Good evening and thank you for your witness!
My name is Bridget Moix and I have the joy and honor of serving as General Secretary of the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL). FCNL is a Quaker lobby organization based here in DC and working with a network of passionate and persistent advocates around the country to advance federal policy for a better world.
Frederick Douglas once said, “Praying for freedom didn’t do me no good until I started praying with my feet.” Thank you for praying here for all these hours with your feet and your hands and your voices and your bodies and your full selves. You showed up for justice – yet again.
At FCNL, we have a vision of the world that we seek to build and I want to share it with you.
We seek a world free of war and the threat of war.
We seek a society with equity and justice for all.
We seek a community where every person’s potential may be fulfilled.
We seek an earth restored.
We know that all the parts of this vision of the world we seek are connected. And, as I was preparing for this evening, I was reflecting how the health of our families and communities is a through line of all parts of that vision. Our veterans and communities impacted by nuclear testing live with the wounds of war for decades and they deserve the full care and support of our government. Healthcare is a huge issue of equity and justice for our country and communities, as some – particularly indigenous, Black, brown, the poor, and immigrants – face more health challenges and more obstacles to access the care they need than folks with wealth and privilege. We know that children who are sick or do not have enough food to eat cannot learn and thrive to reach their full potential. And we know that the continued degradation and destruction of our environment creates more health problems for our families and communities.
Ensuring that every person – particularly those who are most vulnerable – has the healthcare they need is a basic requirement for the kind of society and world we believe is not only possible, but is the world God calls us to build together. A society based on care and dignity for us all.
We are blessed to work with many interfaith colleagues to advance this world through advocacy and lobbying with Congress, and I want to take a moment to share my deep appreciation for the leadership and ministry of the faith community over the past months in advocating against the devastating legislation – that big horrible bill – that we just saw Congress pass and that we know will lead to more suffering, pain, and even death for our families and communities.
Many people and constituencies spoke out against the harmful impacts this bill will have, and the faith community’s voice was at the forefront. We lobbied members of Congress, we held late night and early morning vigils, we witnessed with our presence at hearings, we prayed and lamented right through the final votes that were cast.
We worked so hard to prevent the passage of a bill designed to take from the poor and give to the rich, crafted to turn ploughshares – vital healthcare and food for vulnerable communities – into swords – more militarized deportation and warmaking. And when we were doing that work together, we knew we were doing God’s work.
I remember walking through the halls of the Senate just days before the vote with dozens of faith colleagues, dressed in Black, holding candles in mourning, and witnessing to Senate Republican offices about the 50,000 deaths per year that this bill is expected to cost. It was powerful witness, grounded in and guided by Spirit. …But, the bill passed.
Now, we may feel like we have lost, that the world we seek is just too far out of reach. But I say to you, as others have said over these hours and days of witness: We can mourn and lament but we must not lose hope or stop taking action to protect Medicaid.
Because God is still depending on us, Friends. Just because Congress didn’t vote the way we wanted, does not mean our work and witness is over. My mom, a minister herself, used to have a magnet hanging in her car that read: “I know God wouldn’t ask me to carry more than I can handle, sometimes, I just wish she didn’t trust me so much.”
I’ve been thinking a lot about that magnet lately. Because the world we are living in asks us to carry a lot right now. But we do not carry it alone. We are here together because that’s how Beloved Community, and the World We Seek, gets built – together.
Healthcare is not a benefit. It is a right. Medicaid provides health coverage for more than 70 million people in this country, including 2 out of every 5 births and 3 out of 5 people in nursing care facilities. 40.6% of children in rural areas and small towns are covered by Medicaid. It serves those most in need and our neighbors in every state.
The CBO estimates that the One Big Beautiful Bill Act will cause 12 million people to lose their health coverage. It adds new costs to low-income individuals on Medicaid, including individuals just above the poverty line, and creates more red tape and bureaucracy for folks who are already struggling just to get by. More Medicaid wok requirements will put millions of people at risk of losing their coverage, and the evidence shows that work requirements don’t even work! They don’t help people find employment; they just lead to losing healthcare.
This legislation may now be law, but the story of the OBBBA does not end on July 4. Two essential pieces remain: implementation and accountability.
I’m thinking a lot about accountability and implementation and a lobby visit we had with a Senate Republican on this bill. We met with the Senator himself briefly and shared our concerns that people would lose vital health care and food assistance from this bill, and he quickly interrupted us to tell us that “No one will lose their healthcare.”
“No one” he said.
We tried sharing a few more facts about the likely impacts of the bill, which clearly show that people will indeed lose their healthcare, but he didn’t want to engage or listen much. Finally, I said, “Well, I appreciate your optimism, Senator, and I hope you know that we will be counting on you to make sure that really happens.”
So, I think we’ll be having some follow up visits with that Senator.
And what a blessing that we have more work to do together, Friends! There are still a couple years before many of these cuts go into effect. And the accountability piece is critical. It’s essential that members of Congress know where their constituents are on this law and that they’re held accountable for how they voted. There are still so many people who don’t know what is in this law. We have some educating to do. We have some organizing to do. We have some mobilizing to do.
What a gift to be here with you all persisting in God’s work.
As a Quaker, I want to close now with an invitation to quiet ourselves into a moment of silence and center our hearts on the people – our families, friends, neighbors, communities – who will be most impacted in the days and years to come from this bill. I imagine we all know someone who depends on Medicaid, or we know a story of someone, or we are part of communities that will suffer. I have a step-brother who, at just around my age now, had a sudden stroke and is paralyzed on half his body. He lives with such resilience and strength, having also lost his brother and his mother in recent years, and I worry how this bill will affect him and his healthcare. So, I will be thinking of him.
I invite us now to think about those individuals or communities for a moment of quiet and, as Quakers say, to hold them in the Light. Let us also hold ourselves, our policymakers, and our whole country in the Light at this time of great need for God’s loving transformation.
(Moment of silence.)
Thank you, Friends, I feel a tremendous presence and power with you all here, and I know our journey continues together toward that world we seek.
