The Rev. William Barber II and eight other progressive activists were arrested inside the U.S. Capitol Rotunda in Washington, D.C., on Monday for holding a prayer rally against the Republican-backed budget bill going through Congress.
Barber, a former NAACP leader who co-leads the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival, posted a video to his X account on Monday evening documenting the event. The demonstration began outside the U.S. Supreme Court building and then continued in the Capitol Rotunda.
At issue is the Trump administration-backed budget bill before Congress. Barber and other progressive activists oppose cuts to various publicly funded welfare programs.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
Subscribe to get daily/weekly email with the top stories (plus special offers!) from The Christian Post. Be the first to know.
After the outdoor gathering, Barber, other clergy and supporters entered the Capitol Rotunda to hold an unauthorized prayer rally, with Capitol police showing up in response to the small assembly.
“This budget does not establish justice,” Barber said during his prayer. “This budget does not provide for the common defense of all. This budget does not promote the general welfare, and it surely does not ensure domestic tranquility.”
Barber, who led Greenleaf Christian Church of Goldsboro, North Carolina, for decades until his recent retirement from ministry in 2023, denounced “those who legislate evil,” “rob the poor of their rights,” “make women and children prey” and “run roughshod on the least of these.”
As Barber continued to pray, a police officer introduced himself and stated that their rally was “considered a form of demonstrating,” saying it is “unlawful to demonstrate inside of the Capitol Rotunda.”
After multiple warnings were given, the area was cleared, and nine people still within the perimeter the police created, including Barber, were arrested.
Among those arrested is Suvya Carroll, a disability rights advocate born with cerebral palsy who is wheelchair-bound. During the prayer rally, Carroll held a copy of the Bible.
This is not the first time that Barber, who is known for supporting abortion and other left-leaning social causes, has been arrested in the Capitol Rotunda for holding a demonstration against the GOP-backed budget bill.
In late April, Barber, preacher Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove and St. Francis Springs Prayer Center Director Steve Swayne were arrested for protesting in the Capitol Rotunda.
Barber and Wilson-Hartgrove later confirmed their release in a statement, arguing that $1.5 trillion cannot be cut from the budget without “slashing Medicaid, Medicare, SNAP, Head Start, Section 8” and other programs they claimed are “life-saving and life-sustaining.”
“We came to the Capitol Rotunda to pray for representatives who currently support this immoral budget to see the danger of policy that kills and choose life. We came believing that God can take out a heart of stone and give anyone a heart of flesh,” they stated.
“That is why we chose to pray in the Capitol Rotunda yesterday. And that is the prayer we hope to embody with a growing and expanding moral movement in this nation until ‘justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.'”
Known as the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” the proposed budget passed the House of Representatives and is being considered by the Senate, both narrowly controlled by Republicans.
The legislation has been hailed by supporters as necessary to balance the budget, improve the economy and reduce wasteful government spending.
“It revives our economy. It will deliver historic tax relief. It will make the largest investment in our border security in a generation,” said Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., in a floor speech last month.
“It will unleash affordable American energy again, restore common sense to government, secure generational savings and strengthen our national defense, while it also strengthens our essential programs like Medicaid for the people who need it the most.”
Johnson claimed that opponents of the bill “are apparently for the largest tax increase in the history of our country” and support “waste, fraud, and abuse” while opposing “safer communities, American energy dominance and American strength on the world stage.”
The Congressional Budget Office released an analysis Wednesday stating that while the bill will cut taxes by $3.75 trillion, it would also increase deficits by $2.4 trillion over the next decade.
