Congressman Serrano Rejects Trump Budget Proposal

Washington, DC – Today, Congressman José E. Serrano rejected President Trump’s full budget proposal.

“In my more than 25 years serving in Congress, I have never seen a budget as unbalanced and harmful as the one President Trump has proposed. It slashes domestic spending and the social safety net - greatly harming the poor, the disabled, and working families. Meanwhile, it increases spending in our military and favors wealthy individuals and powerful corporations. This will make it harder to succeed for tens of millions of American workers, businesses, families, and students.  Ironically, this budget cuts programs that provide jobs and economic opportunities even in areas that overwhelmingly voted for Donald Trump. 

“As the Ranking Member of the Commerce, Justice, Science Appropriations Subcommittee, I am deeply disappointed at the budget requests for the agencies under this jurisdiction.  The cuts at the Department of Justice undermine our nation’s commitment to justice and accountability under the law.  The cuts at the Department of Commerce hurt programs that promote jobs and economic development in some of our nation’s most vulnerable communities and industries.  And the cuts to our sciences agencies, including a ten percent cut to the National Science Foundation, undermine America’s capacity to respond to a number of scientific challenges and maintain our competitive research edge. This is deeply troubling.

“This budget is a betrayal of the American people and I hope Republicans in Congress join Democrats in opposing the absurd deep cuts it proposes in essentially every area. It also creates a false tradeoff between our national security and other national social, economic, and infrastructure needs. There is no reason whatsoever why we should be shifting $54 billion in our discretionary budget to increase defense spending. Ironically, this approach will only make our nation less secure, not more. Our nation’s security depends on much more than our military.  It depends on Americans’ access to quality education and health care, economic opportunity, and the capacity to be successful.”

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