NCJW Condemns Senate Budget Bill as Moral Betrayal

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Tuesday, July 1, 2025
PRESS CONTACT: [email protected]

Jewish women’s group demands House of Representatives reject cruel Senate proposal, which cuts critical programs like Medicaid and SNAP, and care for the most vulnerable

WASHINGTON, DC — Today, the US Senate passed its version of the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” — a budget reconciliation package that slashes critical programs for millions of Americans and devastates the women, children, and families relying on those programs.

In response, Sheila Katz, chief executive officer at National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW) — one of the nation’s leading Jewish feminist civil rights organizations, representing 250,000 advocates from across the country — released the following statement:

“Judaism teaches that the measure of a just nation is how it treats the poor, the sick, the stranger, and the widow. A society that abandons the vulnerable has lost its moral compass, and we are called to speak out. 

“The Senate’s budget reconciliation bill is a moral outrage, a deliberate betrayal of the Jewish and American values we are taught to uphold. It abandons struggling families when we should be lifting them up. It rips health care away from those who need it most, deliberately turning preventable pain and death into public policy. It takes food off children’s plates, punishes people for being poor, and guts programs that help children and families live with dignity — all while handing enormous tax cuts to the ultra-wealthy.

“If this bill becomes law, 17 million Americans will lose access to Medicaid. For the one in five women relying on Medicaid, that means being torn from the care keeping them alive and healthy — from mammograms to prenatal and pregnancy support to managing chronic illnesses. Millions of children will go hungry without school meals and basic nutrition support. Americans with disabilities will lose access to the services that make daily life possible. Rural clinics and health centers will shut their doors. Families already living one emergency away from financial disaster will be pushed into crisis. People will die.

“This is not fiscal responsibility; it is cruelty codified. Our government always has a choice: to protect people or to harm them. This bill chooses harm. 50 senators and the vice president voted for that harm today. This is a grave moral failure and a betrayal of human decency.

“National Council of Jewish Women and our 250,000 advocates will do everything in our power to stop this bill from becoming law. We will not stay silent while our elected leaders use the government to inflict harm on women, children, and families across this country.”

###

National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW) is a 132-year-old Jewish feminist civil rights organization working for equity and justice for women, children, and families in the United States and Israel. Through the efforts of our 250,000 grassroots advocates and 48 local sections, NCJW combines education, direct service, and advocacy to effect lasting social change at the local, state, and national levels. We approach our work through the intersections of gender, economic, and racial justice to center those most impacted in a uniquely Jewish way. Learn more at NCJW.org, and on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.