2025 tax and spending law: tax cuts, Medicaid and SNAP changes, border funds, debt limit

§1What it does

Why this matters: A plain-English description of the bill as it was voted on, written by us from the official summary and text.

✎ Drafted by AI from the public sources cited. Each sentence links to its source.

This 2025 law was passed as a budget reconciliation bill, a kind of tax and spending bill that can pass the Senate without facing a filibuster; it cuts taxes, reduces spending on some federal programs while increasing it on others, and raises the federal debt limit by $5 trillion.^2,3 It makes permanent the individual income tax rates set in 2017 and a larger standard deduction, raises the child tax credit to $2,200 per child, temporarily raises the cap on deducting state and local taxes to $40,000, and creates temporary deductions for tip income, overtime pay and interest on some car loans, plus an extra deduction for people 65 and older.² It requires adults covered through the Medicaid expansion, with some exceptions, to work, volunteer or attend school at least 80 hours a month, widens work requirements for food assistance under SNAP and shifts part of that program's costs to states, and ends or phases out many clean energy tax credits, including those for electric vehicles.² It also provides more than $100 billion for border barriers, border agency staff and immigration detention, adds money for the military, creates new immigration fees, and changes federal student loans, including ending Grad PLUS loans for graduate students and closing existing repayment plans to new loans, both starting in July 2026.²

§2Status

§3How Congress voted

Why this matters: The official count.