July 4, 2025 - The 970-page big, beautiful bill passed in the Senate Tuesday after a “vote-a-rama” ahead of President Donald Trump’s July 4 deadline, but West Virginians are split on whether it would help or hurt the state.

Despite Trump’s push to reduce government spending, the bill would add more than $3 trillion to the debt and cut funding for food assistance and Medicaid to try to offset the expense. 

West Virginia’s Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R) and Sen. Jim Justice (R) voted in favor of the Republican Reconciliation bill on Tuesday.

Capito, who has long supported the bill, said it “is good for West Virginians and the American people.” On social media Monday, she said that it will “deliver the biggest tax cuts to every West Virginian,” make the U.S. safer, and unlock opportunities for American energy.

Justice, on the other hand, said earlier this week that he was unsure of aspects of the bill and voted “no” on an amendment that would have further cut Medicaid. According to The Hill, the bill includes the “largest cuts to Medicaid since the program began in the 1960s,” an estimated $1 trillion in cuts over the next decade.

“We got in a situation where really our hospitals were really worried,” Justice said in The Hill‘s Monday report regarding a proposed amendment to the bill. “A lot of folks here don’t know what a rural hospital really is, but I do know. And I know that in West Virginia, if we don’t watch out, you could very well lose a bunch of rural hospitals."  

Several food assistance programs could also see massive cuts from the bill. It cuts the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), also known as the Food Stamps Program, by $267 billion over a 10 year-period. Facing Hunger Foodbank CEO Cyndi Kirkhart estimated that 53 million meals provided through SNAP and food banks in West Virginia could either be lost, or the state would have to pay for them—an estimated $141 million in state tax dollars. More than 277,000 West Virginians receive SNAP benefits each year. 

WVU Extension’s Family Nutrition Program, which helps low-income families develop healthy eating habits, could lose its funding because of the SNAP changes and be fully cut.

Capito said one of the big benefits West Virginia will see through the bill is in the coal industry. The West Virginia Coal Association says that West Virginia would benefit from the bills passage because it would include metallurgical coal—of which West Virginia is the largest producer in the country—as a “critical mineral,” allowing for expanded tax credits for coal producers.

Chris Hamilton, President of the West Virginia Coal Association, said in a press release that the change would be “a game changer for West Virginia and the tens of thousands of met miners and mine support jobs throughout our state.” 

Capito also said in a press release Tuesday that the bill will remove spending for “duplicative and wasteful initiatives,” including environmental reviews. Justice said in a press release that provisions in the bill that support law enforcement officers and remove tax on overtime pay and tipped wages were some reasons why he voted for the bill.

The West Virginia Democratic Party released a statement called out the senators for their votes in favor of the bill, saying that they “failed to stand up for West Virginia” and that the bill “won’t make life better for West Virginians, it will rob them of their health insurance, take food off the table, and kill good-paying jobs — all to line the pockets of the GOP’s billionaire donors.”

The bill still need to pass in the House, and similar hang-ups as in the Senate are likely.