Spending cuts to jobs, health care and education proposed in a House Republican bill this week are a preview of what will happen to federal agencies in a second Trump term, a key House Democrat said Tuesday.
Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, a member of the House Appropriations Committee, told reporters Tuesday that major spending cuts in Republican elections fiscal year 2025 The proposal to fund the departments of labour, health and social services, and education would have a significant impact on workers, families and students.
The bill would cut the Department of Labor’s budget by 22%, the HHS budget by 6% and the Department of Education’s budget by 14%.
DeLauro mentioned Project 2025conservative policy plan for a second Trump presidency, saying Republicans are already trying to implement those policies through spending bills.
“We as Democrats are going to look at the 2025 Project and the budget bills and then look at what they’re already trying to accomplish through the appropriations process,” she said at a news conference Tuesday.
She also pointed to the inability of Republican Party leaders to pass spending bills, referring to a government initiative that was avoided close in September and failed vote this month on the legislative spending bill.
“They can’t govern,” she said. “This is chaos.”
Rep. Robert Aderholt, R-Alabama, chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, called the proposed budget cuts “common-sense reforms” that “will ultimately save taxpayers money.” press release earlier this month, after the House Appropriations Committee approved the bill.
House Appropriations Committee Chairman Tom Cole of Oklahoma said in a speech: statement that the legislation will protect Americans from policies promoted by President Joe Biden that are largely opposed by Republicans in Congress.
“Importantly, the bill curbs the Biden administration’s burdensome abuses of power and divisive policies,” Cole said.
Massive cuts in Labour Party
The bill proposes major cuts in federal funding for workers’ compensation programs. reduction the Department of Labor budget by $3 billion from its current level.
Fred Redmond, secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO, a national labor coalition, called out the elimination of $900 million in job training programs for youth, saying it was being cut “at exactly the time when young people are looking for good, stable jobs.”
He also criticized Republicans for pushing a pro-labor narrative at last week’s Republican National Convention.
“We know it was all just talk,” he said. “This is a platform. No matter how many different ways they tried to dress it up in Milwaukee, this is what they want to do.”
The bill would mean a nearly 12% cut for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which enforces worker safety laws. If the bill passes, OSHA would receive $75 million less than it did in the current fiscal year.
Financing reproductive health focused
Speakers at DeLauro’s event also highlighted the bill’s impact on health care, particularly reproductive care.
Kimberly Diaz Scott, vice president of the National Association for Family Planning and Reproductive Health, an advocacy group for family planning providers, said the funding bills amount to a “list of attempts” to deprive Americans of access to reproductive health care.
This bill would reduce funding for the Department of Health and Human Services by just over 6%, or $7.5 billion, from current levels.
The bill provides for spending cuts of more than $280 million Title X Family Planning which provides funding to facilitate people access contraception, pregnancy testing and counseling, and sexually transmitted disease services. It is designed to ensure that low-income or uninsured people have access to these services.
Republicans have been attacking the program, which provides funding to reproductive health clinics, including Planned Parenthood, for decades.
Scott stressed that eliminating these programs would especially impact communities that have difficulty accessing these services.
“These attacks are part of a broader agenda to reverse the progress we’ve made toward gender equality,” she said. “Each of these policies aims to control and restrict bodily autonomy, to deprive people of the right to make decisions about their own bodies and their own lives.”
The bill would also cut spending by $1.8 billion for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which would eliminate funding for research on suicide prevention, firearm injuries and deaths, and opioid overdose prevention.
Cuts in education
The Republican-filed bill would also force a 14%, or $8.6 billion, cut in the Education Department’s budget.
Title I grants, which provide federal funding to schools with low-income students, would be cut by $4.7 billion. That decrease represents more than half of the $8.5 billion in cuts to all K-12 education, including special education programs. Public schools are required by law to provide special education to students who meet qualifications.
Michael J. Barnes, superintendent of the Mayfield City School District in Ohio, said federal funding is critical for public schools
“These funds are not just numbers on a balance sheet in my district and districts across the country. They translate into real opportunities for our most disadvantaged students,” he said.
The other major cut in the bill is a $124 million reduction in spending on mental health services in schools. In 2021, the U.S. Surgeon General issued advisory on youth mental health, highlighting the major impact the pandemic has had on youthful people in the country.
Barnes noted that funding public school programs will facilitate the United States in the long run by helping to grow the economy, ensuring social mobility and improving public health and safety.
“This isn’t just an expense,” he said. “This is an investment in our future.”
