Commentary: Today, U.S. Senator Tom Udall, lead Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies and vice chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, released the following statement on President Trump’s FY 2018 budget:
“This budget is a disturbing statement of President Trump’s dangerous and cruel priorities. President Trump's budget would cannibalize programs that help lower-income and middle-class families to give the richest Americans a huge tax cut and pay for a border wall that even Republicans oppose. He is proposing to take health care away from hundreds of thousands of New Mexicans and millions of Americans and dramatically cut support for important anti-poverty programs -- including SNAP food assistance, Medicaid, and Social Security disability -- which help thousands of New Mexico families meet basic needs. The budget would decimate protections for the environment and public lands, and gut Department of Energy civilian and R&D funding, sending the clean energy jobs of the future abroad to competitors like China. Trump's budget turns its back on the trust and treaty obligations our nation owes to American Indians and Alaska Natives and cuts core services for Tribes like health care, education, and public safety.
"Trump's budget plan would pull the rug out from under school children and college students by slashing billions of dollars from education programs that help at-risk children succeed in school and ensure promising high schoolers can afford to go to college. And rural New Mexicans would be disproportionately affected. President Trump's plans for drastic cuts to Medicaid could force already struggling rural hospitals to close -- while unprecedented cuts to USDA rural development would cancel programs that create jobs and support small businesses, downtown revitalization, and water projects among many others throughout rural New Mexico.
"Thankfully, President Trump’s budget is just a proposal and doesn't carry the force of law. Senators from both sides of the aisle are already lining up to reject it, and I am confident Trump's budget plan will be dead on arrival in Congress. As a senior member of the Appropriations Committee and vice chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, I will work tirelessly to chart a better, bipartisan path forward that invests in the success of working people in New Mexico and across the nation.”