What's coming down from DC?

A new guide to what's happening in Washington and how it impacts North Carolinians.

What happens in Washington eventually makes its way to communities in North Carolina — to our schools, our factories, our farms and our hospitals. And there certainly is a lot happening in Washington these days.

Many people here are thrilled with the actions by President Trump’s White House and the GOP-controlled Congress. Others are terrified by them, and many just feel too overwhelmed and exhausted by the news to keep up. We have friends, family and neighbors in all three camps — and they all have more questions than they have time to find the answers

That’s why we’re launching Down from DC, a bimonthly newsletter that will guide readers through exactly what our federal officials are doing up there, and how it could impact us, down here.

.We’ll analyze what President Trump, Congress and the courts are up to, and explain how it could impact North Carolinians from Murphy to Manteo. We’ll spotlight the reporting work being done by journalists throughout the state and beyond, shining a light on what these policies will mean and who they will affect most, starting today with a deep look at the massive tax and spending bill that is making its way through Congress.

Before we dive into it, an introduction: We are Phoebe Zerwick and Natalie Jennings, two North Carolina-based journalists. Phoebe spent 20 years as a reporter, editor and columnist at the Winston-Salem Journal and recently retired as the head of the Wake Forest University Journalism Program. Natalie covered national politics, Congress and the White House for 15 years at Vox and The Washington Post, and moved to Winston-Salem in 2021. We’re channeling those backgrounds to explain the things that matter in this moment, with research from three current and former Wake Forest journalism students who all have roots in North Carolina — Andrew Braun, Breanna Laws and Jack Perez. You can read more about us and the newsletter here.

You’re receiving this email because we thought you’d be interested in it. Let us know what you think or send us your questions anytime at downfromdc@gmail.com.

If you don’t want to get any more of these emails, unsubscribe by clicking the link at the bottom of this email. If you were forwarded this, welcome! We hope you’ll subscribe.

So, what is coming down from DC now?

By now, you’ve probably heard of the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” the spending package that passed the House of Representatives last month loaded with policies the president likes. It is now making its way through the Senate, and it’s also the sore subject for Elon Musk that kicked off his very nasty, very public breakup with President Trump last week. Beyond the political drama, if passed by the Senate intact, the budget bill would impact our economy and change the lives of many North Carolinians in tangible ways.

The numbers are hard to fathom. The bill contains what will amount to trillions in tax cuts and makes steep cuts in the social safety net for things like healthcare and food. The Congressional Budget Office estimated it would add nearly $2.4 trillion to the deficit over the next 10 years.

Several Republican senators have publicly criticized the bill, either for cutting too much or not enough, and their final votes may well depend on what they are hearing from their constituents back home — where benefits are popular with voters. So it’s possible that a lot of what came out of the House-passed version will not make it through this round of negotiations.

President Trump has urged the Senate to pass a bill before July 4.

In the House’s version, there’s a nearly $800 billion cut over 10 years to Medicaid, the health insurance program for poor and disabled people. An estimated 7.8 million Americans could lose their coverage if the bill becomes law, according to Congressional Budget Office estimates, largely because of stringent work requirements.

That would be a huge deal here in North Carolina, where 3.1 million people rely on Medicaid, including more than a million children. That’s about a quarter of the state’s population.

According to the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, a large majority of the adults covered by Medicaid here are working, disabled or serve as caregivers. Medicaid covers more than 50 percent of births and 60 percent of nursing-home residents, and it’s a major source of funding for rural hospitals.

Most of the money for Medicaid comes from the federal government — in North Carolina, that figure is 68 percent — but each state runs its own program and covers the balance from its own funds and taxes on hospitals. In a June 6 letter to U.S. Sens. Thom Tillis and Ted Budd, Gov. Josh Stein wrote that the budget bill will harm working families and could force the state to make "unacceptable tradeoffs" in its budget. So far, Tillis has not publicly addressed the Medicaid cuts. Sen. Budd has said he supports the bill as is.

The nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation estimates that about 10 percent of North Carolinians now enrolled in Medicaid could lose their coverage over the next 10 years if the current bill becomes law. That leaves a vast majority of those North Carolinians who are currently covered still in a position to get their benefits. But even those who aren’t likely to be affected are worried, according to recent reporting from North Carolina outlets.

• WRAL spoke last month with Sarah Cope of Garner who worries about her 89-year-old mother, whose nursing home bills are covered by Medicaid. “She worked her entire life in a factory working however-many hours a week. She did it for her family, and she continued to provide for us and me, even when my father passed away. She deserves quality healthcare,” said Cope.

• NC Health News spoke last month with Julie Crockett, who said her disabled 8-year-old granddaughter is able to live at home with her family only because of nursing care covered by Medicaid : “She is bright and trapped. If she were in a nursing home, she would be ignored.”

The federal budget bill could also affect food assistance in North Carolina through proposed cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly known as food stamps. The proposed budget saves federal money by shifting some of the cost to states. According to the governor's office, continued assistance to the more than 1.4 million North Carolinians now receiving food stamps would cost the state $700 million. Whether or not to fill that gap will be up to the GOP-controlled state legislature.

Those who work at the state's local food assistance programs say the other potential sources of funding — donations — won’t do anything to address this potential loss. “There’s no amount of fundraising that we can do that’s going to make up for the funds” they could lose, a Chatham County program director told NC Health News.

The bill could also reduce clean energy subsidies, eliminate some tax relief for tobacco production and reduce taxes on tips, among hundreds of other provisions. We’d love to know what your questions are about the bill and how it will impact North Carolina. You can send those to us here.

Here’s what else is coming down from DC lately.

Tariffs:

• A North Carolina manufacturer of steel cable said tariffs that went into effect this month could strain his operations to the point where some products might have to be delayed and will eat into his profits. “In our sector of the steel industry, there is inadequate domestic hot rolled capacity to supply domestic demand. We are therefore forced to purchase offshore steel,” Howard Woltz, CEO of InSteel Industries in Mount Airy, told the Carolina Journal.

Immigration:

• John Oswald, the chief executive of Mills Manufacturing in Asheville, told The Wall Street Journal last month that President Trump’s plan to end legal protection for immigrants working here temporarily would undermine the production of parachutes for the Army and Marines. “If we lose these workers, it would be devastating to our business,” he said.

Food Banks:

• The federal government also provides food to North Carolinians through the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Commodity Credit Corporation, which President Trump froze in February. Eric Aft, CEO of the Second Harvest Food Bank, which provides food in 18 counties in the northwest part of the state, told the Winston-Salem Journal that the freeze has amounted to a loss of about 800,000 meals.

Voter Registration:

• Carolina Public Press reported that the U.S. Department of Justice has sued the N.C. Board of Elections over the data it collects when it registers voters.