USCCB urges faithful to oppose Trump administration’s proposed regulations for federal funding recipients

March 30, 2026

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) issued an action alert calling on the faithful to oppose the Trump administration’s proposed new regulations for recipients of federal funding.

The USCCB’s suggested message to the Trump administration states:

As a Catholic, I am called to recognize the God-given dignity inherent in all my brothers and sisters. I support the Church’s efforts to promote human dignity through service to immigrants and support for racial justice. We continue to advocate for just laws and policies that uphold the dignity of every human person.

For these reasons, we respectfully urge the General Services Administration (GSA) to withdraw or substantially revise the proposed changes which could prevent many Catholic institutions from living out their mission to care for the human dignity of all people.

The proposal “appears to use the SAM [System for Award Management] registration process to impose or operationalize contested interpretations of federal civil rights and immigration law through a government-wide certification mechanism,” the USCCB’s general counsel and assistant general counsel warned in a March 27 letter.

“The proposal here would incorporate specific interpretations of civil rights statutes into a government-wide certification mechanism, notwithstanding the absence of comparable regulatory action by the agency with primary responsibility for interpreting and coordinating enforcement of the statute in question,” the attorneys continued. They added:

The inclusion of a general reference to “public safety or national security” requires clarification, at least in order to demonstrate how it is grounded in statutory authority. As currently phrased, it is not clear how this provision relates to specific statutory or regulatory requirements ....

The expansiveness of the provision threatens to chill lawful conduct that, in some cases, is religiously motivated. Providing for the basic human needs of immigrants, without regard to their immigration status, is integral to the mission of the Catholic Church and her ministries. The current administration has characterized immigration as a threat to public safety, and various Congressional representatives have accused Catholic entities of facilitating illegal immigration.

Religious entities that provide food, shelter, or other humanitarian aid to immigrants, or transportation related to such aid, may reasonably fear that their ordinary ministries could be characterized as “facilitat[ing]… illegal activities that threaten public safety.” The proposal may thus operate to chill religious exercise protected under the First Amendment and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

 

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Further information:

• Tell the Administration Not to Exclude Catholic Organizations from Federal Programs (USCCB)
• Comments on proposed regulations (USCCB, 3/27/26)