Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee Rejects Cuts In the Administration’s Budget to Social Services Vital to Americans
For Immediate Release Contact: Robin Chand
March 11, 2019 (202) 225–3816
Press Statement
Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee Rejects Cuts In the Administration's Budget to Social Services Vital to Americans
Jackson Lee—"The budget submitted by the Administration is one that harms women, children, families and senior citizens. His budget undermines the quality of life that hardworking Americans deserve."
Washington, DC – Today, Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, a senior Member of Congress and of the Budget Committee, released this statement on the release of the Administration's Fiscal Year 2020 budget, expressing enormous disappointment in the Administration's budget philosophy:
The budget released by the Administration is not a serious effort at pursuing priorities needed by the American people. He makes no investments in our social safety net to improve vital programs like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, and in fact makes a $845 Billion cut to Medicare. Instead, the President's budget proposal makes non-defense discretionary cuts to the following programs at the following rates: (1) a 12% cut from the Department of Education; (2) a 12% cut to the Department of Health and Human Services; (3) an 11% cut to the Department of Interior; (4) a 23% cut to the Department of State; (5) a 32% cut from the Environmental Protection Agency; (6) a 22% cut from the Department of Transportation; (7) a 14.8% decrease from the Department of Agriculture; and (8) a 2% cut to the Department of Justice. All told, this budget represents $2.7 trillion in spending cuts over a ten-year period, which strikes at the heart of the vital needs of the American people.
Make no mistake, this budget ensures a poor environment, decreased mobility, limited access to good healthcare, a denial of America's responsibility to care for her natural assets such as parks and historic monuments, and continues to give a poor grade to America's public education system and to its children. Instead, the President's budget reinforces his commitment to trinkets, such as: a whopping $8.6 billion for new walls—funding which has already been rejected by Congress; an increase in military spending where no documentation has been provided by the Pentagon to support that increase; and finally, after hollowing out our fiscal health through the Administration's taxscam, compounding the scam with another $2.7 trillion in spending cuts over a ten-year period, which strikes at the heart of the vital needs of the American people.
It has been said before but we will say it again: this budget is dead on arrival and the Democrats will work hard to construct a budget that will be for the people, and will work further to reduce the negative impact of the administration's taxscam in order to begin the steady continuous work of reducing the debt.
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Congresswoman Jackson Lee is a Democrat from Texas's 18th Congressional District. She is a senior member of the House Committees on Judiciary, Homeland Security, and Budget and a member of the Helsinki Commission.