Kansas nonprofits share big problems with big bill
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What is the “Big, Beautiful” bill and why does it matter to Kansas residents?
it can be difficult to keep track of what's important, what's not important, and what's worth keeping an eye on. Unfortunately, some may have already forgotten the passage of H.R. 1, the gigantic tax and spending bill dubbed Big and Beautiful by President Donald Trump. The law's effects will be wide-reaching for Kansans, and it was the focus of a recent multi-city tour by several Kansas non-profit groups. Welcome to the Kansas Reflector podcast. My name is Clay Weierstone, and I'm the opinion editor at the Reflector. Today we learn about that tour, about the far-reaching ramifications of the new law, and how the government shutdown has made everything more complicated. So welcome to Haley Kotler, Adrienne Olnick, and April Holman.
Thanks for coming to the podcast.
Glad to be here. Yeah, thank you so much.
So tell me a little bit, just to start off, who you are and what your groups do in, let's say, two to three sentences. And Haley, let's start with you.
Yeah. So I'm Haley Kotler. I'm a campaign director at Kansas Appleseed. We are working to build thriving, inclusive and just communities across the state. I oversee all of our anti-hunger initiatives, so I mainly work on policy advocacy related to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, SNAP, and child nutrition programs in and out of school.
Okay. Adrienne?
I'm Adrienne Olnick, Vice President, Kansas Action for Children, and we are a non-partisan, non-profit advocacy organization, really working across the spectrum of many different types of policies that impact kids. Our goal is really to make sure that Kansas can be a place where every child has the opportunity to grow up healthy and thrive.
And I just say, because I also worked for you for a number of years, and with kind of a focus on younger, younger kids.
Yeah. And it's really though multi-generational because we know that kids don't raise themselves. So we really consider policy from not only the children's perspective, but from a family perspective as well.
And
April. Hi, I'm April Holman. I'm the executive director of the Alliance for a Healthy Kansas. We are a nonprofit, nonpartisan health policy advocacy organization. We have a special focus on consumer issues. Our main goal is to increase access to affordable healthcare and reduce medical debt.
Okay. Well, thank you all for coming together for this all-star, so to speak, podcast. You all and your organizations came together in September and October for kind of an unusual series of events. So tell me a little bit about what it was y'all decided to do.
How did Kansas nonprofit leaders decide to launch a multi‑city tour to fight the bill?
You know, I think that we were all, you know, we worked hard on H.R.1, trying to make sure that, first of all, it didn't pass at all. And second of all, it was as. benign as it could possibly be and the impact that it had here in Kansas. And we got to the end of that process. Things didn't go the way that we would have hoped. And I think we just were at a moment where we were like, wow, at this point in time, the most important thing that we can do is make sure that Kansans understand what happened. Particularly because many of the policies in H.R. 1 have been phased in at different times to meet, you know, political goals for the people who passed it.
Mm-hmm. And to be clear, when we're talking about this piece of legislation, what we're referring to is the quote-unquote big, beautiful bill that moved through the House and Senate, and I think passed just towards the beginning of summer.
It was signed into law on the 4th of July, so that makes it, unfortunately, pretty easy to
remember. So Adrian and Haley, what were you kind of interested in doing in joining up on this tour and making it kind of a multi-organization front across Kansas?
Well, actually, April, Jamie Reaver, the executive director of Kansas Appleseed, and I were at a lunch in early summer I don't think we actually had a napkin out that we were writing on, but it kind of feels like that way in hindsight. We were discussing really the call to action that each of our organizations was feeling to get out into community to talk about the impacts of this bill that we knew were coming.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the “Big, Beautiful” bill and why does it matter to Kansas residents?
0:03–3:06
2
How did Kansas nonprofit leaders decide to launch a multi‑city tour to fight the bill?
3:06–7:54
3
What specific health‑care and Medicaid cuts are included in the bill?
7:54–11:48
4
How will the new SNAP work‑requirements and cost‑share affect Kansas families?
11:48–16:01
5
What impact did the federal government shutdown have on SNAP benefits and food‑bank services?
16:01–19:42
6
How are Kansas residents reacting to the tour’s message and what concerns are they sharing?
19:42–24:46
7
What are the upcoming challenges with ACA open enrollment and rising insurance premiums?
24:46–29:37
8
What hopeful actions and next steps are the nonprofits planning for the next year?
29:37–32:55
Speakers
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