Trump, DeVos bungle Special Olympics budget
Trump and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos stumbled this week in explaining the administration’s proposed budget cuts to the Special Olympics.
In two separate congressional hearings, DeVos found herself defending the cuts in Trump’s 2020 spending request, only to have the president turn around and denounce his own proposal.
The contrasting positions played out amid a backdrop of lawmakers grilling agency chiefs about draconian cuts to popular government programs, leaving administration officials with the choice of defending the spending reductions or disagreeing with Trump, who is known to prize loyalty among his Cabinet members.
DeVos went before appropriators to defend the administration’s proposal to slash $8.5 billion, or 12 percent, from the education budget.
"It eliminates 30 programs, it significantly reduces funding for several others," said Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), chairman of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that covers education. "There are programs here that are unlikely to be eliminated in any final budget.”
Sen. Patty Murray (Wash.), the top Democrat on the committee, drove the point home more aggressively.
"Your budget request fails to invest in our youngest learners, our students in public schools,” she said. “It fails to help students who are struggling to better themselves in higher education, and it fails student loan borrowers who are saddled with debt.”
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/436530-trump-devos-bungle-special-olympics-budget-plan
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