House Appropriations Subcommittee Slashes LSC Funding

Date: July 06, 2011

The House Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies (CJS) appropriations subcommittee has posted its draft FY 2012 bill, which recommends a $104 million reduction for Legal Services Corporation funding. Markup is scheduled for tomorrow, July 7, and full committee markup is Wednesday, July 13.

The subcommittee’s recommendation is $300 million, a $104 million reduction from the FY 2011 funding level of $404.2 million. The entire cut comes from the basic field line, which is reduced by 27.5 percent – from $378 million to $274 million.

The House hopes to bring the CJS bill to the floor before its August 5 recess date. As we proceed to full committee and the floor, we will do everything possible to counter this reduction. As we did in FY 2011, we will be prepared to defend against any attempt to eliminate LSC funding entirely.

The Senate subcommittee has not drafted its bill yet. We expect the White House to strongly defend its request of $450 million, and we are hopeful that LSC will get an increase over FY 2011 funding. The Senate is unlikely to act before the August recess. If last year is any barometer of the FY 2012 process, we may well see a number of continuing resolutions throughout the fall.

The House subcommittee bill in its entirety is $50.2 billion, which is a 6 percent cut from FY 2011 and 13 percent below the President’s request. Among the reduction targets are grants for local law enforcement (39 percent), the Census Bureau (25.6 percent), the Commission on Civil Rights (15 percent), and the Office of Science Technology Policy (55 percent). You may find the draft bill at http://appropriations.house.gov/UploadedFiles/CJSFY12_SUBC_xml.pdf

NLADA will report on any developments at the mark up tomorrow.