Andy Harris Voted to Hold U.S. Debt Limit Increase Hostage AND Cut Services to Marylanders
CSES Staff • May 9, 2023
Rep. Andrew P. Harris (R-MD1) voted to hold hostage the full faith and credit of the United States and risk economic chaos and catastrophe. He cast an aye vote for HR 2811, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s reckless plan to force President Biden to negotiate cuts to spending already authorized by Congress, in return for raising the debt limit for a year. HR 2811 has been dubbed the Default on America, or DOA bill by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Shumer (D-NY).
According to the White House, this extreme bill would “cut veterans’ health care, education, Meals on Wheels, and public safety, take away health care from millions of Americans, and send manufacturing jobs overseas. Outside economists say that if enacted, the Default on America Act would ‘increase the likelihood’ of a recession and result in 780,000 fewer jobs by the end of 2024. And House Republicans are demanding these cuts while separately advancing proposals to add over $3 trillion to deficits through tax cuts and giveaways skewed to the wealthy and big corporations.”
To alert the American people to the devastating impact of this reckless extreme MAGA House Republican plan, the White House released a new analysis highlighting the devastating impacts this bill would have in each state. The plan would slash critical investments in hard-working families by roughly 22%, while making trillions in tax cuts.
That’s in sharp contrast with President Biden’s budget, which invests in America, lowers costs for families, protects and strengthens Medicare and Social Security, and reduces the deficit by nearly $3 trillion over 10 years, while ensuring no one making less than $400,000 per year pays a penny more in new taxes.
Unfortunately, this kind of reckless behavior is the best we can expect from our First District MAGA representative Andy Harris. He has never had our best interests at heart, and he still doesn’t.
According to the White House website (from which the items below are copied), the Default on America Act would mean at least $980 million fewer federal grant dollars invested in Maryland, including cuts that would:
Jeopardize Transportation Safety and Infrastructure
- Cut 110 Rail Safety Inspections in Maryland. At a time when train derailments are wreaking havoc on community safety, House Republicans’ Default on America Act would lead to 110 fewer rail safety inspection days and 460 fewer miles of track inspected in Maryland next year alone. Since the Norfolk Southern train derailment, bipartisan senators have called for more rail inspections, not fewer.
- Jeopardize Air Safety by Shutting Down at Least Four Air Traffic Control Towers in Maryland. The Default on America Act would shut down services at four contract air traffic control towers in Maryland, likely also require shut down of additional federally-staffed facilities, and increase wait times at TSA security check points at large airports across the country by over two hours.
- Withhold Vital Transportation Infrastructure Funding. Under the Default on America Act, Maryland would stand to lose nearly $36 million in funding for transit and highway infrastructure projects all across the state.
Raise Costs for Families
- Eliminate 4,700 Preschool and Child Care Slots in Maryland. The Default on America Act would mean 2,300 children in Maryland lose access to Head Start slots and 2,400 children lose access to child care — undermining our children’s education and making it more difficult for parents to join the workforce and contribute to our economy.
- Strip Nutrition Food Assistance from Women and Children in Maryland. The Default on America Act would also mean 31,000 women, infants, and children would lose vital nutrition assistance through the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), increasing child poverty and hunger.
- Raise Housing Costs for 13,900 Marylanders. Under the Default on America Act, 13,900 families in Maryland would lose access to rental assistance, including older adults, persons with disabilities, and families with children, who without rental assistance would be at risk of homelessness. The House Republican Default on America Act would also mean as many as 810 families across Maryland who are homeless, at risk of homelessness, or attempting to flee domestic violence would lose access to emergency housing vouchers.
Harm Seniors, Older People, and Veterans
- Threaten Medical Care for 54,700 Maryland Veterans. The House Republicans’ Default on America Act would result in 30 million fewer outpatient visits for our nation’s veterans all across the country. That means 54,700 veterans could lose access outpatient visits in Maryland, leaving them unable to get appointments for care like wellness visits, mental health services, and substance disorder treatment.
- Worsen Social Security and Medicare Assistance Wait Times for 1.1 million Maryland Seniors. Under the House Republicans’ Default on America Act, people applying for disability benefits would have to wait at least two months longer for a decision. With fewer staff available, 1.1 million seniors and people with disabilities in Maryland would be forced to endure longer wait times when they call for assistance for both Social Security and Medicare.
- Jeopardize Food Assistance for 18,000 Older Adults in Maryland. House Republicans are threatening food assistance for up to 18,000 older adults in Maryland with the Default on America Act’s harsh new eligibility restrictions in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
Jeopardize Health Coverage and Access to Care
- Jeopardize Health Coverage and Access to Care for 437,000 Marylanders. The Default on America Act would put health insurance coverage — and health — at risk for 437,000 Marylanders. Only one state has ever fully implemented similar policies, and nearly one in four adults subject to the policy lost their health coverage — including working people and people with serious health conditions — with no evidence of increased employment.
- Deny 1,000 Marylanders Access to Treatment for Opioid Use Disorder. The Default on America Act would deny access to opioid use disorder treatment for more than 1,000 people in Maryland through the State Opioid Response grant program — denying them a potentially life-saving path to recovery.
Hurt Children and Students and Undermine Education and Job Training
- Gut Funding for Low-Income Students. The Default on America Act would cut approximately $80 million in funding for schools serving low-income children— equivalent to removing nearly 1,300 teachers and specialized instructional support personnel from classrooms, impacting an estimated 220,000 students.
- Cut Support for Students with Disabilities. Under the Default on America Act, as many as 110,000 children in Maryland with disabilities would face reduced supports — a cut in Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) funding equivalent to removing approximately 800 teachers and related services providers from the classroom.
- Slash Mental Health Support for Students. The Default on America Act would limit educators’ abilities to address student mental health issues, including suicide and drug use, by cutting funding dedicated to creating healthy learning environments in Maryland schools by about $2.1 million.
- Eliminate Student Debt Relief. The Default on America Act would eliminate President Biden’s one-time student debt relief plan, denying much needed emergency student loan relief of up to $20,000 from 323,000 approved applicants across Maryland recovering from the effects of the pandemic. It would also block the creation of new, more affordable student loan repayment plans, such as the President’s proposal to cut undergraduate loans payments in half.
- Make College More Expensive for 99,700 Marylanders. The Default on America Act would reduce the maximum award for Pell Grants by nearly $1,000, likely eliminating it altogether for 1,400 students in Maryland, while making it harder for the remaining 98,300 recipients to attend and afford college.
- Deny 12,900 Marylanders Access to Workforce Development Services. The Default on America Act would result in 12,900 fewer Marylanders receiving job training and employment services provided through the Department of Labor’s workforce development funding. These harmful cuts would deprive businesses of the skilled workforce they need to thrive, and would cut off worker pathways to good jobs.
(The White House explains how the numbers were arrived at: This analysis assumes an across-the-board reduction of roughly 22% compared to currently enacted FY 2023 levels for non-defense discretionary accounts. That aligns with Congressional Republicans’ Default on America Act, which would return discretionary spending to FY 2022 levels on an ongoing basis while exempting defense spending. The total federal dollars cut in each state represents a 22% reduction across federal discretionary grant programs using FY23 state allocations for the 29 largest federal grants adjusted for remaining grants as though they were evenly distributed.)
Common Sense for the Eastern Shore
Right now, Congress is working on a fast-track bill that would make historic cuts to basic needs programs in order to finance another round of tax breaks for the wealthy and big corporations.
The House Agriculture Committee recently voted, along party lines, to advance legislation that would cut as much as $300 million from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. SNAP is the nation’s most important anti-hunger program, helping more than 41 million people in the U.S. pay for food. With potential cuts this large, it helps to know who benefits from this program in Maryland, and who would lose this assistance. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities compiled data on SNAP beneficiaries by congressional district, cited below, and produced the Maryland state datasheet , shown below. In Maryland, in 2023-24, 1 in 9 people lived in a household with SNAP benefits. In Maryland’s First Congressional District, in 2023-24: Almost 34,000 households used SNAP benefits. Of those households, 43% had at least one senior (over age 60). 29% of SNAP recipients were people of color. 15% were Black, non-Hispanic, higher than 11.8% nationally. 6% were Hispanic (19.4% nationally). There were 24,700 total veterans (ages 18-64). Of those, 2,200 lived in households that used SNAP benefits (9%). The CBPP SNAP datasheet for Maryland is below. See data from all the states and download factsheets here.
Apparently, some people think that the GOP’s “big beautiful bill” is a foregone conclusion, and that the struggle over the budget and Trump’s agenda is over and done. Not true. On Sunday night, the bill — given the alternate name “Big Bad Bullsh*t Bill” by the Democratic Women’s Caucus — was voted out of the House Budget Committee. The GOP plan is to pass this legislation in the House before Memorial Day. But that’s not the end of it. As Jessica Craven explained in her Chop Wood Carry Water column: “Remember, we have at least six weeks left in this process. The bill has to: Pass the House, Then head to the Senate where it will likely be rewritten almost completely, Then be passed there, Then be brought back to the House for reconciliation, And then, if the House changes that version at all, Go back to the Senate for another vote.” She adds, “Every step of that process is a place for us to kill it.” The bill is over a thousand pages long, and the American people will not get a chance to read it until it has passed the House. But, thanks to 5Calls , we know it includes:
Let's talk about our Eastern Shore Delegation, the representatives who are supposed to fight for our nine Shore counties in Annapolis, and what they actually got up to this session.
For the first time in recent memory, Virginia Democrats have candidates running in all 100 House of Delegates districts — a milestone party leaders and grassroots organizers say reflects rising momentum as President Donald Trump’s second term continues to galvanize opposition.
The 447th legislative session of the Maryland General Assembly adjourned on April 8. This End of Session Report highlights the work Shore Progress has done to fight for working families and bring real results home to the Shore. Over the 90-day session, lawmakers debated 1,901 bills and passed 878 into law. Shore Progress and members supported legislation that delivers for the Eastern Shore, protecting our environment, expanding access to housing and healthcare, strengthening workers’ rights, and more. Shore Progress Supported Legislation By The Numbers: Over 60 pieces of our backed legislation were passed. Another 15 passed in one Chamber but not the other. Legislation details are below, past the budget section. The 2026 Maryland State Budget How We Got Here: Maryland’s budget problems didn’t start overnight. They began under Governor Larry Hogan. Governor Hogan expanded the state budget yearly but blocked the legislature from moving money around or making common-sense changes. Instead of fixing the structural issues, Hogan used federal covid relief funds to hide the cracks and drained our state’s savings from $5.5 billion to $2.3 billion to boost his image before leaving office. How Trump/Musk Made It Worse: Maryland is facing a new fiscal crisis driven by the Trump–Musk administration, whose trade wars, tariff policies, and deep federal cuts have hit us harder than most, costing the state over 30,000 jobs, shuttering offices, and erasing promised investments. A University of Maryland study estimates Trump’s tariffs alone could cost us $2 billion, and those federal cuts have already added $300 million to our budget deficit. Covid aid gave us a short-term boost and even created a fake surplus under Hogan, but that money is gone, while housing, healthcare, and college prices keep rising. The Trump–Musk White House is only making things worse by slashing funding, gutting services, and eliminating research that Marylanders rely on. How The State Budget Fixes These Issues: This year, Maryland faced a $3 billion budget gap, and the General Assembly fixed it with a smart mix of cuts and fair new revenue, while protecting working families, schools, and health care. The 2025 Budget cuts $1.9 billion ($400 million less than last year) without gutting services people rely on. The General Assembly raised $1.2 billion in fair new revenue, mostly from the wealthiest Marylanders. The Budget ended with a $350 million surplus, plus $2.4 billion saved in the Rainy Day Fund (more than 9% of general fund revenue), which came in $7 million above what the Spending Affordability Committee called for. The budget protects funding for our schools, health care, transit, and public workers. The budget delivers real wins: $800 million more annually for transit and infrastructure, plus $500 million for long-term transportation needs. It invests $9.7 billion in public schools and boosts local education aid by $572.5 million, a 7% increase. If current revenue trends hold, no new taxes will be needed next session. Even better, 94% of Marylanders will see a tax cut or no change, while only the wealthiest 5% will finally pay their fair share. The tax system is smarter now. We’re: Taxing IT and data services like Texas and D.C. do; Raising taxes on cannabis and sports betting, not groceries or medicine; and Letting counties adjust income taxes. The budget also restores critical funding: $122 million for teacher planning $15 million for cancer research $11 million for crime victims $7 million for local business zones, and Continued support for public TV, the arts, and BCCC The budget invests in People with disabilities, with $181 million in services Growing private-sector jobs with $139 million in funding, including $27.5 million for quantum tech, $16 million for the Sunny Day Fund, and $10 million for infrastructure loans. Health care is protected for 1.5 million Marylanders, with $15.6 billion for Medicaid and higher provider pay. Public safety is getting a boost too, with $60 million for victim services, $5.5 million for juvenile services, and $5 million for parole and probation staffing. This budget also tackles climate change with $100 million for clean energy and solar projects, and $200 million in potential ratepayer relief. Public workers get a well-deserved raise, with $200 million in salary increases, including a 1% COLA and ~2.5% raises for union workers. The ultra-wealthy will finally chip in to pay for it: People earning over $750,000 will pay more, Millionaires will pay 6.5%, and Capital gains over $350,000 get a 2% surcharge. Deductions are capped for high earners, but working families can still deduct student loans, medical debt, and donations. This budget is bold, fair, and built to last. That’s why Shore Progress proudly supports it. Click on the arrows below for details in each section.
