WASHINGTON, DC - The Continuing Resolution for H.R. 1 to fund the federal government through September will come to the House floor today with dozens of slashed programs and many Americans, particularly communities of color, will be feeling some serious pinches to vital resources when it passes. Disproportionately, people of color will be subjected to the real pain of having their threadbare safety net cut wide open as those who are low-income, facing the high costs of health disparities, and are educationally marginalized will experience essential programming cuts through the CR.

Support systems are on the chopping block. For example, there will be $942 million less in Community Development Block Grants due to cuts to the Community Development Fund. These grants provide decent housing for low-and moderate-income residents, neighborhood revitalization, and disaster assistance for low-income areas.

These disaster assistance cuts paired with cuts to other disaster programs such as FEMA First Responders, the Corps of Engineers, and non-Defense Environmental Clean-up leave communities of color even more vulnerable to being left behind in the case of natural disaster—like what we saw in the Gulf after Katrina and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

Urban and rural housing assistance and Native American Housing Block Grants will also take serious hits through cuts to Department of Agriculture and Department of Housing and Urban Development programming. And domestic HIV/AIDS and viral STI prevention programming will be bargained away as one of the largest cuts in the Continuing Resolution, with a cut of over $1 billion.

Native Americans face extreme poverty and subsequent difficulty in securing quality housing, the reduction of block grants to alleviate the burden of sub-standard housing on
These reductions to public funds mean the government’s ability to serve the communities that need its support the most is significantly ...