In response to the release of President Trump’s budget proposal, Deborah Weinstein, executive director of the Coalition on Human Needs, issued the following statement: 

 “We need priorities that put families and basic needs first, not starve them to feed a mass deportation machine and a bloated Pentagon budget. Just this week, Trump told a private luncheon crowd that the federal government can’t afford to support families’ access to child care or health care: ‘The US can’t take of daycare. That has to be up to a state. We’re fighting wars. Medicaid, Medicare — they can do it on a state basis. We have to take care of one thing: military protection. But all these little scams that have taken place, you have to let states take care of them.’

“Families across this nation are struggling to meet their basic needs, and the federal government must play an important role to help people who are suffering. Almost half of U.S. workers earn less than the hourly wage needed to afford the rent for a modest one-bedroom apartment. Four million households faced utility disconnects in 2025, up 500,000 from the previous year, and now they face skyrocketing energy bills. Yet this proposal would cut off energy assistance for 6 million low-income households by eliminating $4 billion in funding for LIHEAP, which helps families afford home heating and cooling. Millions are expected to lose health insurance because of cuts inflicted by Congress and the President.

“Last summer, Congress gutted health care, nutrition, and other basic needs programs―at a time when prices continue to rise and funding for programs is sufficient to help people keep up with today’s high cost of living. These historic cuts to food, health, and other programs will hurt millions of vulnerable Americans who depend on these benefits. The White House just laid out a vision for our national priorities, and what we see from the White House today is a proposal that would cut essential programs that support families in order to finance billions for detention and deportation of our immigrant neighbors – something that policymakers in Congress are looking to fast-track via the budget reconciliation process this month.

“We are outraged that after Congress already handed the administration $170 billion for ICE and related agencies in last year’s Big Brutal Bill, a massive infusion of cash with little oversight or accountability, we see policymakers looking to reward ICE with more than tens of billions in additional funding. This will just give them more resources to terrorize our communities and harass our children, racially profile our neighbors, and commit assault. At a time when ICE separates families, federal agents lock children in cages, and politicians rubber stamp plans to warehouse our neighbors in inhumane detention centers often without access to decent food and medical care, we cannot allow even more funds that ICE will use to inflict pain and suffering.

“In addition, the Coalition on Human Needs is proud to join with a rapidly growing number of organizations nationwide who are telling Congress to oppose a bloated Pentagon budget whose excesses prevent us from meeting basic needs for all Americans. Investing to meet needs will make us more secure; reckless Pentagon spending is putting us in peril. As CHN and 288 other organizations told Congress in a letter sent to every House and Senate office yesterday: “Funding an unaccountable Pentagon by more than $1 trillion while underfunding human needs programs undermines our security by preventing us from investing in the shared prosperity that comes from more housing, health care, climate and public health protections, ending hunger, and providing quality public education.” Not only does the president’s proposal include “the largest annual increase in defense funding as a percent of GDP outside of a ground war in all of US history, it tries to subvert the budget process and accountability by proposing a $350 billion increase in mandatory funds as part of the $1.5 trillion in Pentagon spending in this budget proposal. In addition to all this year, the White House will put forward a $200 supplemental request to boost Pentagon spending in the coming weeks.

“CHN opposes wasteful spending at the expense of human needs, yet a September 2024 report from the independent, non-partisan Government Accountability Office (GAO) revealed that the Department of Defense is the only major federal department that has never passed a “clean audit”. We don’t need to send more money to unaccountable agencies. Instead of more money for ICE and a bloated Pentagon budget, funding should go toward reversing the severe cuts made to SNAP, Medicaid, and the Affordable Care Act that were in last year’s Big Brutal Bill.

“With President Trump and Congress looking to move legislation quickly to enact another massive budget package, we need to speak up now. We urge Congress to reject the budget reconciliation proposal being discussed right now and instead invest in human needs.”