How Trump’s Budget Would Hurt Vermont

How Trump’s Budget Would Hurt Vermont

BRATTLEBORO, VT., March 16 – Budget analysts for U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, identified some of the ways the budget blueprint released Thursday by President Donald Trump would hurt Vermont. Trump’s plan would:

  • Eliminate the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program which provides heating assistance to some 21,000 Vermont families.
  • Make college more expensive by eliminating grants to some 5,700 Vermont students through the Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant program.
  • Kick more than 5,700 students in Vermont off after-school programs by eliminating the 21st Century Community Learning Centers program.
  • End a home energy weatherization program that since 1980 has helped make more than 26,000 Vermont residences more energy efficient and saved the average homeowner $400 to $600 a year on energy bills.
  • Deny assistance to more than 550 Vermont families for affordable housing which would put them at immediate risk of eviction and homelessness by slashing Section 8 housing vouchers.
  • Eliminate federal funding for five community action programs in Vermont that provide thousands of low-income Vermonters emergency food, shelter, heating assistance, transportation and health care. The programs are the Capstone Community Action Council, the Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity, Southeastern Vermont Community Action, Northeast Kingdom Community Action and BROC Community Action in Southwestern Vermont.
  • Cut Vermont’s $6 million in community development block grants that provide funding for affordable housing, transportation and economic development. 
  • End $1.3 million in annual federal funding that the Rutland Southern Vermont Regional Airport receives under the Essential Air Service program.
  • Cut more than $500,000 Vermont now receives from the Legal Services Corporation, often the only legal resource available to low-income veterans, children and families in Vermont.
  • Cuts Head Start by $1.6 million in Vermont, which would throw 140 low-income children off high-quality child care and early education.