The Bill

Chapter 10 of The Briefing: Tom Emmer (R-MN-06), Part Three — The Evidence.

On May 22, 2025, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 1 by a vote of 215 to 214.

A margin of one.

The Majority Whip’s job in a one-vote margin is specific. He counts. He knows which members will hold, which will waver, which need to be moved. On May 22, the Whip delivered 215. The bill moved to the Senate, where it passed 51 to 50 on the Vice President’s tiebreaker. It was signed into law on the Fourth of July. Zero Democrats voted for it in either chamber.

The Housing for the 21st Century Act passed the House 390 to 9. A bill with that kind of support does not need a Whip.

H.R. 1 passed 215 to 214. It needed every vote. Without the Whip’s work, the bill fails. With it, the bill becomes law.

The bill ran more than a thousand pages. Its provisions sorted into two categories: those made permanent, and those set to expire.

The corporate tax rates established in 2017 were made permanent. The estate tax exemption was permanently set at $15 million per individual, $30 million for couples. The average farm in the district is worth approximately $1.5 million. In 2023, 89 farm estates in the entire country owed any estate tax at all — out of 39,988. The average district farm sits more than ten times below the threshold. The exemption was made permanent. The qualified business income deduction was made permanent at 20%. The carried interest provision was permanently protected. It benefits investment fund managers. No private equity firm is headquartered in the district. 100% bonus depreciation was permanently restored. Quarterly oil and gas lease sales on 200 million acres of federal land were made permanent. 36 offshore lease sales through 2040. The clean energy tax credits that funded their competitors were repealed.

Reconciliation rules constrained the bill’s cost. The choice of which provisions to make permanent — and which to sunset — reflected the conference’s priorities within those constraints.

Made temporary were the provisions for workers. A deduction for tipped income, capped at $25,000. A deduction for overtime pay, capped at $12,500. A deduction for auto loan interest on American-assembled vehicles. All expire in 2028 or 2029.

The bill reduced federal Medicaid spending by more than $900 billion over the next decade. In the district, 78,558 people rely on Medicaid. The state estimated that 140,000 to 170,000 Minnesotans would lose coverage. The Congressional Budget Office projected 7.5 million would lose Medicaid or CHIP coverage nationally.

CentraCare Health is the largest employer in St. Cloud and the primary healthcare provider for central Minnesota. It operates ten hospitals and more than thirty clinics. It is the dominant provider of obstetric care in the district — Medicaid covers approximately 50% of rural births, and rural OB units are financially viable only because of Medicaid reimbursement.

By fiscal year 2024, CentraCare had posted a $19.8 million operating loss. It cited inadequate reimbursement from government programs as the primary cause.

One month after the bill was signed, CentraCare announced it was cutting 535 positions across 44 locations. 375 were administrative and support staff — the people who filed insurance claims, managed referrals, and kept the system running. 160 were patient care workers — nurses, technicians, therapists.

The financial distress preceded the bill. The system that cited inadequate reimbursement would now receive $900 billion less in federal reimbursement over the next decade. The Whip delivered that number.

The Whip’s position carries leverage. In a one-vote margin, any member can negotiate. The third-ranking member of the majority can demand. The final bill contained no rural healthcare carve-out for the district. No protection for the hospitals that serve his constituents. Whether he sought one and was refused, or did not seek one, is not part of the public record.

In an op-ed defending the bill, he wrote: "Nothing in our bill takes away health care from the very people Medicaid was intended to help."

No statement on the layoffs.

The district’s largest employment sectors — manufacturing, healthcare, agriculture, construction — had 22 bills introduced on their behalf. None advanced past committee.

Thirteen days after the bill was signed, the Whip shepherded three cryptocurrency bills through the House in a single week. He is the co-chair of the Congressional Blockchain Caucus. One of the three bills — the Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act — is his own legislation. Another, the GENIUS Act, established the regulatory framework for private stablecoins, including one owned by the President’s family. The cryptocurrency industry has contributed $349,672 to his campaigns over the preceding decade.

The cryptocurrency industry has no significant employment presence in the district. The provisions do not expire.

The bills that helped the community passed 390 to 9. The bill that cut its programs passed 215 to 214.

One needed a Whip.

Sources

OBBBA enrolled bill text and CBO score documents (May, June, July 2025); Congressional Record — roll call votes; FEC PAS2 bulk data; Census County Business Patterns 2022; Census ACS (district population); KFF, Georgetown, MN DHS (Medicaid projections); Tax Policy Center distributional analysis; USDA Census of Agriculture; IRS estate tax data; published reporting (MPR News, KNSI Radio, KARE 11, Fox9, Becker’s Hospital Review).