Civil and Human Rights Coalition Calls For A Fair And Equitable Federal Budget That Meets The Needs For All Americans

Media 05.22,17

WASHINGTON – Nancy Zirkin, executive vice president and director of public policy of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, released the following statement on President Trump’s fiscal year 2018 budget:

“We are deeply concerned by reports about President Trump’s forthcoming FY 2018 budget. We will fully examine the proposal when it comes out. But if the reports are even half true, and given what we saw in the president’s ‘skinny budget’ earlier this year, it will only confirm that this administration’s priority is taking money away from vital public safety, health and social services programs for low- and middle-income people to give unnecessary tax cuts to the richest Americans, harming working families and communities of color and undermining basic civil rights in the process.

The federal budget should work to support shared prosperity for everyone, invest in good jobs and the infrastructure our communities need, strengthen basic living standards, especially for those who are underserved, and provide educational, economic, and employment opportunities for all Americans. On all those fronts, based on what we have heard to date, the Trump budget fails massively.

For example, based on the broad outline released in March and subsequent reports on the more detailed proposal, the FY 2018 Trump budget would:

  • Cut more than $1.7 trillion dollars in cuts to safety net programs that assist the most vulnerable in our nation, including an $800 billion dollar cut over 10 years from entitlement programs like Medicaid, food assistance, child nutrition programs, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, Supplemental Security Income, Social Security Disability Insurance, and the Pell Grant program.
  • Add new, unnecessary work requirements to Medicaid and other programs that do not already have them, and tighten them where they already exist.
  • Cut spending on the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and Child Tax Credit (CTC) by $40 billion dollars, both of which are proven anti-poverty programs, in part through the inclusion of anti-immigrant provisions that would not permit an Individual Taxpayer ID Number (ITIN) to be used as proof of eligibility.
  • Move the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) from the Department of Labor (DOL) and reassign its functions to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).  The OFCCP enforces anti-discrimination provisions that addresses the obligations of federal contractors. Such a move would eliminate a major civil rights office and likely be used as an excuse to cut overall funding and resources for civil rights enforcement for working people.
  • Significantly underfund the Census Bureau at a time when the agency needs a substantial funding ramp-up to prepare for and conduct the constitutionally required 2020 Census.
  • Undermine the newly-passed Every Student Succeeds Act while also taking away vital K-12 and higher education investments that make equal educational opportunity real.
  • Eliminate entire agencies and programs, including the Legal Services Corporation, which is the single largest funder of civil legal aid for low-income Americans in the nation.
  • Dramatically cut funding for critical programs in the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), including the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program and Choice Neighborhoods, which have helped local communities address housing affordability problems.
  • Slash funding for critical infrastructure programs such as transit projects that connect working people to economic opportunities; eliminate funding for the always oversubscribed TIGER discretionary grant program; and end funding for the Essential Air Service Program (EAS), which provides subsidized commercial air service to rural airports that many not get service otherwise.
  • Create a paid family leave program that fails to cover 75 percent of those who should be eligible, and be funded by diverting money from state unemployment funding. This program would put the onus on states to create their own programs, creating a system where program standards vary by state.
  • Include $2.6 billion in funding for a wall/fence through border communities and a mass deportation force.

As Congress begins to consider President Trump’s budget, we encourage lawmakers to enact a fair and equitable federal budget that meets the needs for all Americans.”

Nancy Zirkin is executive vice president and director of public policy for The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, a coalition charged by its diverse membership of more than 200 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 200-plus member organizations, visit www.civilrights.org.