Brad Finstad and the One Big Beautiful Bill Act: Seven House Votes That Decided the Outcome, His Final-Passage Yes, and Minnesota's $19.1 Billion Medicaid Hit

Minnesota stands to lose $19.1 billion in federal Medicaid money over a decade under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, KFF estimates, a cut that lands on a program covering 140,000 people in the 1st District alone. Brad Finstad cast yes votes on both budget resolutions, the rules that brought the bill up, House passage and final passage, and seven of his votes were decisive: a switch would have defeated the 215-to-214 House passage on May 22, 2025 and two of the rules, and would have tied the other four, and a tie fails.

The other decisive six were the two budget-resolution votes, which set an $880 billion savings floor for the Energy and Commerce Committee and a $230 billion floor for the Agriculture Committee; the April 2025 rule; the May previous-question vote; and two July procedural votes that opened the floor to the Senate's version. Finstad then voted for final passage on July 3 and, in April 2026, a resolution praising the law, which KFF expects to leave 170,000 more Minnesotans uninsured in 2034.

Brad Finstad's 18 Roll Calls on the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, February 2025 to April 2026

• Minnesota's Medicaid and SNAP Programs Were Targeted for Committee Savings When Finstad's Vote Decided the February 2025 Budget Plan. Three February 25, 2025 votes advanced the House budget resolution, and Brad Finstad was a yes on each: the motion ordering the previous question on H.Res. 161, then adoption of that rule, then H.Con.Res. 14 itself, which carried 217 to 215, close enough that his switch alone would have left a losing tie. Energy and Commerce, the Medicaid committee, was told to find at least $880 billion; Agriculture, the SNAP committee, was told to find at least $230 billion; and Ways and Means was cleared to add up to $4.5 trillion to deficits with tax changes.
• The $880 Billion Savings Target for the Medicaid Committee Stayed in Place When Finstad's Votes Decided the Final Budget Plan in April 2025. The Senate's amended budget resolution came back to the House through a rule, H.Res. 313. Finstad was a yes on both April 9, 2025 votes on that rule, first ordering the previous question and then adopting it, 216 to 215, and on April 10 his vote helped the House concur, 216 to 214. Had he reversed on the rule's adoption, it would have failed 215 to 216; a reversal on concurrence would have left a 215-215 tie, and a tie fails. Nothing in the House committees' instructions changed in the final version. The law Finstad voted for on July 3, 2025 then cut $911 billion from federal Medicaid spending across ten years, by the Congressional Budget Office's reckoning, as KFF reports.
• Minnesotans Who Will Lose Coverage Face Cuts First Approved in the May 2025 House Bill Finstad Voted For. May 22, 2025 brought six roll calls on H.R. 1, and on each Finstad voted with the bill's backers. Taking up its rule, H.Res. 436, required two questions of consideration (217 to 211, then 216 to 211), a previous-question vote (213 to 211) and a vote adopting the rule (217 to 212). Finstad also voted against the motion to recommit, which went down 212 to 216, before passage itself: 215 yeas including his to 214 nays, with one member present, and both the previous question and the bill needed his vote. In the law that emerged from the Senate, the Medicaid changes on their own push 7.5 million more people into the ranks of the uninsured by 2034, KFF reports from the Congressional Budget Office's numbers, and Planned Parenthood lost federal Medicaid payments for a "1-year period".
• Minnesotans Facing Coverage and Food Aid Losses Live Under the Final Law Finstad Helped Bring Up and Then Voted For in July 2025. Before the final vote, the House had to agree to take up the Senate's version, and on July 2, 2025 that took Finstad's yes twice: the rule, H.Res. 566, survived a question of consideration by 212 to 211, and ordering the previous question passed 214 to 212. Next he voted for the Foxx amendment to that rule; on July 3 his yes went to the amended rule and then to concurrence in the Senate amendment, the vote that finished the bill, 218 to 214. Signed July 4, 2025, it is Public Law 119-21. Ten million more Americans will lack health insurance in 2034 because of the law, the Congressional Budget Office projects in figures KFF reports, and SNAP loses $187 billion through 2034, roughly 20 percent of the program, by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities' count.
• The Poorest Fifth of Americans Got a Small Tax Increase Despite the 2026 Resolution Finstad Voted For Calling the Law a Working-Family Tax Cut. H.Res. 1156, which came up nine months after final passage, asked the House to praise the law, and Finstad voted yes on April 16, 2026 as it was adopted 219 to 207. The resolution brands the law the "Working Families Tax Cuts" and says it "will result in a 15 percent tax cut for Americans whose income is in the bottom 40 percent." The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy's 2026 estimates cut against that claim: "For the poorest fifth of Americans, the average tax change from OBBBA is a small tax increase," while the richest 1 percent collect tax cuts averaging more than $70,000.

What the One Big Beautiful Bill Act Brad Finstad Voted For Costs Minnesotans, by Topic

• Medicaid enrollees in Finstad's district, 140,000 strong, lose part of the federal money behind their care. Medicaid covered 140,000 residents of Minnesota's 1st District in 2025, close to one in five, including 60,700 children, 11,400 seniors and 12,100 people with disabilities, and KFF's math puts Minnesota's share of the federal Medicaid cut at $19.1 billion across ten years. Finstad's health care page sets out the votes behind it.
• Small-town Minnesota patients lose $4.3 billion in Medicaid money, and the state's hospital tax is expected to shrink. Federal Medicaid spending in rural Minnesota drops $4.3 billion over a decade, KFF estimates, and KFF expects Minnesota's hospital tax to fall under the law's provider-tax limits; the health care page tracks the hospital provisions.
• At least 18,000 Minnesotans have been cut from SNAP, and the state could owe about $130 million in benefit costs in fiscal 2028. Minnesota's state auditor counted at least 18,000 people dropped from SNAP within a year of the law's signing, and at the state's 2025 error rate of 12.58 percent, it could face a benefit-cost bill near $130 million in fiscal 2028; his food assistance page details the SNAP votes.
• 170,000 Minnesotans lose insurance by 2034 while the richest tenth gains $13,600 a year. By 2034 the law leaves 170,000 more Minnesotans uninsured, KFF projects, and across the country the bottom-earning households fall about $1,200 a year behind as the top tenth moves $13,600 ahead, by a Congressional Budget Office estimate that Thomson Reuters reported; Finstad's tax and deficit votes have their own page.
• A hospital fund serving Minnesota's 1,150,958 Medicare enrollees runs dry a quarter sooner under the law. The law's tax changes pull the projected exhaustion of Medicare's hospital fund one quarter earlier, to the second quarter of 2033, a fund serving Minnesota's 1,150,958 Medicare enrollees of 2024, and the law also ends Medicare eligibility for some lawfully present immigrants, both detailed on Brad Finstad's Medicare page.
• Nursing-home residents in Minnesota, most on Medicaid, see the federal staffing rule shelved until 2034. Of 20,226 people in Minnesota nursing facilities, 53% count on Medicaid as their primary payer, and the law bars enforcement of the federal staffing standard until 2034; the elder care page has Finstad's votes.
• Disabled Medicaid enrollees in Finstad's district, 12,100 of them, face cuts and exemption paperwork. Among Medicaid enrollees in Minnesota's 1st District are 12,100 people with disabilities, and disabled adults in the expansion group will have to qualify for an exemption or report hours starting January 1, 2027; more is on the disability rights page.
• Minnesotans on opioid treatment through the expansion, 9,260 of them, will have to qualify for an exemption or report hours from 2027. In 2021, Medicaid's expansion group in Minnesota included 9,260 adults on medication for opioid use disorder, a group the work requirement covers starting January 1, 2027; the mental health and addiction page explains the exemptions.
• Children in Finstad's district, 26,000 of them, get less than the full child tax credit. Columbia's poverty center estimates that 26,000 children in Minnesota's 1st District, 18%, get less than the full credit under the law because their parents' earnings are too low; the details sit on Finstad's child care and families page.
• 158,838 Social Security recipients in Finstad's district face a trust fund $168.6 billion worse off. In December 2024, 158,838 people in Minnesota's 1st District collected Social Security, and the program's chief actuary estimates the law raises its net costs by $168.6 billion through 2034; the Social Security page lays out Finstad's votes.
• Minnesota borrowers leaving SAVE owe $2,428 more each year. Minnesota borrowers pushed from SAVE into the Repayment Assistance Plan face payments $2,428 a year higher on average, the Center for American Progress estimates; the student debt page goes further.
• About 12,000 Minnesota veterans live in SNAP homes, and the law ended the veterans' time-limit exemption. Roughly 12,000 Minnesota veterans live in households on SNAP, and the law took away veterans' exemption from the program's three-month limit, and veterans aged 18 through 64 who lack a disability or other exemption are now subject to it; see the veterans page.
• Minnesota households could spend about $410 more a year on energy by 2035. Energy Innovation projects, in figures CNBC published, that the law's energy changes could raise the typical Minnesota household's annual energy costs about $410 by 2035, as credits for home efficiency and clean power disappear.

Frequently Asked Questions About Brad Finstad on One Big Beautiful Bill

Last updated: 2026-10-27

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