Project 2025 Rural News Clips, July 3, 2025
NOAA will no longer share satellite data that tracks hurricanes overnight; Why Republicans can’t quit Medicaid cuts; National climate assessment paints stark warning for future
POLITICS AND ELECTIONS
Politico
Why Republicans can’t quit Medicaid cuts
July 3, 2025
Despite growing support among low-income voters, GOP leaders view deep Medicaid spending reductions as essential to fund tax cuts and border security without breaching Senate deficit rules.
Proposed cuts threaten reimbursement levels for rural hospitals and long-term care providers that rely heavily on Medicaid, risking service reductions or closures in underserved areas.
A handful of Republican lawmakers from rural districts are pushing back, warning that aggressive Medicaid cuts could alienate constituents and harm vulnerable populations.
The Washington Post
Biden’s climate law boosted red states. Their lawmakers are now gutting it.
July 2, 2025
Republicans in red states are moving to repeal major clean energy tax credits from Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act that had driven investments in rural communities.
Approximately 400 renewable energy projects are at risk of being canceled or delayed. The projects total more than $132 billion in investments and support 120,000 jobs; many are in rural areas.
Business owners, local officials and climate advocates who relied on tax credits for solar, wind and battery manufacturing fear stalled projects and lost opportunities in rural areas.
ABC News
How an empty North Carolina rural hospital explains a GOP senator’s vote against Trump’s tax bill
July 2, 2025
Martin General Hospital in Williamston, North Carolina, closed in August 2023, forcing rural residents onto 30-minute drives for emergency care.
Senator Thom Tillis broke with his party over the proposed $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts, warning that siphoning billions from Medicaid would threaten hospitals in poor and rural regions like eastern North Carolina.
North Carolina’s Medicaid expansion, covering over 673,000 residents since December, has been a lifeline for rural hospitals and local economies, but the bill’s cuts could reverse those gains and trigger more closures.
The Hill
Senate defeats Susan Collins proposal to raise taxes on highest earners to help rural hospitals
July 1, 2025
The Senate voted 22 to 78 against Senator Susan Collins’s amendment to establish a new top marginal tax rate for the wealthiest Americans and direct the revenue toward rural hospital relief.
Supporters argued the proposal would have doubled the rural hospital relief fund from $25 billion to $50 billion, providing critical financial support for underfunded facilities.
Opponents said the tax increase was unnecessary and risked harming economic growth, leaving rural communities without the additional resources needed to prevent hospital closures.
Project 2025 calls for drastically lowering taxes on the ultra-wealthy, at whatever the cost.
Barn Raiser
Senate Republicans fast track budget bill with grave consequences for rural America
June 30, 2025
The reconciliation package would cut Medicaid by about $1 trillion over the next decade, deeply undermining a program that many rural hospitals depend on for revenue.
Without sufficient reimbursement, rural hospitals face severe financial strain, with analysts warning that hundreds could close or be forced to slash services.
Although the bill includes a $25 billion rural hospital relief fund, experts agree it falls far short of the nearly $70 billion in Medicaid cuts estimated for rural facilities.
AGRICULTURE
Newsweek
Map shows states with highest use of harmful pesticides
June 26, 2025
A US Geological Survey map based on 2019 data shows that Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and Kentucky have the highest rates of 2,4-D herbicide use.
The International Agency for Research on Cancer classified 2,4-D as possibly carcinogenic to humans in 2015.
Rural agricultural communities in these high-use states face greater environmental contamination and health risks because residents and farmworkers can experience five to ten times higher pesticide exposure than the general population.
Project 2025 calls for weakening or eliminating regulations regarding pollution, as well as laws that call for monitoring it and its impact.
Science
Scientists identify culprit behind biggest-ever U.S. honey bee die-off
June 30, 2025
Between June 2024 and January 2025, 62 percent of commercial honey bee colonies in the United States died, marking the largest die-off on record.
Scientists have identified the microsporidian parasite Nosema ceranae as the primary driver of this unprecedented collapse.
Honey bees pollinate about one third of U.S. crop species, and their absence poses a serious threat to agricultural productivity, leaving rural farming communities especially at risk.
The Minnesota Star Tribune
Minnesota agriculture institute joins lawsuit against USDA to save grant funding
June 30, 2025
A Minnesota agriculture group, the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, joined a federal lawsuit in Washington, D.C., alleging that the USDA cancelled diversity, equity and inclusion grants in farm country without individual review, in violation of federal law.
The IATP’s $111,695 grant for the MinneAg Network, which provided tools to connect rural farmers with food and agriculture industry officials, was terminated six months before the project’s end, forcing the nonprofit to spend $30,000 of its own funds to complete the work.
Plaintiffs contend that the abrupt cuts jeopardize programs supporting nontraditional and multiracial farmers, undermine soil health and no-till initiatives, and weaken efforts to build food system and climate resilience in rural communities.
CHILD CARE
Utah News Dispatch
Utah after-school and summer programs blindsided by federal funding freeze
July 3, 2025
The Trump administration’s hold on $6.8 billion in 21st Century Community Learning Centers grants has placed 83 after-school and summer programs across Utah at risk, threatening services for roughly 10,000 children and childcare support for working parents.
Federal funding accounted for over $6 million of program budgets and with no state investment larger sites may use registration fees but smaller programs in rural communities lack reserves and may be forced to close.
The Utah State Board of Education has allowed remaining funds to be used through August but without a clear timeline for release many programs could cease operations affecting employment childcare and education statewide.
Project 2025 supports lowering or eliminating child care funding to encourage women to stay home with their children instead of working.
CLIMATE CHANGE
KDLG
How is climate change impacting life in rural Alaska? Researchers are looking for answers
July 2, 2025
The Polaris Project’s NSF-funded research across rural Alaska communities has documented coastal bluff erosion of up to 10.69 meters per year, threatening critical infrastructure and prompting discussions of relocation in villages like Newtok.
Thawing permafrost and receding sea ice undermine traditional subsistence lifestyles, with Dillingham households reporting an 18 percent decline in harvested resources over four decades and raising concerns about future food security.
Rural residents face difficult choices as cultural ties and social networks pull families to stay while environmental hazards push them to consider migration, highlighting how climate change uniquely strains remote Alaskan communities.
Project 2025 calls for ignoring and invalidating scientific data on climate change. As this article illustrates, that will hurt rural communities.
New York Times
National climate assessment paints stark warning for future
July 1, 2025
Extreme heat waves, prolonged droughts, intensified flooding, and wildfires pose growing risks nationwide, with rural farming communities suffering more severe crop losses and water shortages because of limited irrigation infrastructure and longer supply chains.
Economic projections show billions in agricultural output declines, disproportionately harming small-scale and family farms that lack capital for adaptation and operate on tighter margins.
Rural roads, aging water systems, and volunteer emergency services are especially vulnerable, jeopardizing critical services and hampering disaster response in remote areas.
The Hill
NOAA climate change research to face deep cuts under Trump DOGE funding plan
July 1, 2025
The administration’s fiscal 2026 budget proposal would eliminate NOAA’s Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, halting core climate studies essential for long-term forecasting that rural farmers and ranchers depend on.
Funding for all climate, weather, and ocean laboratories and research grants would be phased out, depriving rural communities of critical scientific data needed to prepare for droughts, floods, and other extreme weather events.
These cuts threaten to undermine rural disaster preparedness and agricultural planning by removing the detailed environmental monitoring that small-town emergency services and cooperative extension offices rely on.
COVID-19
Politico Pro
Labor Department seeks to kill vestige of Biden’s Covid healthcare standards
June 30, 2025
The Labor Department proposed removing the remaining Covid-19 record-keeping and reporting requirements from the Emergency Temporary Standard for health care workplaces.
Officials estimate the change will save about $1.6 million annually by reducing paperwork burdens on hospitals and health care employers.
Rural health facilities with limited administrative capacity and slower guidance updates will face greater vulnerability without the reporting tools that help flag and respond to outbreaks.
CULTURE WARS
The Washington Post
A town tried to heal racial divides. It energized Confederate supporters instead
June 17, 2025
Edenton, North Carolina, sought to relocate a Confederate statue from its waterfront site, once a slave market, as part of a racial reconciliation effort.
The proposal instead sparked weekly protests and counterprotests, revitalizing the Sons of Confederate Veterans and Confederate Memorial Day commemorations.
North Carolina’s law requiring relocated monuments to maintain similar prominence blocked full removal, leaving the statue in place and exacerbating racial tensions in the community.
EDUCATION
The Hechinger Report
$6 billion school funding freeze sparks outcry over ‘cruel betrayal’ of students
July 3, 2025
The Trump administration froze more than $6 billion in federal K-12 funding that was set to be released July 1 for services such as reading and math support, summer and after-school programs, and assistance for English learners and migrant students.
Education leaders warn the freeze could force layoffs, larger class sizes, and cuts to critical programs, with California and Texas facing the largest losses and rural and other underserved districts also at risk of losing vital support.
The delay has left school officials unable to plan for staffing or services for the upcoming year, creating uncertainty for districts that rely heavily on federal funds to serve vulnerable student populations.
North Carolina Justice Center
Opinion: Trump’s unlawful withholding of federal school funding falls hardest on rural, high-need districts
July 2, 2025
The administration’s impoundment of $154 million in federal education grants forces districts to slash student services, with rural and high-poverty districts bearing the greatest burden per student.
Rural districts such as Avery and Graham counties face cuts of $580 and $376 per student respectively, threatening teacher recruitment and critical programs like Title I migrant education and after-school enrichment.
Loss of these funds will force rural schools to reduce support for English learners, before- and after-school programs, and professional development, widening the achievement gap in remote communities.
Project 2025 calls for siphoning federal education funding to private or charter schools. This will hurt rural areas that don’t have as much access to such schools and will instead lose funding from the public schools they rely on.
Chalkbeat
Trump administration holds back nearly $7 billion in K-12 funds, sparking outcry from schools
July 1, 2025
The administration is withholding nearly $7 billion in Congress approved K-12 funds that were set to be released on July 1, affecting allocations for English learners and children of migrant farmworkers.
The blocked funding includes $2.2 billion for teacher training, $1.4 billion for before and after school programs, $890 million for English learner support, and $1.3 billion for academic enrichment initiatives such as STEM and college counseling.
States, Democratic lawmakers, and education advocacy groups are pursuing legal and political action to secure the funds, warning that the freeze forces districts in rural areas to delay hiring, cancel summer programs, and plan for significant budget shortfalls.
HEALTH CARE, PHARMACIES AND RURAL HEALTH
KLKN-TV
Rural southwest Nebraska clinic closes, blaming expected Medicaid cuts
July 3, 2025
Community Hospital in McCook announced it will wind down operations at its Curtis clinic, which has served the 900-resident town for more than 30 years, because anticipated federal Medicaid cuts have made the service financially unsustainable.
The closure will take place over the coming months and will require rural residents to travel farther for primary care, deepening healthcare access gaps in underserved southwest Nebraska.
The Nebraska Hospital Association is actively opposing the proposed Medicaid reductions in the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” warning that such cuts threaten rural hospitals with further service cuts or closures.
Fox News
‘Crisis brewing’ in Trump country as hospitals shutter at alarming rate, top ER doc warns
July 2, 2025
A RAND study finds that emergency rooms have become the de facto “front door” to the healthcare system in rural areas, generating nearly $5.9 billion in unpaid care each year and overloading small‐town ERs.
More than a dozen rural hospitals in states like Texas, Oklahoma, and Tennessee have closed before and during the pandemic, deepening healthcare deserts and forcing residents to travel long distances for critical services.
HEAT
Energy & Environment News
Employers to OSHA: Don’t kill the heat rule. Weaken it.
June 30, 2025
Industry representatives urged OSHA to model its heat standard on Nevada’s performance-based rule, potentially leaving rural agriculture and construction workers without clear temperature triggers for mandatory water breaks and rest.
Vague requirements risk increasing heat-related illnesses among rural farm and ranch laborers who work long hours in remote fields without precise guidance on when to implement cooling measures.
Weakening the federal rule undermines rural emergency responders and volunteer fire departments that depend on robust standards to prepare for and manage heat-induced health emergencies in isolated communities.
Project 2025 calls for weakening workplace safety protections.
IMMIGRATION
Physician’s Weekly
Easing foreign-trained physician licensing to curb rural gaps
July 1, 2025
At least nine states have relaxed rules since 2023 to allow internationally trained physicians to obtain restricted licenses without completing full US residencies, and about a dozen more are considering similar bills.
Eligible foreign-trained doctors must pass the three-part US Medical Licensing Examination and work under supervision for a defined period before qualifying for full licensure.
These reforms aim to address persistent rural physician shortages by encouraging licensed international clinicians to practice in underserved communities that struggle to attract and retain doctors.
The Trump administration’s treatment of immigrants, even “legal” ones, could have a chilling effect on uptake of such a program.
INFECTIOUS DISEASES AND VACCINATION
Kentucky Lantern
‘Indefinite’ hold on federal funding ends testing program for HIV, hepatitis C
July 2, 2025
Louisville-based Volunteers of America Mid-States ended its HIV and hepatitis C testing and prevention program on June 30 after federal funding was placed on indefinite hold, leaving vital community services without a renewal date.
The outreach effort had provided free testing, education, safe sex supplies and linkage to care, and four staff members lost their positions as VOA works to reassign them within the organization.
Individuals who relied on these services, including those in rural and other underserved areas, are being directed to the Louisville health department for testing, but access gaps are likely to persist outside urban centers.
CIDRAP
More measles outbreaks put US total within single digits of modern-day record
July 3, 2025
The CDC reported 40 new measles cases today, bringing the 2025 total to 1,267. That’s just eight cases shy of the 1,275 reported in 2019 during the last high-water mark.
Public health officials noted 27 outbreaks so far this year, up from 16 in all of 2024, driven by both travel-related cases and spread in undervaccinated communities, including rural pockets with low MMR coverage.
Wyoming confirmed its first measles case since 2010 in Natrona County, underscoring that rural areas remain vulnerable and need increased vaccination outreach.
Kentucky Lantern
‘Indefinite’ hold on federal funding ends testing program for HIV, hepatitis C
July 2, 2025
Louisville-based Volunteers of America Mid-States ended its HIV and hepatitis C testing and prevention program on June 30 after federal funding was placed on indefinite hold, leaving vital community services without a renewal date.
The outreach effort had provided free testing, education, safe sex supplies and linkage to care, and four staff members lost their positions as VOA works to reassign them within the organization.
Individuals who relied on these services, including those in rural and other underserved areas, are being directed to the Louisville health department for testing, but access gaps are likely to persist outside urban centers.
INVASIVE SPECIES
The Associated Press
US plans to breed and release billions of flies to protect cattle
July 2, 2025
The USDA will ramp up breeding and aerial release of sterile New World screwworm flies to collapse pest populations in southern Texas and Mexico using radiation-treated males.
The screwworm’s flesh-eating larvae pose a severe threat to cattle health and farm incomes, potentially killing a thousand-pound bovine in two weeks and jeopardizing rural livestock-dependent economies.
The USDA will invest $8.5 million in a Texas distribution center by the end of 2025 and aims to open a Mexico fly factory by July 2026 with a weekly output of up to 400 million sterile flies.
The outbreak happened in part because of funding cuts to monitoring and defense systems.
LAYOFFS AND FUNDING CUTS
STAT
Terminated NIH grants are being reinstated almost entirely in blue states
July 3, 2025
A federal judge’s ruling in a lawsuit led by Democratic attorneys general ordered the reinstatement of NIH grant terminations for a subset of awards, primarily benefiting researchers in Democratic states.
STAT analysis shows that researchers in Democratic districts stand to have $2.1 billion in grants reinstated compared to $62 million in Republican districts, disadvantaging institutions in GOP states and rural communities that rely on federal research funding.
Scientists in red states, including rural labs that lost grants supporting trainees from diverse backgrounds, will not see their funding restored, highlighting geographic inequities in NIH grant reinstatement.
CNN
Medicaid cuts and work requirements included in GOP bill, advocates sy
July 1, 2025
The GOP bill would impose an 80-hour-per-month work requirement on Medicaid recipients, disproportionately impacting rural enrollees who face limited job opportunities and sparse public transit.
It would tighten eligibility checks and reduce provider taxes, threatening the financial stability of rural hospitals and clinics that rely heavily on Medicaid funding.
Advocates warn these changes could deepen healthcare deserts in remote areas by cutting coverage for low-income families and increasing uncompensated care burdens on small-town providers.
Georgia Recorder
Critics warn of GOP megabill’s threat to rural hospitals in Georgia as it clears the US Senate
July 1, 2025
The Senate-passed GOP megabill extends 2017 tax cuts while imposing steep Medicaid spending reductions, blocking Planned Parenthood funding, and shifting SNAP costs to states, measures that Democrats say will force rural hospitals to cut services or shut their doors due to lost revenue and increased administrative burdens.
Experts warn the legislation puts four rural Georgia hospitals at risk, could strip $540 million from rural facilities over the next decade, and leave 310,000 Georgians without insurance by 2034, leaving under-resourced rural communities especially vulnerable.
KADN
Funding cuts in ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ could shut down 4 rural hospitals in Acadiana
July 1, 2025
Provisions in the “Big Beautiful Bill” would eliminate critical Medicaid provider taxes and impose new work requirements, putting four rural hospitals in Acadiana at risk of closure by cutting reimbursement rates by more than 20 percent over the next decade.
The loss of these facilities would force residents in under‐served rural parishes to travel significantly farther for emergency and maternity care, exacerbating existing health disparities and straining local economies.
The Daily Yonder
Report: A pause to land conservation programs funding from USDA could kill their momentum
June 30, 2025
A freeze on the roughly $11 billion in Inflation Reduction Act funding for USDA’s EQIP and CSP programs threatens to undo the surge in farmer participation in land stewardship efforts across rural America.
Agriculture experts warn that even a brief pause could erode decades of trust, push farmers out of soil health and water quality initiatives, and reverse hard-won gains in sustainable farming practices.
LGBTQIA+
The Daily Yonder
Report: LGBTQ+ rural teens find more support online than in their communities
July 1, 2025
Research by Hopelab and the Born This Way Foundation surveying more than 1,200 LGBTQ+ teens found that rural teens are significantly more likely to give and receive support online than through in-person relationships.
Only 28 percent of rural respondents reported feeling supported by their schools and 13 percent by their communities, compared to 49 percent and 35 percent of urban and suburban respondents respectively.
Rural LGBTQ+ teens experience higher rates of depression and lower flourishing due to lack of local support, making online communities vital for their mental health and resilience.
The erosion of support structures for LGBTQ+ teens has worsened dramatically since Trump’s second term began, in accordance with Project 2025 goals.
MindSite News
Trump team ends LGBTQ+ youth hotline option. New report suggests it may hurt rural youth most
June 24, 2025
The Trump administration will discontinue Option 3 of the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline on July 17, ending targeted crisis counseling for LGBTQ+ youth.
Rural LGBTQ+ youth already experience higher rates of depression and have fewer local affirming mental health services, making them especially vulnerable to the loss of this specialized support.
As local resources remain scarce, digital and online communities will become even more crucial for rural LGBTQ+ youth seeking connection and crisis assistance.
MENTAL HEALTH
The Daily Yonder
Proposed federal cuts put rural behavioral health resources on the line
July 2, 2025
Rural nonprofits like Simply Hope in Cassia and Minidoka counties, Idaho, built vital recovery support networks with SAMHSA’s Building Communities of Recovery Grant, and losing this funding would stall or reverse those hard-earned gains.
The proposed FY2026 HHS budget would cut nearly one billion dollars from SAMHSA, eliminating dozens of regional and national grant programs that rural communities rely on to fill gaps where 65 percent of counties lack a psychiatrist and 81 percent lack a psychiatric nurse practitioner.
Without these grants, small-town behavioral health facilities and volunteer organizations will face critical shortages in counseling, peer support, and crisis services, deepening treatment deserts and heightening risks in areas with suicide and overdose rates well above the national average.
The Hill
Democratic states sue Trump administration over school mental health funding cuts
July 2, 2025
Sixteen states filed suit after the administration cut more than $1 billion in school mental health grants, arguing the move violates federal law and jeopardizes essential student support services.
Rural districts face the steepest losses, as they rely heavily on these grants to employ school psychologists, counselors, and social workers amid already limited local mental health resources.
Plaintiffs seek a court order to restore funding and block new ideological conditions, warning that continued cuts will deepen youth mental health crises in high-need rural communities.
MILITARY AND VETERANS
CNN
VA hospital staff see plunging morale as shortages leave doctors prepping rooms and nurses chasing supplies
July 1, 2025
Doctors and nurses at VA hospitals are taking on administrative and facility tasks after support staff departed due to attrition, hiring freezes, and fears of layoffs.
Unfilled supply orders and unstaffed roles are causing delays in scheduling appointments and preparing treatment rooms, heightening concerns about burnout and workforce retention.
Veterans relying on VA healthcare, including those in rural areas where alternatives are limited, face increased risk of delayed treatment and diminished quality of care.
POLLUTION
Barn Raiser
‘I didn’t know I was sitting in a pool of poison’
July 3, 2025
In 2016 PFAS from Taconic Plastics contaminated private wells and the municipal water supply in Petersburgh, New York (population 1,372), demonstrating how rural communities dependent on unregulated wells face prolonged exposure to “forever chemicals.”
A $23.3 million class-action settlement funded town water filtration and individual point-of-entry treatment systems, yet residents still bear costs and anxiety while traveling 25 miles to refill safe drinking water jugs.
Federal PFAS limits apply only to larger public systems, leaving private well users in small rural towns unprotected and underscoring the need for expanded monitoring and investment in rural water infrastructure.
Inside Climate News
Truckers say oil and gas companies are violating hazardous materials transport regulations
June 29, 2025
Truckers Movement for Justice is urging the Department of Transportation to enforce hazardous material regulations because drivers hauling fracking waste often lack information on the radioactive and toxic contents as they travel through rural areas.
Fracking wastewater moves along rural highways without proper labeling or precautions, heightening health risks for drivers and small communities when spills contaminate livestock fields and local water sources.
The exemption under federal waste disposal law leaves rural towns with limited resources and volunteer emergency services struggling to respond to hazardous spills that breach reservoirs and threaten public health.
Project 2025 calls for weakening or eliminating safety standards that prevent disasters.
The New Lede
As nitrate levels soar in Iowa, new research underscores risks for babies
June 30, 2025
A new study finds that prenatal exposure to nitrates in drinking water increases preterm birth and low birth weight, with rural Iowa residents disproportionately affected due to reliance on private wells.
Agricultural runoff from fertilizer and livestock manure contaminates unregulated rural water sources, leading to temporary watering bans in small towns.
Many rural communities lack affordable water treatment options, leaving expectant mothers and infants at greater health risk and highlighting the need for targeted infrastructure investment.
RENEWABLE ENERGY
The Associated Press
Senate gop cuts renewable energy tax credits in big budget bill
July 2, 2025
The Senate’s budget deal speeds up the phase-out of 30 percent tax credits for wind and solar, removing key financial incentives that many rural landowners depend on to lease land for renewable projects.
Loss of these credits threatens community-scale renewable installations in small rural utilities and family farms, prompting delays or cancellations that could cost local jobs.
By redirecting benefits toward fossil fuel leases on public lands, the legislation undermines efforts of rural regions seeking to diversify their economies through clean energy development.
REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS, PREGNANCY AND CHILDBIRTH
The Guardian
Planned Parenthood CEO warns budget bill could devastate group and slash abortion access in blue states
July 2, 2025
Planned Parenthood stands to lose roughly $700 million in federal funding if the US House passes the sweeping tax and spending bill, putting nearly 200 health centers at risk of closure in medically underserved and rural communities.
A provision in the bill would ban nonprofits that offer abortions and received more than $800,000 in federal funding from Medicaid for one year and cut Title X family-planning funds, effectively imposing a backdoor abortion ban.
Clinics in blue states with Medicaid expansions would be hardest hit, threatening reproductive and primary care access for rural residents who rely on these centers for essential services.
SAFETY NET PROGRAMS
Chalkbeat
How Trump’s sweeping tax and domestic policy bill will affect children and schools
July 3, 2025
The bill makes deep cuts to Medicaid, a key revenue source for schools, and schools in rural communities, where a higher share of students rely on Medicaid, are likely to face more acute budget shortfalls that threaten health services and student supports.
Changes to SNAP eligibility, including new work requirements and tightened criteria, could cause families to lose benefits, reduce automatic qualification for free school meals and lower federal reimbursements, which may strain rural schools already operating on thin margins.
The creation of a federal voucher-like tax credit scholarship program offers a nationwide school choice option, but because states can opt out and many Democrat-led states likely will, rural districts may experience uneven participation and funding uncertainties.
Bridge Michigan
Michigan rural hospitals at risk under Trump’s ‘beautiful’ bill, experts say
July 2, 2025
Proposed Medicaid cuts in the Senate’s “big, beautiful bill” threaten to slash at least $6 billion from Michigan’s rural hospital budgets over the next decade, endangering facilities already operating on razor-thin margins and putting up to 13 rural hospitals at risk of closure.
Loss of coverage for an estimated 200,000 Michiganders—many in counties where Medicaid covers more than 40 percent of residents—would force rural patients to travel farther for care, strain volunteer emergency services, and deepen healthcare deserts in remote communities.
Kaiser Family Foundation
How might federal Medicaid cuts in the Senate-passed reconciliation bill affect rural areas?
July 2, 2025
Rural areas rely heavily on Medicaid, with one in four adults and nearly half of all births covered by the program.
The reconciliation bill would reduce federal Medicaid spending in rural regions by about $155 billion over ten years, far exceeding the $50 billion set aside for the rural health fund.
Such cuts could accelerate hospital closures and worsen workforce shortages in rural states like Kentucky, which faces more than $12 billion in reduced Medicaid funding.
FOX 17
‘Matter of life or death’: Tenn. rural residents fear Medicaid cuts in Big Beautiful Bill
July 3, 2025
The One Big Beautiful Act would slash Medicaid funding and could shutter nine rural hospitals in Tennessee, threatening emergency care and maternal services in small towns.
Residents living minutes from Vanderbilt Wilson County Hospital warn that losing their only nearby medical facility would have life-or-death consequences for rural families with limited transportation.
Lexington Herald-Leader
Commentary: A future rural doctor’s plea: don’t cut Medicaid in Appalachia or anywhere else
July 1, 2025
Bradley Firchow, a medical student from eastern Kentucky, warns that proposed Medicaid cuts would undermine the health care safety net he relies on for training and serving rural patients.
Medicaid covers a significant share of patient care in Appalachian and other rural communities, funding local hospitals, clinics, and telehealth programs that lack alternative revenue sources.
Reducing Medicaid eligibility or reimbursement would disproportionately harm rural areas with high poverty rates and limited access to health services, exacerbating provider shortages and health disparities.
The Urban Institute
Rural hospital revenue could drop by $87 billion over 10 years
June 30, 2025
The reconciliation bill combined with the end of enhanced premium tax credits would cut rural hospital revenues by an estimated $87 billion and drive up uncompensated care costs by about $23 billion from 2025 to 2034.
The current proposal’s $25 billion rural hospital relief fund over five years would cover only a fraction of those losses, indicating that closer to $100 billion would be needed to fully offset the impact on rural health providers.
WBIR
Kentucky hospital CEO fears for future of rural healthcare amid Medicaid cuts
June 30, 2025
Michael Slusher, CEO of Middlesboro Appalachian Regional Healthcare, warns that proposed federal Medicaid cuts could be devastating to his hospital and undermine healthcare viability in rural Kentucky.
Analysts estimate that Senate Medicaid reductions could jeopardize 300 rural hospitals nationwide, including 35 in Kentucky, threatening local access to care and endangering thousands of healthcare jobs.
WCTI 12
Congressman Davis introduces bill to boost Medicaid support for rural emergency hospitals
June 30, 2025
Congressman Don Davis unveiled the Rural Emergency Hospital Financial Stability Act during a press conference outside Martin General Hospital to support reopening and sustaining rural emergency hospitals.
The legislation would raise Medicaid reimbursement rates for Rural Emergency Hospitals to the outpatient hospital level instead of the rural health clinic rate, providing crucial revenue stability for facilities in places like Martin County.
Advocates say the bill will reduce the need for rural patients to travel to distant inpatient hospitals, preserve local healthcare jobs, and strengthen access to timely care in underserved communities.
The Nebraska Public Media
Commentary: Rural health clinics like mine will bear the burden of Congress’s Medicaid cuts
June 27, 2025
Free primary care facilities in low-population states like Wyoming will face overwhelming demand as an estimated 10.9 million people lose Medicaid coverage and turn to clinics already funded primarily by private donations.
The Congressional Budget Office projects over $50 billion in lost Medicaid reimbursements over the next decade, while the proposed $15 billion rural healthcare fund falls far short of covering those losses and risks shutting down vital rural hospitals.
The Colorado Springs Gazette
What federal Medicaid cuts could mean for rural Colorado’s mental health care
June 30, 2025
Medicaid reimbursements account for roughly one-third of operating budgets at rural health systems in regions like the San Luis Valley, so deep federal cuts would force clinics and hospitals to slash mental health programs and essential services.
Health leaders warn that reduced funding will trigger staff layoffs, closure of specialized outpatient and long-term care facilities, and broader economic strain on rural towns where healthcare is a primary employer.
NPR
How medicaid cuts could impact rural hospitals
June 30, 2025
Roughly 20 percent of Americans live in rural areas where Medicaid covers one in four adults, and proposed cuts to the program would reduce federal reimbursements to rural hospitals, threatening their financial viability.
Experts warn that lost Medicaid funding could increase uncompensated care and force rural hospitals to downsize services or close, deepening medical deserts in underserved communities.
The Nebraska Public Media
Rural health leaders are concerned about proposed federal cuts to Medicaid
June 30, 2025
Rural health leaders warn that proposed federal Medicaid cuts would cause 110,000 Nebraskans to lose coverage and lead to 5,000 job losses.
With half of Nebraska’s rural hospitals already operating at a negative margin and three facing imminent closure, these cuts could force multiple rural hospital closures within two years.
SENIORS AND NURSING HOMES
The Washington Post
GOP tax bill includes a $6,000 ‘senior deduction.’ Here’s who qualifies.
July 2, 2025
Many rural senior households rely almost entirely on Social Security income but earn too little to benefit from the new $6,000 deduction.
The deduction would worsen the Social Security trust fund outlook by hastening its exhaustion date, threatening retirement security in rural areas with limited alternative income sources.
Upper middle class seniors in small towns may see tax relief, but low income rural retirees who already pay minimal taxes would be excluded, deepening economic divides in those communities.
TARIFFS
Ohio Capital Journal
As tariff delay expires, Ohio businesses expect to charge more
July 1, 2025
A Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland survey finds that 90 percent of retailers, 72 percent of manufacturers, and 71 percent of construction firms in the region plan to raise prices within six months after the July 9 expiration of President Trump’s 90-day tariff delay.
Seventy percent of businesses surveyed say the tariffs will have a negative impact on their operations over the next six months while just nine percent expect any short-term benefit.
Rural counties in Ohio, eastern Kentucky, and the northern West Virginia panhandle, where small businesses have tighter margins and fewer alternatives, will be particularly strained by higher input costs and reduced consumer demand.
Project 2025 strongly supports steep tariffs on imported goods.
WEATHER
The Daily Yonder
Dust storms return to the Midwest
July 2, 2025
A mid-May haboob swept loose topsoil from farmland across northern Illinois and Indiana into Chicago, highlighting how drought and soil degradation extend dust storms into regions unaccustomed to such events.
Rural farmers depend on USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service grants for soil conservation, but a Trump-era freeze on NRCS funding threatens the programs that help prevent topsoil loss and future storms.
Dust Bowl history shows that New Deal initiatives like the Soil Erosion Service and Civilian Conservation Corps projects were vital for restoring soil health, and renewed dust events warn of mounting rural health and economic risks if conservation funding lapses.
The Washington Post
Pentagon will no longer share satellite data that tracks hurricanes overnight
June 30, 2025
The Pentagon announced it will stop publicly sharing microwave observations from Defense Department satellites that allow meteorologists to monitor hurricane strength overnight, delaying updates until after visible imagery arrives the next morning.
Experts warn the loss of this data will reduce the frequency of microwave scans by about half, heightening the risk of unanticipated rapid intensification of storms and setting back forecasting capabilities by decades.
Rural communities, which already receive less timely weather updates and have fewer resources for storm preparedness, will face greater vulnerability to hurricanes and other extreme weather events as forecasts become less accurate overnight.
NOAA originally said they would stop sharing the data on June 30, but has delayed that until July 31.
Project 2025 calls for drastically reducing NOAA’s budget.