The Trump administration released its “skinny budget” outlining proposed changes to discretionary spending, which seeks to lop $163 billion out of non-defense programs compared with the 2025 level included in the series of continuing resolutions that funded the government this year.
The outline provided is light on details in some respects, but it certainly portends some significant cuts to federal programs that support families in crisis as well as youth involved in child welfare and youth justice systems.
Following is a rundown of how the proposal impacts some key programs at various youth and family-oriented agencies.
Department of Education
The biggest news is a $4.5 billion decrease in funding for Title I and a consolidation of programs related to the Individuals with Disabilities Act, which both surely will have consequence for students in foster care or who are involved with the justice system.
In addition to that, Trump calls for an elimination of the $1.6 billion TRIO Programs, a collection of federally funded outreach and student services programs designed to help individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds pursue higher education. The outline describes TRIO as a “relic of the past when financial incentives were needed to motivate Institutions of Higher Education…to engage with low-income students and increase access.”
Also proposed for elimination is the $428 million Migrant Students program, which the administration says encourages non-citizens to access U.S colleges, “stripping resources from American students.”
Youth Services Insider was surprised not to see 21st Century Learning Centers on the chopping block; the billion dollar program funds before- and after-school programs and was slated for elimination in Trump’s very first budget back in fiscal 2018.
Department of Health and Human Services
A leaked early draft of the HHS budget had Head Start getting eliminated, which would have blown a massive hole in the child care and early learning capacity of the nation. It appears the Trump administration has relented on that one, as the skinny budget makes no mention of even cutting Head Start.
The budget does eliminate the $770 million Community Services Block Grant, and the $315 million Preschool Development program started during the Obama administration. The Unaccompanied Children program is slated for nearly $2 billion less than 2025, attributed by Trump to the significant decline in the number of children arriving at the border in search of asylum protection.
The Trump budget will seek $500 million for HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s Make America Healthy Again priorities, which is described as funding to allow him “to tackle nutrition, physical activity, healthy lifestyles, over-reliance on medication and treatments, the effects of new technological habits, environmental impacts, and food and drug quality and safety across HHS.”
The administration also seeks consolidation of the Health Resources and Services Administration, which would entail a $274 million cut to Maternal and Child Health Programs. There is also a proposed $674 million cut to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and a $1 billion cut to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
Housing and Urban Development
The headline here is a plan to turn Section 8 and the rest of the federal rental assistance programs into a state block grant, which the administration says will reduce total spending on those programs by $26.7 billion. The plan is designed to let states design their own plans while imposing a two-year cap on able-bodied adults and ensuring “a majority of rental assistance funding through States would go to the elderly and disabled.”
The outline does include “$25 million in housing grants for youth aging out of foster care,” which Youth Services Insider can only assume refers to the existing Foster Youth to Independence program that was established during the first Trump administration.
Department of Labor
The skinny budget includes a “Make America Skilled Again Grant Consolidation,” which pools together several workforce development programs and cuts $1.6 billion from their cumulative 2025 total. There are no specifics on which programs are included, but it might spell the end of delineated funds for youth under the Workforce Innovation Opportunity Act or through YouthBuild.
Not involved in this consolidation is the $1.6 billion Job Corps program, which Trump would eliminate, calling it “a failed experiment to help America’s youth” that “in some cases, has harmed them.”
Department of Justice
There is no specific reference to juvenile justice, or youth in general, in the Department of Justice section of the budget outline. But the administration is proposing the reduction of “duplicative and unnecessary state and local grant programs,” which would eliminate 40 grant programs and cut just over a billion dollars.
If the recent termination of existing Justice Department grants is any indication, the formula grants that go to states for compliance with the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act would survive, as would the sizable mentoring program at Justice. Grants for training and technical assistance, or for community programs and violence prevention, not so much.