Leahy Again Leads Fight
 Against Bush Budget’s Cuts
To Community Development Grants

. . . Program Last Year Brought Vermont Communities More Than $8.3 M.

WASHINGTON (Friday, March 10) – Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) has again forged a bipartisan coalition of more than a majority of the U.S. Senate’s members to oppose President Bush’s request for steep cuts in a key community investment grant program.

The White House is seeking $1 billion in cuts from the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program, administered by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which Leahy calls “an investment engine” that has helped revitalize communities throughout Vermont.  Leahy and Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) have teamed up again this year to head the effort to restore the funds, building a roster of 51 senators on their letter to the Senate Budget Committee in opposition to the CDBG cuts.  Last year Leahy, Coleman and their coalition succeeded in blocking the Bush Administration’s proposal to eliminate the CDBG program altogether.

The newly proposed $1 billion cut would represent a 25 percent decrease in CDBG funding for the 2007 federal fiscal year.  Since the Bush Administration took office, the CDBG formula allocation has decreased by $670 million, or 15.2 percent, with a five percent cut in FY 2005 and a 10 percent cut in FY 2006.  This year, Vermont received an allocation of $8.36 million, of which over $900,000 went to the entitlement community of Burlington, through the program.  CDBG grants are designed to meet the needs of low-income communities and provide states with funds to make affordable housing available, create jobs and expand business opportunities.  CDBG fund are also awarded to community-based organizations that deliver human services to rebuild neighborhoods in struggling communities.

In a letter sent Thursday to Senate Budget Committee leaders Sens. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) and Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), Leahy, Coleman and their allies requested that Congress allocate $4.3 billion for the CDBG program, calling CDBG one of the most effective federal domestic programs.  CDBG grants served more than 3,000 rural communities in 2005, with 95 percent of funding in 2005 supporting low- and moderate-income individuals.

“The Community Development Block Grant Program is instrumental in putting roofs over the heads of thousands of Americans and hundreds of Vermonters,” said Leahy.  “It is a proven program with an effective record of community investments that make a difference.  We should be building the CDBG program, not cutting or trying to eliminate it.”

Leahy said that in fiscal year 2005, the State of Vermont used CDBG grants to rehabilitate more than 771 units of affordable housing and to help create or retain more than 500 Vermont jobs.

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A copy of the letter is available in PDF format.