WASHINGTON (RNS) — Religious leaders are ramping up pressure on lawmakers to reject the Republican-led budget bill currently before the U.S. Senate, arguing proposed cuts to health care benefits and food assistance programs as well as provisions involving public education will disproportionately hurt low-income Americans.
Part of an effort that has built momentum over the past two months, on Tuesday (June 10), hundreds of clergy and religious leaders from mainline Christian, Black Protestant, evangelical and Catholic traditions rallied on the steps of the U.S. Capitol against the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” that passed the House and is set to be voted on by the Senate.
“This bill chooses to take from the poor and give to those who already have enough,” said the Rev. Teresa Hord Owens, general minister and president of the Disciples of Christ.
As she closed in prayer, she said, “May your will be done, and may this bill be killed,” sparking cheers from the crowd.
The faith leaders were joined by a group of prominent Democratic senators, including Chris Coons of Delaware, Raphael Warnock of Georgia, Cory Booker of New Jersey, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.
“This so-called big, beautiful bill pushes 16 million people off of health care and literally takes food from the mouths of hungry children. An enormous tax cut for the very wealthiest is the definition of an immoral bill,” said Coons, a Presbyterian and …