Trump’s Shutdown Has Already Begun: Congress Must Protect People, Not Billionaires

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: [email protected]

WASHINGTON — Maya Wiley, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, released the following statement ahead of a potential government shutdown:

“Donald Trump is a shutdown president. He was a shutdown president in 2018, forcing the longest shutdown in the history of this country, and today he has already been presiding over a new form of government shutdown — and it’s called DOGE. His administration is already gutting education research, health care access, and many other essential parts of the government, even though the Congress had appropriated funds or had created by law the government offices that this administration is shutting down — or promising to.

“Now, House Republicans are pushing a funding bill (H.R. 1968), which would further strip resources from working families to benefit wealthy donors and corporations. This is about real people’s lives. When children can’t get the asthma medication they need because of health care cuts, they miss school and a parent may have to miss work and lose pay. When schools lose funding for special education, students with disabilities can lose a paraprofessional who supports their classroom learning or other services to support their learning. We need more services and health care, not less. H.R. 1968 would make these problems worse, threatening the wellbeing of families in every community.

“If enacted, this would slash health care, education, food programs that help the hungry, and public safety services — worsening existing crises in schools and hospitals and adding burdens to already struggling communities, both urban and rural. It will waste dollars on the mass detention and deportation of working, tax paying people who have been in this country for years, while removing safeguards that protect immigrant rights and due process and creating incentives to racially target communities of color. It undermines the check and balance of congressional oversight, granting unchecked power over spending decisions without accountability and imposing nearly $1 billion in cuts to Washington, D.C.’s locally funded programs, which disregards the city’s autonomy and directly impacts public safety, education, and health care services for its residents. This temporary spending bill also falls short of adequate funding for the Census Bureau, which is needed for the 2026 field tests that will properly prepare for an accurate, inclusive, and cost-effective 2030 Census.

“Voters, no matter who they voted for, went to the polls to vote for communities, not chaos. They went to the polls to demand help, not harm. Blame for this crisis lies squarely at the feet of House leadership, which is pushing to take money out of communities for basic needs to put those dollars into the pockets of the wealthiest Americans who don’t need it. No senator should support this bill and its array of crosscutting harms to our communities. Congress must act in the interest of families — not billionaires — by rejecting H.R. 1968 and demanding a funding bill that actually helps people thrive.”

The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights is a coalition charged by its diverse membership of more than 240 national organizations to promote and protect the rights of all persons in the United States. The Leadership Conference works toward an America as good as its ideals. For more information on The Leadership Conference and its member organizations, visit www.civilrights.org.

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