WASHINGTON—Several congressional Republicans have expressed opposition to a proposal from Trump to divert funding from the Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund, Politico reported.
Under the administration’s proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year, the CDFI Fund would lose its authority to issue discretionary awards. Instead, $100 million would be directed toward establishing a new Rural Financial Award Program, requiring that 60% of CDFI loans and investments support rural communities. In its budget justification, the White House argued that current award criteria—such as efforts to advance racial equity—present American society as “inherently oppressive” and fail to promote national unity.
“Despite Trump’s long-standing opposition to the fund, it’s an area where red-state lawmakers see a significant benefit to their constituents and a potential political cost in eliminating it,” Politico said.
“I think there's a lot of us that would disagree with taking it out,” said Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) whose home state of less than a million people and relatively large Native American reservation population benefit disproportionately from the program. South Dakota received $13.3 million from the fund last year, Politico said