Barbara Lee: “This amendment would cut funding for important programs and services that provide opportunities for working families.…”

“This amendment would cut funding for important programs and services that provide opportunities for working families. Many of these programs are already underfunded and fail to meet the existing need. For instance, the amendment would cut Head Start by more than $1.6 billion, denying slots to 80,000 children we are trying to provide with access to high quality, early learning programs, as well as rejecting our proposal to increase funding for trauma-informed care, which is critical for children affected by the opioid crisis. This amendment would cut after-school programs by $185 million, taking away enrichment opportunities for roughly 222,000 students. It would cut Title I funding by $2.4 billion, reducing resources for an estimated 25 million students in high-poverty schools. It would cut the number of new and competing research grants at NIH by approximately 87 percent, which is over 10,000 fewer new research grants. It cuts tens of millions of nutritious meals for more than 2 million low-income seniors. Also, this amendment would close Social Security field offices in every district, while worsening wait times for in-person services, phone services, and exacerbating the disability hearings backlog. It would also cut Federal Work Study programs by $200 million, resulting in 114,000 fewer awards to students.…”