Legal services in unprecedented danger under Trump's budget proposal
Source: The Guardian
Legal services in unprecedented danger under Trump's budget proposal
Budget proposal includes cuts to organization that helps clients
fight negligent landlords and domestic violence, in addition to 18
other small budget agencies
Tom McCarthy and Molly Redden in New York
Thursday 16 March 2017 14.33 GMT
Pavita Krishnaswamy stands on the fifth floor of housing court in downtown Brooklyn and rattles off the programs that would be hurt if Donald Trump succeeds in pushing through cuts to legal services that are outlined in a budget proposal released by the White House on Thursday.
Domestic violence. Immigration. Predatory lending. Consumer protections. Foreclosures. HIV/LGBTQ cases.
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For the time being, the federal government provides $375m a year, through a 1960s-era agency called the Legal Services Corporation, to help such clients across the country. The funding has survived repeated Republican efforts to eliminate it on the grounds that its too costly (its less than one-ten-thousandth of the federal budget) or that the services arent essential (read on).
But legal services funding now appears to be in unprecedented danger. A budget blueprint released by the White House on Thursday, while increasing military spending by $52bn and homeland security spending by $2.8bn, would eliminate LSC, in addition to 18 other independent agencies with small budgets including the Appalachian regional commission, the chemical safety board, the Denali commission, the US interagency council on homelessness and the overseas private investment corporation.
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Read more:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/mar/16/legal-aid-services-cut-trump-budget-proposal