs you, raise your voice. Contact your representatives. Speak out.

The Republicans count on your ignorance of what they are doing and your silence. 

Contact Your Western New York Representatives

Nick Langworthy (R- NY23)

Clarence: 8201 Main St, Suite 13, Williamsville, NY 14221 | (716) 547-6844

Jamestown: 2-6 E Second St, Room 208, Jamestown, NY 14701 | (716) 488-8111

Olean: 1 Bluebird Square, Olean, NY 14760 | (585) 543-5033

Corning: 89 W. Market Street, Corning, NY 14830 | (607) 377-3130

Website: https://langworthy.house.gov

Claudia Tenney (R- NY24)

Lockport: 169 Niagara Street, Lockport, NY 14094 | (716) 514-5130

Canandaigua: 2375 Rochester Rd, Suite 250, Canandaigua, NY 14424 | (585) 869-2060

Oswego: 46 E Bridge Street, Suite 102, Oswego, NY 13126 | (315) 236-7088

Watertown: 317 Washington Street, Suite 418, Watertown, NY 13601

Website: https://tenney.house.gov

Joseph Morelle (R-NY25)

Rochester: 255 East Avenue, Suite 150, Rochester, NY 14604 | (585) 232-4850

Website: https://morelle.house.gov

Tim Kennedy (R-NY26)

Buffalo: 726 Exchange Street, Suite 601, Buffalo, NY 14210 | (716) 852-3501

Niagara Falls: 800 Main Street, Suite 3C, Niagara Falls, NY 14301 | (716) 282-1274

Website: https://kennedy.house.gov