Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) released the following statement after reviewing the specifics of President Trump’s budget proposal and its impact on the State of Nevada.
“While I commend the Administration for recognizing that the issue of childcare is crucial for families, there is little in this budget that is good for America. From repealing the Affordable Care Act, targeting Medicaid and SNAP, to gutting crucial housing and education funding; the President’s budget doesn’t put Nevada first. By putting funding towards Yucca Mountain, eliminating Brand USA and ending tax credits that spur green jobs, this President has demonstrated he isn’t interested in strengthening hard-working middle class families. Instead, he’s focused on making his tax cuts for the wealthy permanent – and he’s doing it on the backs of seniors and struggling families, while taking money away from other services to fund his border wall and deportation force. This budget is a statement of the failed vision and wrong priorities of this Administration. It will not have my support.”
BACKGROUND:
President Trump’s budget calls for drastic cuts to critical agencies and programs that Nevadans rely on, as well as targets communities in Nevada, and across the country.
Health care:
- If enacted, the President’s budget calls for the repeal of the Affordable Care Act, which would transition Medicaid into a block grant program, and implements Medicaid work requirements that would kick families off of coverage.
- If passed, the budget would result in $130 billion in cuts to Medicaid over the next decade.
- The President’s budget turns graduate medical education funding into a block grant, cutting $50 billion in funding for physician training programs over the next decade.
- This proposal is especially harmful to Nevada, which ranks 47th nationwide for physicians and 48th for primary care doctors per 100,000 residents.
Health Research:
- The President’s budget calls for $4 billion in cuts to vital health research and investments at the National Institute of Health.
- These cuts would also include $879 million in cuts to the National Cancer Institute, which researches potential treatments and cures to various forms of cancer in the United States. This follows President Trump’s State of the Union Address where he stated that his Administration would make additional efforts to fight childhood cancer.
Housing:
- The President’s budget cuts 16% from the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s budget and proposes gutting critical programs that help address Nevada’s affordable housing crisis:
- President Trump proposes to zero out the national Housing Trust Fund, which provided $3 million in funding to Nevada last year to construct and rehabilitate homes for extremely low income households.
- If enacted, the President’s budget would eliminate the Section 515 Rental Housing Direct Loans, which received $40 million to help promote the construction of affordable rental properties in rural America.
- The President’s budget eliminates Rural Housing Loans, which received $37.5 million to help promote the construction and purchase of rural homes.
- If enacted, the President’s budget would eliminate the Community Development Block Grant program and eliminate the HOME Investment Partnership Program that support local and state governments serving low-income Nevadans as they get back on their feet, find employment and secure safe housing.
- The administration’s proposal to eliminate Community Development Block Grant funding would also undermine the deployment of broadband infrastructure in our communities as these funds can be utilized to wire and connect homes.
- The President’s budget would cut $34 million from homeless assistance grants.
Rural Communities:
- The President’s budget cuts nearly $26 billion from crop insurance and eliminates livestock disaster programs that help ranchers during droughts.
- If enacted, the President’s budget would cut support for rural small businesses.
Education:
- If enacted, the President’s budget cuts 12% from the Department of Education’s budget, ripping $8.5 billion in funding from critical programs and agencies that support our students and educators.
- The President’s budget proposes a federal tax credit of up to $50 billion over 10 years to promote Secretary DeVos’ school choice policies and takes money out of public education.
Funding for Nevada Families:
- The President’s budget proposal eliminates the Social Services Block Grant, cutting more than $16 billion in funding for adoption services, adult day care, and special services for the disabled in America.
- In Nevada, that would include Child Welfare and Child Protective Services, regional centers that service intellectually disabled individuals, and child crisis intervention programs.
- If enacted, the President’s budget proposal would limit disability benefits for families with multiple disabled children and implement additional work requirements for SSI beneficiaries, this would mean reductions in support for American families to the tune of $70 billion over ten years.
- The President’s budget also includes cuts of more than $200 billion over 10 years to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) with additional work requirements on struggling families that were rejected by Congress in the Farm bill, and other reforms proposed in his budget, these cuts would target the most vulnerable families in our state.
Job Creation:
- If enacted, the President’s budget would eliminate a tax credit worth up to $7,500 on the purchase of new electric vehicles and repeals a number of other renewable incentives.
- This would have a direct impact on the economy in Nevada and target innovative companies creating good-paying, green jobs right here in the Silver State.
Law Enforcement:
- The President’s budget proposal cuts $18.5 million from Byrne JAG funding that supports state and local law enforcement that keep our communities safe.
Yucca Mountain:
- The President’s budget would yet again include funding to restart licensing activity at Yucca Mountain, $116 million, adding to the $19 billion already wasted on the Yucca Mountain project.
Nevada’s Tourism Industry:
- The President’s budget would totally eliminate Brand USA, a program critical to Nevada’s tourism and hospitality industry that helps promote and support Nevada businesses and our economy.
- Brand USA returns investment back to U.S. taxpayers to the tune of $27 in economic impact for every $1 spent. The cuts proposed by the President come as Las Vegas, and communities across Nevada continue to express concerns about the decline in international tourism.
- Brand USA is an important program that can help counteract this decline and is an essential tool to reversing two years of consecutive drops in foreign-visitor spending.
Transportation:
- If enacted, the President’s budget would cut $5.9 billion in discretionary funding from critical transportation agencies that provide services to Nevada, a decrease of almost 22 percent.
- The President’s budget would award “transitional grants” for states to reorganize Amtrak in order to take away nationwide long distance routes, undermining rural communities in Nevada.
- The President’s budget also makes a 41% cut to transit Capital Investment Grants that would jeopardize our localities ability to meet their obligations to their communities and small businesses.
Targeting Communities:
- If enacted, the President’s budget would spend $8.6 billion on an ineffective border wall and provide $2.7 billion to detain asylum seekers and target communities.
- The President’s budget proposes creating a Border Security and Immigration Enforcement Fund that would provide mandatory funding to expand the Trump deportation force.