WASHINGTON, DC — U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) issued the following statement today on President Trump’s budget blueprint. 

“Any Ohio family sitting around the kitchen table knows that making a budget is about choosing priorities, and this blueprint shows that Ohio’s working families are not President Trump’s priority,” said Brown. “President Trump made bold promises to Ohioans that he’d fight for them – but instead he is slashing infrastructure funding he promised to invest in and waging a fight against programs that grow Ohio manufacturing jobs, support rural communities working to create new jobs, help seniors heat their homes, keep workers safe, find cures for disease and protect our clean water.”

The blueprint proposes:

  • Eliminating the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), which provided more than $145 million to Ohio last year.
  • Eliminating the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative.
  • Eliminating the Appalachian Regional Commission and the Economic Development Administration, which together provide assistance to Ohio’s rural communities for job creation, infrastructure, and public works.
  • Cutting the Department of Health and Human Services’ budget by approximately $15 billion and cuts National Institutes of Health funding by $6 billion.
  • Cutting the Department of Labor budget by 21 percent.
  • Eliminating the Manufacturing Extension Partnership, which is a public-private partnership consisting of 50 MEP centers throughout the country. They provide technical expertise to small and medium-sized enterprises to help them become more competitive.
  • Eliminating funding for new projects under DOT TIGER Grant, which provides multimodal investments to revitalize cities and promote freight movement, and the Capital Investment Grant program, which expands rail and bus transit services.  Multiple Ohio communities have benefited from these programs, and new applications, like Columbus's Rickenbacker Inland Port Interstate Connector and Youngstown's Smar2t Corridor, would be prevented for applying for funds.  
  • Eliminating wastewater grants at the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Brown applauded part of President Trump's budget blueprint, which "Strengthens the International Trade Administration’s trade enforcement and compliance functions, including the anti-dumping and countervailing duty investigations, while rescaling the agency’s export promotion and trade analysis activities.”

Brown has reached out to President Trump and the Administration to work together on trade. 

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