SAN DIEGO (CNS) - The San Diego County Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 in favor of a creating a plan that will let residents know if their benefits are at risk due to recent federal budget cuts.
The plan, according to a statement from Chair Terra Lawson-Remer's office after the Tuesday vote, "will use texts, calls, emails and local outreach partners to ensure impacted families are informed, connected to help and are better prepared when federal benefit disruptions hit."
During the Tuesday meeting, Lawson-Remer said the county has "a massive, massive crisis" on its hands, and needs to figure out to how to help hundreds of thousands of San Diegans who may lose healthcare or food assistance.
Lawson-Remer said the notification system expands on earlier board actions, including a joint request with Supervisor Monica Montgomery Steppe for staff to begin operational and budget planning in response to the so-called "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" (H.R. 1).
Earlier this month, the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives and Senate passed H.R. 1 on a mostly party-line vote.
President Trump then signed the budget into law on July 4.
During a Board of Supervisors meeting in late June, the notification system proposal failed on a 2-2 vote "in part because it was prior to the official passage of H.R. 1," a spokesman for Lawson-Remer said, adding the board "will subsequently have to approve that notification plan later this year."
In a related action, supervisors on June 24 voted 3-1 in favor of an amended proposal directing county staff to prepare for anticipated cost shifts in the federal budget.
Lawson-Remer, Montgomery Steppe and Joel Anderson voted yes, while Desmond voted no.
Based on a suggestion from Anderson, that proposal included the county sending letters to its Congressional delegation and state elected officials on how possible cuts would impact residents.
According to a county staff analysis on Tuesday, H.R. 1 would:
-- cut over $200 million annually from food assistance, impacting more than 400,000 San Diegans, including 130,000 children and nearly 100,000 seniors
-- force the county to hire up to 727 additional full-time employees, costing of $63 million per year, to maintain current processing times under new Medi-Cal application requirements
-- require up to 426 additional full-time county employees, at also $28 million a year, to manage increased CalFresh requirements and avoid processing backlogs
-- impose new work requirements on over 327,000 Medi-Cal recipients, including removing exemptions for veterans and homeless individuals, threatening access to care
-- reduces retroactive Medicaid and CHIP coverage to one month, "increasing medical debt for families and raising county costs" for new Medi- Cal recipients
-- increase the number of uninsured San Diegans, which would raise non- compensated care costs for local hospitals and safety-net providers
-- lead to more frequent emergency room visits and psychiatric hospitalizations, due to less preventative care
-- result in healthcare industry job losses, due to reduced federal funding and higher administrative costs and also increase employment across other sectors
-- increase the risk of homelessness, via cuts in healthcare, food and income support
Lawson-Remer added the notification system will build on a broader "federal fallout readiness plan" that includes staffing up Medi-Cal and CalFresh processing, reforming an "outdated" reserves policy, housing stability and behavioral health investment, and finding more money to protect basic services.
Chief Administrative Officer Ebony Shelton will report back later this year with an implementation timeline, "ensuring notifications are ready to launch as soon as new federal cuts and regulations are finalized," Lawson- Remer said.
Calling the notification unnecessary, Desmond was the lone no vote.
"We need to safeguard programs like (CalFresh) for future generations," he said. "And I want people who really need it to get it."
Desmond noted that with federal government being $36 trillion in debt, and California facing a $10 billion to $20 billion revenue gap, "cuts need to be made."
He added that there are 26,000 able-bodied adults, without dependents, in San Diego County who receive CalFresh benefits.
"This isn't about taking food out of people's mouths who actually need it," Demond said.
Supervisor Paloma Aguirre thanked Lawson-Remer and Montgomery Steppe for bringing the initiatives, as "it will be bring a lot of necessary hope to residents that are facing these callous cuts."
Aguirre said she spent the last six months talking to families receiving benefits who are struggling, and are "terrified that they will lose their in-home care services. "
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