WASHINGTON, DC – Congresswoman Nita Lowey (D-NY17/Rockland-Westchester), House Appropriations Committee Chairwoman, today detailed the disconnect between President Trump’s fiscal year 2020 budget request and the reality in New York.

“President Trump is nothing if not consistent: his budget request once again threatens the safety, security, and well-being of hardworking New York families,” said Congresswoman Lowey. “By cutting critical investments in health care, education, and the environment, this irresponsible proposal takes aim at the middle class and some of the most vulnerable populations. The President continues to show that his priority is to ‘build the wall,’ not educate the next generation, combat cancer, prevent children and seniors from going hungry, or protect our communities.”

After signing into law a tax bill that drastically increased the deficit while capping state and local tax (SALT) deductions for hardworking New York families, President Trump now proposes balancing the budget on the backs of New Yorkers.

By taking aim at education, health, and workforce training programs, the President’s budget request would harm our ability to create a 21st Century workforce and achieve advances in biomedical research to combat cancer, Alzheimer’s, and more. The President’s proposal:

  • Eliminates investments that support the training of health professionals, including nurses, even as the country is projected to face a nursing shortage just as Baby Boomers are aging;
  • Cuts biomedical research at the National Institutes of Health by $5 billion, harming the New York economy, which generates 32,000 jobs and approximately $6.5 billion each year in NIH-supported economic activity, all while making it more difficult to find cures and treatments for debilitating diseases and conditions;
  • Eliminates Preschool Development Grants – including $8.73 million for New York State – which expand access to affordable, quality child care for working families;
  • Eliminates the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program – including more than $10.2 million for New Yorkers – which fund initiatives to reduce teen pregnancy;
  • Eliminates numerous programs including Afterschool, Arts in Education, Special Olympics, and Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants; and
  • Jeopardizes the $293,288 Lower Hudson Valley students receive in financial support by cutting Federal Work Study by $630 million.

The budget is particularly cruel to low-income Americans.

  • It would leave more children, seniors, and disabled Americans hungry by cutting the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) by an estimated $20 billion, and would cut health benefits for children, working families, and those relying on nursing and assisted living facilities by block granting Medicaid.
  • It yet again proposes to eliminate Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) funding, which would cause more than one million low-income New Yorkers, in particular seniors, to go without heating assistance in the winter and cooling assistance in the summer.
  • Under this budget, Community Development Financial Institutions throughout New York State would be unable to provide capital to low-income communities, as it once again proposes complete elimination of the CDFI fund. In FY16 alone, 79 certified CDFIs financed 950 businesses for a total of $163 million in development funding in New York.

Instead of investing in new technology to protect the environment for future generations, President Trump continues to threaten the air we breathe and the water we drink by proposing to:

  • Cut the EPA by 31%;
  • Eliminate funding for Long Island Sound; and
  • Cut the Clean Water State Revolving Funds and Drinking Water State Revolving Funds by 30%.

“I am committed to working with my colleagues, both Democrats and Republicans, to write appropriations bills that responsibly fund the government,” added Congresswoman Lowey. “I will work to ensure growth in our economy, the creation of new jobs, and the protection of all New Yorkers, and I will treat this year’s budget request as merely symbolic of President Trump’s misguided priorities.”