Rep. Waters Issues Statement on President Trump’s FY 2019 Budget Proposal

WASHINGTON, Feb. 15 -- Rep. Maxine Waters, D-California, ranking member of the House Financial Services Committee, issued the following statement on President Trump's fiscal 2019 budget proposal:

"After signing a $1.5 trillion tax scam into law, Donald Trump has now presented an unconscionable, unreasonable, and unbalanced budget to the U.S. Congress. Donald Trump's fiscal year 2019 budget proves just how little regard he has for the American people and the well-being of our economy.

"If this president were a serious leader, or a man with a shred of human decency, he wouldn't have put forth such a reckless proposal to slash programs like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid and gamble with the future of education, public housing, health care, and environmental protections in this country.

"While Donald Trump prioritizes the rich at the expense of the middle-class and the social safety net, I will continue to fight for a budget that protects communities in California's 43rd Congressional District as well as children, seniors, veterans, people with disabilities, and working families all across this country."

The following programs and services would face extreme cuts under the Trump proposal:

* SOCIAL SECURITY: Donald Trump's budget cuts $10.3 billion in Social Security disability benefits over 10 years.

* MEDICARE: Donald Trump's budget cuts $500 billion from Medicare over 10 years.

* MEDICAID: Donald Trump's budget cuts an astonishing $1.4 trillion from Medicaid over 10 years.

* HEALTH: Donald Trump's budget repeals the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), thereby cutting $675 billion over 10 years and taking health insurance away from millions of Americans. It also cuts more than $1 billion from the Centers for Disease Control, $310 million from substance abuse and mental health programs, $145 million from the Nursing Workforce Development Program, and $43 million from the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program.

* EDUCATION: Trump's budget makes college more expensive by cutting $203 billion over 10 years in student loan assistance, while cutting funding for the Department of Education by 5.6 percent ($3.8 billion) in fiscal year 2019.

* NUTRITION: Donald Trump's budget cuts food stamps, formally known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), by $17 billion in 2019 and more than $213 billion over the next decade. It also proposes to change the way SNAP works by providing part of the benefits in the form of a box of food assembled by a new government bureaucracy.

* TRANSPORTATION: Donald Trump's budget cuts funding for the Department of Transportation by 14 percent in fiscal year 2019, despite Trump's promise to invest in infrastructure. It slashes highway, transit, and highway safety funding by $122 billion over 10 years and completely eliminates the TIGER grant program, which funds investments in transportation infrastructure by states and local transit agencies (e.g. Metro).

* HOUSING: Donald Trump's budget cuts funding for the Department of Housing and Urban Development by more than 24 percent (over $9 billion) in fiscal year 2019. It completely eliminates the Housing Trust Fund, the Choice Neighborhoods Initiative, and the Community Development Block Grant program, and it severely underfunds Section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers, Section 811 Housing for Persons with Disabilities, the Housing Counseling program, the Lead Hazard Reduction program, and the Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS program.

* ENVIRONMENT: Donald Trump's budget cuts funding for the Environmental Protection Agency by 26 percent in fiscal year 2019. It cuts clean air programs by 46 percent and cuts $1.3 billion from energy efficiency and renewable energy, while simultaneously increasing fossil fuel energy research and development by more than $80 million. It also completely eliminates the Chemical Safety Board, which investigates serious chemical accidents and is currently investigating an explosion at the Torrance Refinery in my congressional district.

* LABOR: Donald Trump's budget cuts funding for the Department of Labor by almost $1.2 billion in fiscal year 2019. It cuts $407 million from Job Corps, $24 million from the National Labor Relations Board, $11 million from the Office of Disability Employment Policy, and $1 million from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.