Some Republicans in the Minnesota Legislature sounded the alarm about potential federal cuts to Medicaid, which could be at risk after the U.S. House passed a budget framework that includes slashing federal spending.

Minnesota’s Republican congressional delegation all voted to approve the U.S. House’s budget proposal Tuesday night, a vote some state Republican legislators attempted to inform when they urged their federal colleagues to consider the expected harm to Minnesota from Medicaid cuts.

The U.S. House on Tuesday, Feb. 25, passed a budget proposal that includes $4.5 trillion in tax cuts and $2 trillion in reduced federal spending over a decade. Among the proposals in the budget to accomplish these tax breaks and spending reductions are proposed cuts to Medicaid and a potential gutting of the Affordable Care Act,

More than a dozen Republican state legislators warned U.S. Rep. Tom Emmer and other Minnesota party members in Congress against making deep Medicaid cuts, writing in a pointed letter that “this is contrary to how we Republicans respect the aged and the vulnerable.

That’s about to change with a history-making new Republican House speaker. Rep. Lisa Demuth will be both the first Republican woman to preside over the chamber and the first Black person of either party to wield the gavel in St.