Access to affordable health care, housing, and nutritious food is necessary for all Californians to thrive. But Republican federal budget proposals would pave the way for deep and harmful cuts that would take health coverage, nutrition assistance, and other essentials away from millions of Californians who are already struggling to make ends meet in the face of persistently high inflation and the high cost of living. These cuts would increase poverty and hardship, widen race and ethnic inequities, and make it harder for workers to maintain their jobs in exchange for funding huge tax giveaways for the wealthy.
This resource shows how many residents in each of California’s congressional districts benefit from vital programs at risk of being cut to illustrate the potentially wide-reaching impact cuts could have in communities across the state.
Health Care and Nutrition Assistance Programs
Health Care
Medi-Cal saves lives. It’s a lifeline that provides free or low-cost health coverage for nearly 15 million Californians — over one-third of the state’s population — including children, pregnant individuals, seniors, and people with disabilities. Cutting Medi-Cal funding would mean taking critical care away from residents who need it the most in every congressional district in the state. Without access to health coverage, Californians will face impossible choices that put their health and economic security at risk while also driving up long-term costs for the state. Communities that would be particularly harmed by cuts include those in CA-22 (Valadao), where 67% of residents are enrolled in Medi-Cal, as well as in CA-21 (Costa) and CA-13 (Gray), where roughly 60% of residents or more are enrolled.
What is medi-cal?
Medi-Cal, California’s Medicaid program, provides free or low-cost health care to over one-third of the state’s population. This program covers a wide range of services to Californians with modest incomes, and many children, seniors, people with disabilities, and pregnant individuals rely on it.
Nutrition
CalFresh nutrition assistance helps over 5 million Californians each month, including workers with low-paying jobs, buy the food they need to support their households. It brings billions of federal dollars into the state each year that Californians spend in their communities helping to boost local businesses and jobs. In early 2023, CalFresh kept 1.1 million state residents out of poverty, reducing California’s poverty rate by 3 percentage points, according to the Public Policy Institute of California. Cutting CalFresh funding would increase poverty and hunger, making it harder for residents in every California congressional district to maintain their jobs, and hurting local businesses as families spend less on groceries. Cuts could also reduce students’ access to free meals at school, putting additional pressure on family budgets. Communities that would be especially harmed by cuts include those in CA-21 (Costa) and CA-22 (Valadao), where more than one-quarter of residents benefit from CalFresh.
What is calfresh?
CalFresh — California’s name for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) — is the state’s most powerful tool to fight hunger. CalFresh provides modest monthly cash-like assistance to over 5 million Californians with low incomes to purchase food.
Income Assistance Programs
Income
Income supports like CalWORKs and SSI help Californians with very low incomes, including people who are blind and individuals with disabilities, pay the rent and buy essentials for their families, like diapers and school supplies. These and other safety net supports lifted 3.2 million Californians out of poverty in early 2023, according to the Public Policy Institute of California. Cutting vital income supports would increase poverty and hardship for low-income families with children, seniors, and disabled children and adults. Cuts would also reduce the spending power of residents in every California congressional district, hurting local businesses and the local economy. Districts that would be particularly harmed by cuts to CalWORKs include CA-21 (Costa), CA-22 (Valadao), and CA-20 (Fong), and those especially harmed by cuts to SSI include CA-37 (Kamlager), CA-21 (Costa), and CA-22 (Valadao).
what is calworks?
The California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) program, California’s TANF program, is a core component of California’s safety net for families with low incomes. The program helps over 650,000 children and their families, who are predominantly people of color, with modest cash grants, employment assistance, and critical supportive services.
what is ssi?
The Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program is a critical lifeline that assists over 1 million low-income individuals with disabilities and adults age 65 or older in California by covering expenses such as housing, food, and other essential living costs. California provides a modest supplement to SSI recipients with its own state-funded State Supplementary Payment (SSP) program.
Refundable Tax Credit Programs
Refundable Tax Credits
Credits like the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and Child Tax Credit (CTC) are proven tools for improving economic security among Californians with low and moderate incomes, and they’ve been linked to long-term benefits for children, including better health and school achievement. Cutting these credits would take away income that families in every California congressional district count on to make ends meet, reducing their spending power and hurting local businesses and the economy. Districts that would be especially harmed by cuts to the CTC include CA-22 (Valadao), CA-21 (Costa), and CA-13 (Gray), where more than one-third of residents currently benefit from the credit, and CA-22 (Valadao), CA-21 (Costa), and CA-25 (Ruiz), where one-quarter or more residents benefit from the EITC.
In sharp contrast, the tax breaks Republican leaders want to provide through the budget will overwhelmingly enrich millionaires and billionaires, potentially providing a tax break of $72,800 to California’s richest 1%, who have incomes of roughly $1 million or more. This means just a sliver of the population in California’s congressional districts will reap the majority of the benefits of federal budget proposals, including just 0.14% of tax filers in CA-33 (Aguilar) and 0.16% of those in CA-23 (Obernolte) and CA-22 (Valadao) – roughly 500 tax filers in each of those three districts.
What is the eitc?
The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) is a federal tax credit that provides hundreds to thousands of dollars as a tax refund to about 2.5 million working families and individuals with low or moderate incomes in California. Families mostly use the EITC to pay for necessities such as food and housing, and the credit lifts millions of people out of poverty across the US each year.
what is the ctc?
The Child Tax Credit (CTC) is a federal tax credit that provides up to $2,000 per child to about 4.6 million families in California. When the credit was significantly increased and expanded to families with low incomes for one year during the pandemic it cut the US child poverty rate to an historic low and substantially reduced California’s child poverty rate.
Early Care and Education
Subsidized early care and education programs allow parents with low incomes to work or go to school, feeling secure that their children have a safe space to learn and grow. However, early care and education programs in California remain unaffordable for many families across the state. For example, a single mother in California with an infant and a school-age child will spend 61% of her income on child care. Additionally, only 14% of California’s children eligible for state-administered child care actually receive care due to inadequate state and federal funding.
The federal Head Start, Early Head Start, Migrant/Seasonal Head Start, and American Indian/Alaska Native Head Start (collectively, Head Start) programs provide critical early care and education for more than 73,000 children ages zero to 5 for families living in poverty in California, plus homeless, foster, and disabled children. Federal Head Start funding flows directly to local programs and is not a part of state-administered subsidized child care programs. Given the tremendous gap in the number of children eligible and the number of children enrolled in state-administered programs, Head Start provides a lifeline for families with low incomes looking for affordable child care. Without Head Start, thousands more families in California would be stuck on child care waiting lists, making it even harder for them to make ends meet. This strain not only burdens families but also negatively impacts the state’s economy by reducing workforce participation and spending as parents struggle to find affordable child care options.
Head Start programs also provide an economic benefit for the communities where they offer early care and education. Research shows that every one dollar invested in Head Start generates at least seven dollars in benefits. Districts that would be particularly harmed by cuts to Head Start programs include CA-13 (Gray), CA-21 (Costa), CA-22 (Valadao), C-31 (Cisneros), and CA-52 (Vargas).
Housing
Safe, affordable housing provides the foundation for families and individuals to thrive, supporting strong communities, better health, career and educational success, and economic mobility. However, California’s housing shortage, combined with wages that have not kept pace with the cost of living, forces millions into economic hardship and unstable housing situations. More than half of all California renters struggle with unaffordable housing costs, leaving them vulnerable to financial crises, displacement, and even homelessness.
High housing costs push Californians out of their homes and communities while stretching budgets so thin that basic necessities like food, child care, gas, and medical expenses become out of reach. Federal housing programs—such as rental assistance, homelessness prevention and mitigation, and affordable housing development—support Californians in every congressional district by helping people pay rent, secure stable homes, and stay in their communities. In California, federal housing programs support 920,437 people and 507,463 households. Still, these programs don’t meet the demand—Housing Choice Vouchers, for example, reach only 1 in 4 eligible households, leaving many without the support they need. Since housing programs are not entitlements, limited funding leaves many without support even though they qualify, and further cuts could put even more Californians at risk of losing their homes. Districts where renters face particularly high rental costs compared to their income include CD-27 (Whitesides), CA-29 (Rivas), CA-33 (Aguilar), CA-49 (Levin), and CA-51 (Jacobs).
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