Congress Proposes to Cut FY 2012 Legal Services Corp Budget By 13.9 Percent, to $348M
Grants to organizations that help provide representation to low-income individuals are likely to be cut under a proposed fiscal year 2012 budget for Legal Services Corporation.
A joint U.S. Senate-House of Representatives conference agreement calls for a 13.9 percent overall reduction in the interim $398.1 million fiscal year 2012 budget that expires Nov. 18, Legal Services Corporation explains in a press release today.
The $348 million proposed for LSC in the fiscal 2012 budget takes the organization back to the level of funding it received in fiscal 2007. It received $420 million in fiscal 2010.
LSC, created by Congress in 1974, is the largest provider of civil legal aid funding in the country.
A spokesman for LSC told the Wall Street Journal Law Blog that attorneys and support staff are being cut at most of the 136 nonprofit legal aid organizations that are funded with LSC grants.
Related coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “Judges Say Litigants Are Increasingly Going Pro Se—at Their Own Peril”
ABAJournal.com: “Public Hearing on Judiciary Funding Draws Tales of Courts Begging for Pens, Jury Trials Halted”
