Derek Schmidt and the One Big Beautiful Bill Act: His Vote Was the House Margin, He Voted for the Final Law, and Kansas Loses $3.35 Billion in Medicaid Funds

A $3.351 billion, ten-year cut in federal Medicaid funding for Kansas is part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which cleared the House on May 22, 2025 by a single vote, 215 to 214, with Derek Schmidt in the majority; he voted for the final law on July 3 too.

From the budget blueprint in February 2025 to the closing rule votes in July, Schmidt voted to move the bill forward each time it came up, and seven of those roll calls, both budget votes and House passage among them, were close enough that his vote alone settled the outcome. Nine months after the law took effect, on April 16, 2026, he voted for H.Res. 1156, a resolution celebrating its tax provisions.

In Kansas the law leaves 26,000 more people uninsured by 2034 and cuts rural Medicaid funding by $1.083 billion, and 24,000 Kansans have lost SNAP since it was signed; the issue-by-issue list below has the details.

Derek Schmidt's House Votes on the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, in the Order the Bill Moved

• A Budget Blueprint Instructing Medicaid's Committee to Find $880 Billion Passed Because of Schmidt's February 2025 Vote. Three roll calls on February 25, 2025 opened the process. Derek Schmidt voted yes when the House ordered the previous question for H.Res. 161, which governed debate on the budget resolution, a step that carried 216 to 210; voted for adopting that rule, 217 to 211; and then voted for H.Con.Res. 14, which the House approved 217 to 215, a margin so thin that a no from him would have tied it at 216, and a tie fails. The blueprint told Energy and Commerce, Medicaid's committee, to "reduce the deficit by not less than $880,000,000,000" over a decade, told Agriculture, which handles SNAP, to find at least $230 billion in deficit reduction, and allowed Ways and Means to add up to $4.5 trillion to deficits for tax cuts.
• Schmidt's Votes Decided Both the Rule and the Final Budget Blueprint in April 2025. When the Senate sent back its rewrite of the blueprint, Derek Schmidt voted on April 9, 2025 to cut off debate on H.Res. 313, 217 to 212, and for the rule itself, which squeaked through 216 to 215 to put the Senate text on the floor. On April 10 he voted to accept that text, and the House did, 216 to 214. Had he voted no on either the rule or the blueprint, it would have gone down. The Senate text left the House committees' instructions unchanged, and once Schmidt's July 3, 2025 vote helped enact it, the law cut federal Medicaid by $911 billion over ten years, a Congressional Budget Office figure reported by KFF.
• On May 22, 2025, the House Bill Won by One Vote, With Schmidt Among the 215. The House needed six roll calls on May 22, 2025, and Derek Schmidt was with the bill's backers on every one: two votes on whether to take up H.Res. 436, the rule governing H.R. 1, decided 217 to 211 and 216 to 211; the previous question, won 213 to 211, a margin his switch would have erased; adoption of the rule, 217 to 212; later that day he voted against the motion to recommit, which fell 212 to 216; and the One Big Beautiful Bill Act itself, 215 to 214, with one member voting present. Rewritten by the Senate, the bill became the law he voted for in July. Its Medicaid provisions by themselves will, by a CBO projection KFF cites, leave 7.5 million more people uninsured in 2034, and it halted Planned Parenthood's Medicaid reimbursements for a "1-year period".
• Schmidt Supplied Deciding Votes on the Final Rule and Then Voted to Make the Bill Law in July 2025. To bring up the Senate's version, the House first voted on July 2, 2025 on whether to consider H.Res. 566, the rule, and Derek Schmidt's yes was part of a 212-to-211 result; the previous question then carried 214 to 212, so his no there would have tied it 213 to 213, and a tie fails. He voted for an amendment to the rule, 220 to 212, and the next day for the rule's adoption, 219 to 213, and the motion to concur in the Senate amendment, final passage, which passed 218 to 214. The president signed it the following day, and it became Public Law 119-21. Under a Congressional Budget Office estimate that KFF reports, 10 million more Americans will be uninsured in 2034 because of the law, while CBPP analysts calculated that "The megabill cuts SNAP by $187 billion or about 20 percent by 2034."
• The Poorest Fifth Got a Small Tax Increase, Not the Cut the Resolution Schmidt Voted For in April 2026 Claimed. Derek Schmidt was a yes on April 16, 2026 when H.Res. 1156 cleared the House 219 to 207. The resolution brands the law the "Working Families Tax Cuts" and asserts it "will result in a 15 percent tax cut for Americans whose income is in the bottom 40 percent." ITEP's analysis came out the other way: "For the poorest fifth of Americans, the average tax change from OBBBA is a small tax increase" in 2026, and the top 1 percent average over $70,000 in tax savings.

What the One Big Beautiful Bill Act Costs Kansas, Issue by Issue, After Derek Schmidt's Votes

• Kansas loses $3.35 billion in federal Medicaid funding. Divided among the states by KFF, the Congressional Budget Office's Medicaid estimate costs Kansas $3.351 billion over ten years, 9% of its expected federal Medicaid money, which pays for hospital stays, checkups and nursing care for 116,700 enrollees in the 2nd District alone. The votes are on Derek Schmidt's health care page.
• Rural Kansas loses $1.08 billion in federal Medicaid money. Rural Kansas loses $1.083 billion in federal Medicaid spending over ten years, KFF estimates, in a state with more rural hospitals at risk of closing than any other, so the emergency rooms and clinics small towns rely on lose a key source of revenue. See Derek Schmidt's health care record.
• 26,000 more Kansans will go without coverage by 2034. On its own the law pushes 26,000 Kansans off insurance by 2034, in KFF's projection, leaving them to face doctor and hospital bills uncovered. Derek Schmidt's page on homelessness and poverty covers who loses most.
• Kansas's 589,686 Medicare enrollees depend on a hospital fund now projected to run out a quarter sooner. 589,686 Kansans were enrolled in Medicare in 2024, and because the law's tax changes reduce what flows into Medicare's hospital trust fund, the fund is now projected to be depleted in 2033, one quarter earlier than the prior projection and primarily because of the law, when it could no longer cover a full year of hospital benefits. See Derek Schmidt's Medicare page.
• Nursing homes where Medicaid pays for 60% of Kansas residents lose money and the 2024 staffing rule. Medicaid pays for 60% of residents in Kansas nursing facilities, and the law cuts Medicaid while blocking the federal nursing-home staffing standard until September 30, 2034, leaving residents without the 2024 rule's staffing minimums. More on Derek Schmidt's elder care page.
• Kansans waiting for Medicaid home care face longer waits. In 2026 the Medicaid home care waiting lists in Kansas held 6,792 people, and because that care is optional for states it is more vulnerable to the cuts, which would mean longer waits or moves into institutions. See Derek Schmidt's disability rights page.
• Medicaid treatment for opioid addiction in Kansas loses federal funding. KFF counted 1,998 Kansas Medicaid adults with a diagnosed opioid use disorder in 2021, fewer than half of them on medication for it, care paid from the Medicaid budget the law cuts. See Derek Schmidt's mental health and addiction page.
• 24,000 Kansans have lost SNAP since the law was signed. Kansas Appleseed reports 24,000 Kansans have lost SNAP benefits since the law was signed, including 11,000 children, and at its current error rate Kansas will owe $40 million more toward the cost of benefits, Megan Leopold of Kansas Action for Children said. See Derek Schmidt's food assistance page.
• 46,000 children in Kansas's 2nd District miss the full child tax credit. Because their parents' earnings are too low, 46,000 children in Kansas's 2nd District, 29%, cannot get the whole child tax credit under the law, Columbia's Center on Poverty and Social Policy estimates. See Derek Schmidt's child care and families page.
• An earlier Social Security shortfall puts a $520 monthly cut closer for Kansans. The law moves Social Security's retirement fund shortfall earlier, and at that point the automatic cut would average $520 a month for about 500,000 Kansans, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates. See Derek Schmidt's Social Security page.
• Kansas student loan borrowers leaving SAVE pay $2,008 more a year. For Kansas borrowers shifted off SAVE, the law's new repayment plan adds $2,008 a year on average, according to the Center for American Progress. See Derek Schmidt's student debt page.
• The law costs Kansas's state budget at least $150 million. Gov. Laura Kelly said the law's health care cuts will cost the state at least $150 million as they take effect, money Kansas must find on its own. See Derek Schmidt's taxes and deficit page.
• Kansas veterans on SNAP who have no other exemption now face a three-month time limit. 7,000 Kansas veterans receive SNAP, and the law ended veterans' exemption from the program's time limit, so those without an exemption must document work hours or lose food aid. See Derek Schmidt's veterans page.
• Typical Kansas homes face energy costs that could rise around $380 a year by 2035. As CNBC reported, the research group Energy Innovation projected that ending the clean-energy credits could raise a typical Kansas household's energy costs by about $380 a year by 2035.

Frequently Asked Questions About Derek Schmidt on One Big Beautiful Bill

Last updated: 2026-10-27

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