WASHINGTON, DC – SEIU President April Verrett issued the following statement on the final passage of the disastrous and cruel Republican budget bill, which kicks nearly 16 million Americans off their health care and rips away vital safety nets to multiply funding for ICE and fund tax cuts for billionaires.

“What the Republicans just did. It's outrageous, it's despicable, it's immoral, it's anti-American. But SEIU members won't forget. We will never forget that children will go hungry because of what they've done,” said SEIU President April Verrett. “We will never forget that people will suffer because of what they've done. And why? For the biggest steal of taxpayer money, of working people’s money – not just poor people, but senior citizens. Every American will feel the repercussions of this horrible bill, but we won't forget and we will get our just due.”

Watch Verrett deliver the statement here.

As the bill moved to a vote in the Senate recently, SEIU members, immigrant workers, caregivers, and allies led a powerful series of actions in Washington, D.C. The week included a moving “Living Cemetery” that visualized the human cost of the bill (photos, video); a powerful storytelling roundtable with Democratic leaders, including Senators Schumer, Warren, Booker, Padilla, and others (photos, video); and a mass rally on the Capitol Lawn, where over 500 people stood shoulder-to-shoulder chanting “Republicans! Your Cuts Are Killing Us!”

As part of the same wave of resistance, hundreds of SEIU members embarked on a Justice Journey that took them from their hometowns in the North, South, East, and West to Louisiana, where immigrant detention and incarceration have become central to the local economy. At demonstrations outside ICE detention centers and in a mass march and rally in New Orleans, union members, faith leaders, and allies spoke out against the budget bill in House Speaker Mike Johnson’s home state. They demanded ‘Freedom. Family. Justice,’ and pledged to hold lawmakers accountable for voting yes on the budget that cut Medicaid, SNAP, and other social safety net programs to pay for billionaire tax cuts and ICE raids.

###