DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

 

The President’s budget makes drastic cuts in funding for programs that matter to families in the District of Columbia.  These cuts will shift responsibility for funding these priorities onto the already cash-strapped District. Since the District of Columbia will not be able to provide the same level of services with less federal funding, the budget cuts will force the District either to reduce funding for schools and leave more people hungry, homeless, cold and uninsured, or to raise taxes. 

 

 

EDUCATION:  The President’s budget would reduce funding for education and training programs in the District of Columbia in 2006, with the cuts getting bigger in later years.  No program, including K-12, will be spared. 

 

• The District of Columbia will lose $30 million in total elementary and secondary education spending[1];
• Funding for special education programs will be cut by more than $11 million in the District of Columbia;
• The District of Columbia school improvement programs will lose more than $20 million; and
• Vocational and adult education programs will be cut by $19 million in the District of Columbia.

 

 

FAMILY SERVICES:  Programs providing needed services to low-income families in the District of Columbia face major cuts in 2006, with the cuts getting bigger over time.  Under the President’s budget proposal, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), programs for abused and neglected children, Head Start, and child care assistance programs all face steep cuts.

 

• The District of Columbia will lose $1.7 million in WIC funding, and 1,400 people will be cut from the program;
• In the District of Columbia, Children and Family services (including Head Start and programs for abused and neglected children) would lose $12.2 million; 
• 95 children in the District of Columbia will lose access to Head Start in 2006[2], and 400 will lose access to the program in 2010; and
• In the District of Columbia, 2,300 children will lose child care assistance in 2009.

 

 

HOUSING AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT:  The President’s budget targets housing and community development programs in the District of Columbia for funding cuts in 2006 and beyond. 

 

• 2,000 families in the District of Columbia will lose rental assistance vouchers;
• The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) will be cut by $500,000 in the District of Columbia; and
• In the District of Columbia, Community Development programs will be cut by more than $59 million. 

 

 

HEALTH:  The budget would cut funding in the District of Columbia for HIV/AIDS treatment services, including funding to help those with HIV/AIDS purchase drugs.  President Bush has also proposed major cuts to the Medicaid program in the District of Columbia. 

 

• The District of Columbia will lose more than $15 million in HIV/AIDS funding;
• Medicaid funding for the District of Columbia will be cut by almost $216 million[3]; and 
• 5,500 children or 1,200 seniors in the District of Columbia could be covered by the Medicaid funding cuts proposed in 2010. 

 

 

PENTAGON:  While taxpayers in the District of Columbia would lose local services, they will pay increasingly more for the Pentagon.

 

• The District of Columbia will spend more than $129 million for the proposed increase in military spending[4]; and
• More than $694 million of what Congress has so far allocated for the Iraq War will come from the District of Columbia.