Since late last year, we have been working to oppose, mitigate, and delay Trump’s budget reconciliation bill, what ultimately became the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” (H.R. 1). The bill passed last week and will harm vulnerable people across the country. But our work for justice and peace is not over.
The bill impacted multiple FCNL programs, including migration, economic justice, climate, Pentagon spending, and nuclear disarmament. The faith community was particularly active in advocacy against the budget reconciliation bill, calling out the immorality of the funding for unchecked immigration enforcement, rollback in climate initiatives, and historic cuts to Medicaid and SNAP while funding tax breaks for the wealthiest in society.
We had high-level meetings with key Republican senators and House offices, we participated in faith meetings with pastors and faith leaders from their districts, and we joined multiple faith actions on the Capitol steps with Senate and House leadership at all hours of the day and night. Advocates from around the country showed up at offices in lobby visits, made phone calls, published letters to the editor, and sent so many messages to Congress.
Still the bill passed. Despite moderates in the House voting for the budget resolution and the first version of the bill because they said the Senate would “make it better” and senators vowing not to cut Medicaid or roll back clean energy investments, ultimately, they all folded. In the end, many members of Congress wanted to extend the Trump tax cuts that go disproportionately to the wealthy more than they wanted to support their constituents struggling to make ends meet.
Here are a few areas where we saw minor, but important improvements due to advocacy of FCNL and others we are in coalition with:
- Originally, we were expecting big cuts to Medicaid through cuts to the federal matching rate. There were no cuts to general Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP) in Medicaid or institution of per capita caps, something opponents of Medicaid have been wanting to do for years. Also, provisions to remove people from Medicaid while they proved their qualified immigrant status or punish states that elect to provide healthcare to certain immigrants were stripped.
- The original legislation set up a very difficult process every year for families to claim the Earned Income Tax Credit for their kids. That is not in the final bill.
- Though millions of children will still lose the Child Tax Credit, including U.S. children when both parents don’t have a social security number, over a million fewer will lose eligibility in the final bill than in the version the House passed. This was a result of relentless advocacy from groups around the country to key Republican senators, especially in Indiana and Idaho.
- Advocates managed to push back some of the phase outs of renewable energy incentives and defeated a proposal that would have punitively raised taxes on solar and wind projects nationwide.
- Pushback led to an exorbitant, unwaivable asylum application fee of $1000 dropping to $100. The right to asylum should not be infringed because of socio-economics. We lament that fee will still pose a barrier for some.
- A broad coalition of AI safety, public interest, kids’ safety, faith, civil rights and other organizations blocked attempts to roll out the red carpet for Big Tech and tie states’ hands in regulating AI for ten years. This was taken out of the final bill in an amendment that passed 99-1.
- The Radiation Exposure Compensation Act was renewed and expanded. This will provide justice for some of those harmed by the U.S. nuclear weapons program.
Most of the cuts to Medicaid and SNAP don’t take place for a couple of years. This gives the broader coalition time to strategize how we can mitigate and possibly further delay the cuts.
Other provisions, like the funding increases for immigration enforcement will go into effect more quickly.
If you’re feeling demoralized about this vote, you’re not alone. But there is still a lot of work to do around this legislation.
Members of Congress need to know that their constituents are disappointed about this bill.
And there is still more happening on the legislative front. The Senate is considering a broad rescissions package which would slash funding to foreign aid and public broadcasting and then fiscal year 2026 appropriations are coming fast.
This is a tough loss which is going to hurt a lot of people and our environment. But our call as people of faith is to not give counsel to despair.
We must keep working for the world we seek, a world of peace, justice, and an earth restored. We won’t give up until we reach it.