Sanders, Welch, Balint Demand Trump Admin Release $4 Million in Anti-Poverty Funding to Vermont: ‘Literally a Matter of Life and Death’
BURLINGTON, VT — The Vermont Congressional Delegation, U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), U.S. Senator Peter Welch (D-Vt.) and U.S. Representative Becca Balint (D-VT-AL), called on Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russell Vought to obey the law and immediately release more than $810 million in federal Community Services Block Grant (CDBG) funding to help more than ten million Americans living in poverty, including nearly 50,000 Vermonters.
In just one year, Vermont’s community action agencies used CDBG funding to serve 3,200 Vermonters without health care, 9,000 people with a disability, more than 7,000 low-income seniors, more than 11,000 children living in poverty and 1,200 veterans and active military personnel.
“We are urging you to immediately release this vital funding so that over 48,000 Vermonters and ten million people throughout America living in poverty can receive the help they desperately need to keep a roof over their heads, feed their families, keep their jobs, send their kids to child care and pay their energy bills,” the Vermont Congressional Delegation wrote. “These programs are literally a matter of life and death for some of the most vulnerable people in America…Congress funded them. The President signed this funding into law. And, under our Constitution, you do not have the right to determine which laws you will follow and which laws you will ignore.”
For over three months, the Trump administration has illegally withheld CSBG funding from community action agencies across the country—including from BROC Community Action, Capstone Community Action, Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity, Northeast Kingdom Community Action and Southeastern Vermont Community Action in our state. Across the country, nearly 1,000 community action agencies in almost every county in America use these funds to provide urgent financial aid for working families with children, people with disabilities, and seniors on fixed incomes and to administer critical programs like Head Start and the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP).
“What we are asking you to do is simple and straightforward: Obey the law. Respect the Constitution. Do not let kids go hungry, do not force veterans to sleep out on the street, do not deny low-income seniors the emergency assistance they need to live with dignity and respect. Release these funds,” the Delegation concluded.
Read and download the Delegation’s full letter to HHS Secretary Kennedy and OMB Director Vought.