While the United States Senate considers provisions for the budgetary reconciliation of “One Big Beautiful Bill”(A large and beautiful bill), bishops ask legislators to protect vulnerable groups.
“The bishops are grateful that the One Big Beautiful Bill Law includes provisions that promote the dignity of human life and support the choice of parents in education,” said Archbishop Timothy Broglio, president of the United States Catholic Bishops Conference (USCCB, for its acronym in English), In a statement.
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“These are commendable provisions that are important priorities for bishops.”
“Even so, Congress must be consistent in the protection of human life and dignity and make drastic changes in the bill to protect the needy,” Broglio said.
“As express Recently Pope Leo XIV is the responsibility of politicians to promote and protect the common good, even working to overcome the great inequality of wealth, “he continued.” This bill does not respond to this call. It takes away the poor to give the rich. ”
In one carta Sent to the senators and signed by Archbishop Borys Gudziak and bishops Robert Barron, Kevin Rhoades, Mark Seitz, David O’Connell and Daniel Thomas, the prelates detailed their position on certain provisions of the bill.
Broglio said: “I underline what my bishops said in their recent letter to find a better path to follow and urge senators to think and act with courage and creativity to protect the human dignity of all, defend the common good and change the provisions that undermine these fundamental values.”
In the letter, the bishops said that they “firmly support” the plan of the bill to end the “taxpayers subsidy to the main abortion providers and ‘gender transition’ as Planned Parenthood”, and the support of the bill to the “election of parents in education”.
The bishops also expressed their agreement with “the inclusion of a charitable deduction ‘above the line’ of $ 1,000 in the Senate bill,” and said it is “a very positive step in the right direction.”
However, bishops do not support the cuts to Medicaid and the supplementary nutritional assistance program (SNAP). They urged the senators to protect these programs, adding that “the changes to Snap will make millions of people go hungry.”
The bishops also disagree with “the unprecedented increase in financing for the application of the immigration and detention law”, which, they said, “would disproportionately affect immigrant families and mixed status with strong ties with US communities.”
They added that the cuts “to the incentives of clean energy and the repeal of environmental programs and loans for energy efficiency… will lead to an increase in pollution that damages children already not born, suffocates economic opportunities and decreases resilience in the face of extreme climate”.
In accordance with the letter, Broglio said that the bill “provides tax exemptions for some while undergoing the Social Security Network for others through important cuts to nutritional assistance and Medicaid.”
“It does not protect families and children by promoting a approach only to application of the law in immigration and eroding access to legal protections,” he said. “It damages the creation of God and future generations through cuts to clean energy incentives and environmental programs.”
Translated and adapted by the ACI Press team. Originally published in CNA.
Tessa Gervasini
Tesa Gervasini is a intern of Catholic News Agency and member of College Fix. Recently he graduated from the Texas Christian University with a degree in strategic communication.