DPCC Co-Chair Cartwright: We Need to Get to the Bottom of Trump’s Budget Cuts
WASHINGTON, DC – Congressman Matt Cartwright, Co-Chair of the House Democratic Policy and Communications Committee (DPCC), appeared on America's News HQ on Fox News to discuss Attorney General Barr's testimony before the House Appropriations Committee. Congressman Cartwright previewed his intent to question Attorney General Barr about the Administration's legal efforts to take away health care from millions of Americans, and why the Trump Administration is cutting vital federal funding for important programs, including COPS grants. Below are excerpts from the interview and links to the video. Click here to watch the video
"What people need to realize is that the House Appropriations Committee, on which I serve, funds the entire federal government and we have to listen to testimony from the Executive Branch officers who come in and present their proposed budgets and tell us what they want to spend money on and why they want to spend it on that, and not other things. And so as part of funding the Justice Department, we have the Attorney General of the United States the head of the Justice Department coming in and talking about the President's budget and why this should be funded, why that should be funded, and other things shouldn't be funded. So it will be a very interesting set of questions and answers."
"What I do intend to ask the Attorney General is: why does his budget cut COPS grants by more than half, from $225 million down to under $100 million? COPS grants are federal grants that help local and city and municipality police forces grow their numbers to help policing. Right here in Northeastern Pennsylvania, we have an enterprising and effective mayor, he's a Republican, Jeff Cusat, from Hazleton. He is first in line, he told me he wants the COPS grants for about three more cops, to bring his force up to 45, to police the city, of about 25,000. [Barr] put that in danger. Attorney General Barr has cut the grant programs in his budget by way more than half. I want to know why. Don't we want to keep our people and home safe?"