On the eve of the passage of what some call the One Big Beautiful Bill, constituents of Congressman Jeff Hurd protested outside his Grand Junction office. Raquel Scianna is an organizer for Grand Junction Indivisible, which hosted a sit-in last week in front of Congressman Jeff Hurd’s Grand Junction office. The event was originally planned from July 2 - the 4th but ended early after HR 1, also known as the Big Beautiful Bill Act, passed the House.
“We were really trying to encourage Jeff Hurd to vote no on this bill, on this devastating bill,” said Scianna. She added that the bill is devastating for a variety of reasons. “It's the 17 million people that will no longer be covered by Medicaid. It is the $165 billion that is written into this budget for immigration enforcement.,” she told KDNK. “It's the cruelty and the callousness towards working people and one of the biggest wealth transfers from the working class to the top 1%. That's what's in this bill, among many other things that are just completely monstrous,” she said.
The controversial bill – now law-- includes cuts to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP, a $150 billion increase each for defense and border security spending, extension of the 2017 tax cuts, an increased child tax credit, a bigger exemption for estate taxes and much, much more. The sell-off of Bureau of Land Management and US Forest Service lands in the West was removed from the bill.
Scianna says she doesn't feel like Hurd is listening to his constituents. “We had a town hall earlier this year that had almost 250 people and we were talking to a printout of his face,” she said.
According to reports, Hurd has hosted two virtual town halls this year.
President Trump signed the one big beautiful bill act into law on July 4th.
