While members of the Interfaith Alliance rallied in Salem, in Washington, D.C., our representatives are gathering to consider the budget which has been proposed by our President.
ON THE CUTTING BLOCK:
----Health and Human Service cut 12.6 billion - .
$4.2 billion will be eliminated from community services programs like the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program. National Institutes of Health will be cut by $5.8 billion.
----Education - cut 9.2 billion - After school and summer programs will be eliminated. Federal Supplemental Education Opportunity Grant for college students will be eliminated.
----Housing and Urban Development - cut 4.3 billion by eliminating Community Block Development Block Grant to fund anti-poverty programs, rental assistance, home ownership programs, and housing initiatives.
----Labor – cut 9.6 billion, scaling back job training programs including those aimed at helping seniors, disadvantaged young people and unemployed Americans. Training grants for occupational safety and health administration would be eliminated.
----Diplomacy and development would be severely cut, impacting: the United Nations. Climate-change initiatives at the United Nations would lose all their U.S. funding. The government would cut back its regular contribution to the U.N. and would pay no more than 25 percent of the cost of U.N. peacekeeping operations.
----The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s grants and programs for coastal and marine management, research and education would be eliminated and the Minority Business Development Agency, which supports minority-owned businesses would be reduced..
----The E.P.A. is among the hardest-hit agencies. The budget calls for the elimination of about 3,200 staff positions — over 20 percent of the department.
It would also eliminate all funding for enactment of the Clean Power Plan, the regulations designed to curb greenhouse gas emissions from power plants Funding for climate change research and international climate change programs would be eliminated.
----Programs to support research of breakthrough clean energy technology, including the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy and the Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing Program would be eliminated.
----Nearly 20 smaller independent agencies, including the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the Legal Services Corporation, which finances legal aid groups would be eliminated.
BIG WINNER: Defense Budget Increase by $574 billion.