Tax cuts that tilt toward high earners are financed in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act partly through Medicaid and SNAP reductions that land on low-income families, and the net result, by the Congressional Budget Office's estimate, is about $13,600 a year more for the top tenth of households and less for the bottom; Derrick Van Orden, the House member for Wisconsin's 3rd District, provided a deciding yes on May 22, 2025 and voted for the final law on July 3, 2025.
With his deciding February 2025 budget vote, Van Orden handed the SNAP and Medicaid committees savings targets of $230 billion and $880 billion, and the final law that followed, which he voted for on July 3, 2025, takes away the SNAP time-limit exemption once enjoyed by homeless adults, veterans and young people leaving foster care. KFF projects 76,000 more Wisconsinites will be uninsured in 2034 because of the law, and 47,300 children in Van Orden's district relied on Medicaid in 2025.
Derrick Van Orden's Votes on the Safety Net for Low-Income and Homeless Wisconsinites
- Tax Cuts at the Top and Medicaid and SNAP Cuts at the Bottom Leave the Poorest Households Worse Off, Passed With Van Orden's 2025 Votes. Derrick Van Orden voted for H.R. 1 at both House passage votes: on May 22, 2025, when it won 215 to 214 and his yes was decisive, and on July 3, 2025, when the final version won 218 to 214. Thomson Reuters Checkpoint, summarizing the Congressional Budget Office's analysis of the law, reported that "the top decile will receive a windfall of $13,600 every year" while "the lowest-income earners will lose an average $1,200 in overall household resources," in large part because of the Medicaid and SNAP reductions. The SNAP piece alone is $187 billion through 2034, the biggest cut the program has seen, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
- Ending SNAP's Time-Limit Exemption for Homeless People, Veterans and Former Foster Youth Cuts Food Aid, Enacted With Van Orden's July 2025 Vote. Van Orden was a yes when H.Con.Res. 14 cleared the House on February 25, 2025, 217 to 215, a two-vote edge his switch would have wiped out. Its instructions demanded at least $230 billion from Agriculture, the SNAP committee, and at least $880 billion from Energy and Commerce, the Medicaid committee. Those three SNAP exemptions ended in the version that passed on July 3, 2025, 218 to 214, with his yes. Among the law's SNAP changes that followed from that instruction was the end of the carve-out that kept homeless adults, veterans and former foster youth out of the three-month limit; the budget office projects a net drop of 300,000 people in SNAP participation across those three groups.
What Derrick Van Orden's Votes Mean for Low-Income Families in Wisconsin
- Medicaid is the health coverage for 47,300 children in Wisconsin's 3rd District. Children made up 47,300 of the 144,000 Medicaid enrollees in Wisconsin's 3rd District in 2025, according to KFF. Their checkups and prescriptions are paid in part with the federal Medicaid money the law withdraws from Wisconsin.
- The law adds 76,000 Wisconsinites to the uninsured by 2034. By KFF's projection, the law on its own raises the number of uninsured people in Wisconsin by 76,000 in 2034, with a range of 57,000 to 95,000.
- About 43,700 FoodShare recipients must now document work hours or lose food aid. Wisconsin's health department estimates that the expanded SNAP work rules reach about 43,700 FoodShare recipients, a group that now includes Wisconsinites without stable housing who were previously exempt from the time limit.
Frequently Asked Questions About Derrick Van Orden on Homelessness and poverty
What is Derrick Van Orden's record on homelessness and poverty under Trump?
Derrick Van Orden supplied a deciding yes when the House passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act on May 22, 2025, and on July 3, 2025 he was a yes on the final law; the Congressional Budget Office finds the lowest-income households losing about $1,200 a year under it while the top tenth gain about $13,600. His deciding February 2025 budget vote produced the savings instructions for both committees, and the July law he voted for brought the end of SNAP's time-limit exemption for homeless people.
How does the SNAP change Derrick Van Orden voted for affect a homeless adult in western Wisconsin?
Under the law Derrick Van Orden voted for, a Wisconsin adult without a home who has no disability and no child under 14 at home loses the exemption that used to shield them from SNAP's time limit. Unless that person documents 80 hours a month of work or training, FoodShare stops after three months.
Who comes out ahead under the law Derrick Van Orden voted for?
Households at the top: under the law Derrick Van Orden voted for, the richest tenth gain about $13,600 a year, the budget office estimates. At the other end, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy found that "For the poorest fifth of Americans, the average tax change from OBBBA is a small tax increase" in 2026, before counting the Medicaid and SNAP cuts.
Last updated: 2026-10-27