Shea-Porter Calls Trump’s 2018 Budget Proposal 'Immoral'

WASHINGTON, DC – Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter (NH-01) released the following statement after President Trump released his full budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2018:

“A budget is a moral document, and this immoral budget does not reflect the values we share as Americans. The President’s Fiscal Year 2018 budget proposal would hurt students, working Americans, seniors, and our most vulnerable citizens by slashing health care, nutrition assistance, medical and scientific research, education, and other programs. President Trump’s budget reveals his true priorities: giving huge tax cuts to the wealthiest individuals and the biggest corporations.

“Today’s budget abandons the bipartisan progress we made earlier this month, when I voted for and the President signed an omnibus spending bill. As Congress works through the Fiscal Year 2018 budget process, I will fight against reckless and irresponsible cuts that target working families and our most vulnerable citizens; against the President’s proposal to balance the budget on the backs of working Americans and our seniors while giving the wealthiest even bigger tax cuts; against a new BRAC round; and for the priorities that were reflected in this year’s bipartisan omnibus bill.”

President Trump’s FY18 budget proposal includes:

A $610 billion cut to Medicaid over 10 years, which combined with House-passed American Health Care Act cuts would slice total Medicaid funding almost in half by 2027. About 65 percent of nursing home residents are supported primarily by Medicaid;
A $5.8 billion cut to the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP);
A $7 billion cut to National Institutes of Health (NIH), which provided $98.9 million in critical medical research funding in New Hampshire for Fiscal Year 2016, supporting approximately 1,300 jobs;
A 10.7% cut to the National Science Foundation, which provided 125 awards totaling approximately $42 million to New Hampshire institutions in Fiscal Year 2016;
A 31.4% cut to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), including cutting critical climate science research;
Authorization for a new round of Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC), which Shea-Porter strongly opposes;
A 29% cut to State Department funding, crippling our nation’s ability to exert soft power and respond to humanitarian crises worldwide;
A $193 billion cut over 10 years to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which helped93,302 Granite Staters afford food as of February 2017;
$72.5 billion cut from programs that support people with disabilities, including Social Security disability insurance;
Elimination of the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), a critical fuel assistance program for low-income households in New Hampshire;
A $143 billion cut over 10 years to student loan, financial aid and repayment programs that facilitate access to higher education;
A reversal of a proposed 95% cut to the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP). After reports indicated that the President’s budget would include severe ONDCP funding cuts, Shea-Porter highlighted the importance of its programs to New Hampshire, urging President Trump to back off the cuts in letters sent with theNew Hampshire Congressional delegation; 73 bipartisan Members of Congress; and the Bipartisan Heroin Task Force. Today’s budget proposal reverses the worst of the proposed cuts – but still proposes an unacceptable $6 million cut to the High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) program.