Rep. Price Issues Statement on President Trump’s Budget Request

WASHINGTON, May 23 -- Rep. David E. Price, D-N.C., issued the following statement on President Trump's budget request for Fiscal 2018:

"A budget is a moral document that says a great deal about the priorities and principles of the president proposing it. We shouldn't be surprised, then, that the Trump budget demonstrates the same lack of regard for vulnerable populations that has tainted his campaign and presidency.

"This budget proposal eviscerates our basic social safety net -- including Medicaid, Social Security Disability Insurance, and nutrition assistance -- in order to lavish tax cuts on our wealthiest citizens. It slashes funding for transportation, housing, education, and health care. It would completely eliminate TIGER transportation grants that were used to help fund Raleigh's new Union Station and the flexible Community Development Block Grants that dozens of our cities and small towns rely upon to fund public improvements. It would also eliminate all funding for the HOME program, which is used as critical gap financing for new affordable housing construction in North Carolina and across the country, and make deep cuts to public housing and low-income tenant vouchers that could put our most vulnerable citizens at risk. It decimates our research programs at the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Institutes of Health, investments that make us all better off--and that support thousands of researchers in the Triangle. And it doubles down on a flawed ideology that seeks to hamstring diplomacy and international assistance, our most effective tools to promote peace and prosperity on the global stage.

"This budget wouldn't make America great again--quite the opposite. It would undermine our nation's competitiveness and economic mobility while unilaterally withdrawing America from world leadership. As a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee, I look forward to working with my colleagues--on both sides of the aisle--to forcefully reject the President's budget. The best way to do this is by enacting another bipartisan budget agreement to lift the unrealistic spending caps and ensure that we are able to make the investments a truly great country must make."