Commission on Civil Rights to investigate Trump administration budget cuts to agencies
Donald Trump. Photo by a katz / Shutterstock.com
A bipartisan federal agency is launching a two-year investigation into whether recent budget and staffing cuts hurt federal civil rights agencies’ ability to do their jobs, NBC News reported last week.
The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, which advises the president and Congress on civil rights, announced last week that it would investigate whether proposals to cut financing and staff from civil rights programs and offices will reduce the federal government’s ability to protect the groups those offices are charged with protecting.
“The commission has grave concerns about continuing signals from the current administration, including the president’s proposed budget and statements of Cabinet and senior administration officials, that the protection and fulfillment of civil rights of all persons will not be appropriately prioritized,” according to a press release (PDF) from the commission.
The press release said the commission is particularly concerned about cuts to the Department of Justice, which it said is “minimizing its civil rights efforts.” The DOJ’s Civil Rights Division is expected to lose 14 attorneys and 107 other employees, the release said, and its announced priorities don’t mention disability discrimination, “the need for constitutional policing” or discrimination against the LGBT community.
The commission also expressed concerned about the Trump administration’s proposal to eliminate all funding for the Legal Services Corp., the federally created nonprofit organization that provides major funding for local legal aid offices around the United States. The ABA strongly opposes that proposal.
Other proposals named in the press release as concerning include budget cuts to civil rights offices that investigate discrimination in education, health care and housing; the elimination of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness; and a proposal to fold an agency that looks into discrimination in federal contracting into the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, without providing more funding for the EEOC.
The investigation is slated to last two years. The commission will present its findings to Congress in 2019. According to NBC News, it has no enforcement powers of its own but can ask Congress to act.
