July 3, 2025
On Thursday, July 3, one day earlier than the administration’s deadline—the House passed the Senate’s version of a federal tax and spending bill that UUP fought hard against—a bill that will wreak havoc with hospitals, health care and support services for the lowest-earning Americans.
Now, UUP will be fighting to protect SUNY hospitals and campuses from the fallout of this bill, which will cost New York state tens of billions of dollars annually.
That fallout will upend lives in New York, and, as UUP President Fred Kowal has told members, it may cost lives. Vital health coverage is at risk for over 1.5 million New Yorkers. Also, 70 of New York’s 156 hospitals, including SUNY Downstate University Hospital in Brooklyn and Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, will face serious financial challenges.
Kowal had urged members in emergency meetings June 30 and July 1 with UUP leaders to pick up the phone and do what they could, through phone banking with the NYS AFL-CIO and direct calls to New York’s Republican House delegation, to urge the House to reject the bill
With the passage of the legislation by both houses, the bill is expected to be signed into law by July 4.
The bill was the signature policy legislation of the federal administration that will extend tax cuts to the richest Americans, largely through drastic cuts to Medicaid, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and other services to low-income people. Kowal decried what it would do to the SUNY hospitals and possibly the entire SUNY system, if New York—which is required to have a balanced budget—must find the money somewhere to keep lifeline health services functioning.
“This is on us,” Kowal said in the June 30 virtual meeting with statewide chapter leaders and UUP Executive Board members. “We are defending each other, we are defending our work, and we are defending our principles. We believe in a fair society where everyone has a fair shot. The Big Ugly Bill takes money out of institutions that save lives and educate people and is giving it to people who already have way too much.”