One Big Beautiful Law is a win for hard-working Staten Islanders and Brooklynites

There has been so much misinformation and outright lies about the One Big, Beautiful Law recently passed by Congress and signed by President Donald Trump that I wanted to set the record straight.

This legislation is a major win for hardworking Americans, middle-class families, senior citizens, and small businesses across Staten Island and America.

Here’s what you need to know:

First, we made the lower income tax rates set in 2017 permanent. Without this action, Americans would have seen tax increases totaling $4 trillion. We also delivered targeted relief by quadrupling the State and Local Tax Deduction (SALT), raising it to $40,000 for families earning under $500,000. That’s a big deal here at home where 98% of taxpayers in our district will benefit and get relief from high state income and city property taxes.

For seniors receiving Social Security there’s a strong chance they’ll no longer pay federal taxes on that income. We created a new deduction so when seniors file their taxes next year, 88% of them — about 51 million Americans — will get federal tax paid on their benefits refunded, according to the Council of Economic Advisors.

This is thanks to a provision I authored to include which provides a bonus deduction for seniors aged 65 and older: $6,000 for individuals earning up to $75,000 and $12,000 for married couples earning up to $150,000, which slowly phases out as income increases.

We also protected two of the most important tax benefits for working families: the Standard Deduction and the Child Tax Credit. Both were set to be cut in half at the end of the year, but we locked in and increased standard deduction permanently to $16,300 for individuals and $32,600 for married couples, and increased the Child Tax Credit to $2,200 per child. Our law also allows Americans to fully deduct auto loan interest on American-made vehicles. These changes provide real, lasting relief to families.

For our service workers, including waiters, bartenders, Uber drivers, and hair dressers, we cut federal taxes on tips and overtime so they can keep more of their money. At the same time, we’re supporting small businesses by expanding deductions and cutting red tape to help them grow and succeed.

Regarding healthcare, let me be absolutely clear: Our provisions protect Medicaid for those who need it most, including seniors, children, pregnant women, disabled individuals, and those below the Federal Poverty Level.

We root out fraud and abuse by removing ineligible fraudsters, ensuring illegal immigrants don’t benefit and adding reasonable requirements that able-bodied adults work, volunteer, or learn part-time — a provision the vast majority of Americans support. In fact, more than 90% of Medicaid recipients already work.

As for SNAP (food stamps), we put in place a cost-sharing structure to encourage states to reduce fraudulent payments. Right now, the federal government covers 100% of SNAP benefits, but in New York, fraud in the program is way above the national average and has more than doubled over the past five years.

Our law says that if a state doesn’t bring those numbers down, it will have to pick up a small portion of the cost. The legislation also keeps in place work requirements that have existed since President Clinton’s 1996 reforms, while maintaining broad exemptions for people with disabilities, substance use disorders, caretakers, and parents of young children.

We’re also putting America first by delivering major investments in public safety and national security — hiring law enforcement, strengthening border barriers, deporting criminal illegal immigrants, upgrading our military capabilities, and investing in American shipbuilding.

We’re also working to modernize our nation’s aging air traffic control systems to improve safety and reduce delays — including at Newark Airport, which just completed a runway renovation and installation of a new fiber-optic cable network this month, boosting FAA communication reliability.

Many have tried to mislead the public about what’s actually in this legislation.

But here’s the truth: without it, Americans would’ve faced a devastating $4 trillion tax hike next year. In New York, that could’ve meant taxes going up by as much as 22%. That was unacceptable, and I fought to make sure it didn’t happen and helped deliver the largest tax cut for America’s working and middle-class by finding efficiencies and rooting out waste to let the hardworking taxpayers, like those in our community, keep more of their money.

I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished — but there’s more work to do.

I’ll keep fighting every day to make sure your voice is heard, your paycheck is protected, and your tax dollars are wisely spent, because that’s what you sent me to Washington to do.