Maryknoll OGC Joins Letter to Senate in Opposition to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act

Read this letter as a PDF.

June 26, 2025

Dear Senate Majority Leader Thune and Minority Leader Schumer, 

We, the 45 undersigned national religious organization, express our deep concern and reaffirm the core moral imperatives of our faith traditions in light of H.R. 1, the budget reconciliation bill. In March, many of us voiced our concern about the harmful effects of the Senate-passed budget resolution on the individuals our faith compels us to protect including widows, orphans, the sick, the disabled, immigrants, the elderly, and others. As an interfaith community, we uphold the inherent dignity of each person and belief that everyone deserves to thrive, not just survive. We also believe deeply that our federal government should reflect these sacred ideals and support the common good.

We are urgently concerned about the Senate reconciliation bill version, both in terms of process and substance. We are not naïve about how Washington works with the normal tradeoffs that occur to secure passage of a bill. What is distressing, however, is how opaque and ever-changing this bill has been up to this week’s vote, lacking normal public discourse and examination that allows for full discernment on the impacts of the bill. Justice requires deliberation to fully understand the ramifications of important legislation.  

Worst, the final Senate budget reconciliation bill betrays the trust of the American people by abandoning the communities we are called to prioritize by faith. Here are a few examples: 

Protecting the Health of All – Nutrition and Healthcare: Making deep cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Medicaid will take away nutrition assistance and healthcare from millions of Americans. More than 11 million people, including more than 4 million children and more than half a million adults who are over 65 or have a disability, live in households that would be at risk of losing their food assistance under new work reporting requirements alone. Meanwhile, 16 million will lose their healthcare, causing nursing homes and hospitals particularly in rural communities to close. If enacted, people will die due to a lack of health care and nutrition access and communities will be less healthy and more food insecure.  

Protecting the Health of Our People and Planet – Clean Energy: Our faith compels us to care for creation and future generations. The clean energy investments in the Inflation Reduction Act are already creating over 270,000 new jobs, lowering household energy costs, and reducing pollution that harms our health—especially in low-income and frontline communities. Repealing these provisions would forfeit $500 billion in projected private-sector investments and stall critical progress in reducing U.S. emissions by 40% by 2030. This rollback undermines our moral and economic responsibility to protect the planet and the vulnerable communities.

Protecting our Immigrant Communities: Guided by our faithful call to uphold the dignity of every person, we are deeply concerned by the massive spending ($150 billion) for immigration enforcement and the border. This is more than enough to maintain 100,000 people detained annually – nearly tripling the current capacity – increase deportations, and separate families. This increase in funding stands in stark contrast to proposed cuts to core health and food programs that serve many, including legal immigrants and refugees. Additionally, it raises immigration fees, making the system increasingly inaccessible for working families.

Budgets are moral documents that outline a nation’s priorities. Our faith traditions are united in our belief that our government has a moral obligation to support the most vulnerable in our communities. Members of the Senate must ask themselves: Will they protect American families who struggle to provide basic meals for their children, live in secure, modest housing, and afford the health care that they need to stay productive and raise their children healthy? Or will they lavish the already-wealthy with tax windfalls when they are not needed? The choice is stark and will have real implications for people across the country who are just trying to put food on the table and provide their families with a quality of life that previous generations have received. 

The Senate budget reconciliation bill fails to reflect love and compassion and instead harms those we are called by faith to serve. We urge each Member of the Senate to VOTE NO on this bill.

Faithfully Convicted, 

See the full list of signatories.

• Alliance of Baptists
• American Conference of Cantors
• American Friends Service Committee
• American Jewish World Service (AJWS)
• Center for Common Ground
• Central Conference of American Rabbis
• Church World Service
• Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)
• Dominican Sisters of Hope 
• Dominican Sisters of Sinsinawa
• Dominican Sisters of Sparkill
• Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
• Faith in Action 
• Faith in Public Life Action
• Franciscan Action Network 
• Franciscan Peace Center, Clinton, Iowa
• Friends Committee on National Legislation
• Hope Border Institute
• Justice and Advocacy Ministries at Disciples Home Missions
• Leadership Team of the Felician Sisters of North America
• Make It Plain
• Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns
• MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger
• Men of Reform Judaism
• National Advocacy Center of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd
• National Council of Churches
• National Council of Jewish Women
• NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice
• Office of Justice & Care for Creation, SSJ Rochester 
• Presbyterian Church (USA) Office of Public Witness
• School sisters of Notre Dame Collective Investment Fund Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati
• Sisters of Charity of New York
• Sisters of Mercy of the Americas Justice Team
• Sisters of Saint Francis, Rochester MN
• Sisters of St. Benedict of Ferdinand, Indiana
• Sisters of St. Francis, Clinton, Iowa
• Sojourners
• T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights
• The United Methodist Church – General Board of Church and Society
• Union for Reform Judaism
• Unitarian Universalists for Social Justice
• United Church of Christ
• United Women in Faith
• Women of Reform Judaism