Left Behind: How the Trump Budget Fails Rural Communities
Rural communities across the country continue to struggle to find the resources they need to strengthen their economies, improve quality of life, and maintain vibrant local connections. These communities rely on federal programs that support local economies and health and safety improvements.
Despite promises to the rural and small-town voters who supported him, President Donald Trump’s new budget blueprint1 delivers a massive blow to these programs, cutting or eliminating essential services for rural Americans.
Health and safety
Safe and healthy communities are the backbone of a strong economy. By cutting the programs that help rural Americans access clean water, health care, and decent housing, the Trump budget undermines local efforts to rebuild rural communities. The budget:
- Eliminates $498 million in funding for rural water systems that help more than 2 million additional people2 annually. As part of the Rural Utilities Service, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Water and Waste Disposal Loan and Grant Program provides direct loans, guaranteed loans, and grants that rural communities use to finance new or improved water treatment and waste disposal systems.3
- Slashes funding to train rural doctors and health care providers. The administration’s budget slashes $403 million in U.S. Department of Health and Human Services programs that help train and sustain rural primary care providers,4 particularly nonphysician practitioners such as nurses and physician assistants. Small-town communities tend to overly rely on these practitioners for their main health care needs5 due to the scarcity of primary care doctors.
- Hurts tens of thousands of rural families who are struggling to keep a roof over their head. The administration’s budget would eliminate 200,000 housing vouchers at the S. Department of Housing and Urban Development—and 10 percent of families with these vouchers live in rural areas.6President Trump has also promised in the budget to cut more than 20 percent of the Department of Agriculture’s budget but does not explain from where all these cuts will come. Even a 10 percent cut to the department’s rental assistance programs could put about 27,000 families7 in rural America at risk of homelessness next year.
