Representative Adrian Smith touts passage of budget package, private school funds

HASTINGS, Neb. (KSNB) - Representative Adrian Smith held a press call on Tuesday where he touted the passage of President Donald Trumps ‘One Big Beautiful Bill.’

On the call topics ranged from healthcare and Medicaid cuts to private schools and relief for farm workers.

Representative Smith opened up the call by talking about how he was proud of the legislation he helped pass.

“We have multiple parts of the bill that I think are important to secure our border, begin the work of addressing the federal government’s spending problem, and getting our work done on this legislation, I believe is a game changer for American workers households and our nation’s long-term fiscal outlook,” Representative Smith said.

One of the topics the representative brought up that he was proud of passing in the bill was a federal tax-credit scholarship program.

“I did champion various provisions in the package, which will empower parents with educational choice,” Representative Smith said in his opening remarks.

Smith was asked on the call about how Nebraskans rejected a similar state policy in the 2024 election, and if he felt he was going against what people wanted. Representative Smith said that he feels that this policy is different because it is federal.

“This would be across the country a scholarship program through tax credits that would ultimately empower families to decide what education is best for their children,” Representative Smith said. “I’m very proud of Nebraska public education, I’m the product of Nebraska public education. My parents both taught in the public education system, proudly so. We do know that there’s some kids across America do not have access to the quality education that I think they should have, and that these families would really like to have. So, this opportunity here for families to have access to some of these scholarships would be good for our country, good for our students, more specifically, overall, in the aggregate, would be good for our country with access to higher quality education in those areas where it is especially lacking.”

Representative Smith was also proud of the tax cuts that the federal package brings to Americans.

“[The law] not only prevents that the tax hikes, as I mentioned previously, it expands tax relief for family farms, small businesses middle class Americans,” Representative Smith said. “It actually includes a strengthening of essential farm bill programs also ensures public assistance programs remain sustainable for the neediest among us and empowers the Trump Administration to keep our communities safe.”

On the other side of the aisle, Nebraska Democratic Party Chairperson Jane Kleeb disagreed with Representative Smith’s view of the bill.

“There’s about 78,000 Nebraskans who are now going to be without medical care,” Kleeb said. “And that is going to mean more money that counties and our state are going to have to come up in order to meet those health care needs of the least among us. And I think a lot of us in rural Nebraska really do care about poor and working class folks.”

Representative Smith addressed whether or not people were kicked off of Medicaid, and he said that, “It also ensures public assistance programs remain sustainable for the neediest among us.”

We will have a closer look into how this bill impacts Medicaid and rural hospitals in the coming days.

Kleeb also pushed back against Representative Smith’s view that Nebraskans wanted a national program to credit taxes of families who send their children to private school.

“Public dollars should never be used for private schools,” Kleeb said. “Nebraskans have been very clear about this when we voted at the ballot box last year. Adrian Smith continues to be out of step with Nebraskans, both on imminent domain for private gain as well as public dollars for private schools.”

Click here to subscribe to our KSNB Local4 daily digest and breaking news alerts delivered straight to your email inbox.