Rep. Don Beyer, who represents Virginia’s 8th district in the U.S. Congress, used his social media account on September 23, 2025, to criticize recent Republican-backed legislation that he says threatens rural hospitals in Virginia and beyond.
In a post published at 16:37 UTC, Beyer wrote, “We warned Republicans repeatedly as they passed their Big Ugly Bill that this would happen, and they ignored us and all voted for it anyway. https://t.co/YefJyojuB3
And it isn’t just these three- more rural hospitals in Virginia are at risk of closure because of the law: https://t.co/2Acoy4AUcH“.
Minutes later, at 16:45 UTC, Beyer added further criticism regarding the bill’s impact on healthcare funding: “The Big Ugly Bill cut $137 billion from rural health. Republicans created a temporary $50 billion rural health fund to ‘fix’ it.
You do the math.
Trump is now lying that Dems’ push to restore full Medicaid funding means we want to cut rural health- exactly what he himself did! https://t.co/bCrjVi5yFS“.
In a subsequent message at 16:46 UTC, Beyer stated, “The Big Ugly Bill is the biggest health care cut in American history, and it isn’t close. The American people deserve better, and Democrats are fighting to restore and protect your health care.”
Beyer has served as the representative for Virginia’s 8th District since 2015 after succeeding Jim Moran. He was born in Trieste in 1950 and currently resides in Alexandria. Before his congressional career, Beyer graduated from Williams College with a BA in 1972.
The referenced legislation criticized by Beyer has been described as reducing federal support for rural healthcare providers by $137 billion while establishing a smaller temporary fund intended to mitigate those losses. The political dispute over its consequences continues as both parties debate its long-term effects on access to medical services in rural communities.
