TRUMP BUDGET UNDERMINES BASIC SERVICES, ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION, NATIONAL SECURITY, HOUSING AND HOMELESSNESS SERVICES
February 13, 2018
Contact: Michael Soneff
(202) 578-0167
Michael.soneff@mail.house.gov
Washington D.C.—Representative Nanette Diaz Barragán (D-San Pedro) released the following statement on President Trump’s budget proposal:
“President Trump’s budget would undermine basic services that working families in California’s 44th Congressional District rely on. After ramming through a trillion-dollar tax cut for wealthy individuals and corporations, the Trump administration is now sticking it to working and middle class families with this budget. The president’s priorities are clear; they do not include the environment, national security priorities, or assistance for vulnerable communities. This budget proposal is bad for my constituents, and it’s bad for America.”
President Trump’s budget includes damaging provisions in the following areas:
Basic Services
The Trump budget is an attack on the vital programs that protect our most vulnerable and safeguard basic living standards for all Americans. It cuts the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)—which serves 42.2 million people monthly, many of them children, senior citizens, and persons with disabilities—by $214 billion and cuts $72 billion from disability programs, including Social Security. It also seeks to revive efforts to repeal and replace Obamacare, threatening to tear away health care for millions of Americans and raise the costs for millions more. Finally, the President’s budget proposal guts Medicaid by $1.4 trillion and cuts Medicare by more than $500 billion, breaking President Trump’s promise not to jeopardize care for the elderly, children with disabilities, and low-income families.
Environmental Protections
This budget continues the Trump Administration’s reckless assault on our environment by cutting funding for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency by nearly 25 percent. These cuts would immediately put lives at risk, preventing the agency from fulfilling its core mission of ensuring that the air we breathe and the water we drink are safe and free from contamination. The budget also cuts core funding for climate research and science programs within the Department of the Interior, all while increasing funding for its onshore and offshore oil and gas extraction programs. Finally, this budget contains drastic cuts to western drought funding, preventing Southern Californians from being adequately prepared for future droughts.
National Security
Trump’s budget wastes billions on a needless and ineffective border wall and doubles down on a cruel immigration policy that tears families apart. Drastic cuts to the Port Security Grant Program, as proposed in this budget, will hamper the ability of our nation’s ports, including the Port of Los Angeles, to respond to a variety of rapidly changing threats. The Trump budget also pours money into immigration enforcement, such as additional funding for detention beds, when illegal immigration is on a downward trend. While the Trump budget boosts spending on unnecessary immigration initiatives, it cuts critical funding to FEMA after a year of historic natural disasters.
Housing and Homelessness
The Trump budget leaves millions of Americans out in the cold with cuts to critical housing and homelessness prevention programs. It proposes eliminating a number of crucial housing and homelessness programs including the Community Development Block Grant program, one of the most effective federal programs for growing local economies and for providing a lifeline to struggling families and communities. Every $1.00 of CDBG leverages an additional $3.65 in non-CDBG funding. Other rental assistance programs, like Housing Choice Vouchers and Housing for the Elderly and Persons with Disabilities, that support 4.7 million very low-income families, would see draconian cuts under the Trump budget affecting our most vulnerable constituents.
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Nanette Diaz Barragán is proud to represent California’s 44th Congressional District, which includes the communities of Carson, Compton, Lynwood, North Long Beach, Rancho Dominguez, San Pedro, South Gate, Walnut Park, Watts, Willowbrook and Wilmington.