What Does Special Olympics Use Federal Money For

President Donald Trump announced Th that a proposed $eighteen million cut in Special Olympics funding has been withdrawn.

"The Special Olympics will be funded, I just told my people," Trump said outside the White House.

The president's annunciation comes after his education secretary, Betsy DeVos, was grilled by congressional Democrats in two hearings this calendar week over the proposal to eliminate all federal funding for the Special Olympics.

The Special Olympics is largely funded by private donations only receives $18 1000000 a twelvemonth in federal funds that the organisation said information technology uses for school programs for students with disabilities.

DeVos expressed back up of the budget change after the president's announcement.

"I am pleased and grateful the president and I see eye-to-heart on this event, and that he has decided to fund our Special Olympics grant. This is funding I accept fought for behind-the-scenes over the last several years," she said.

Hours prior to Trump'southward announcement Thursday, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Sick., lambasted DeVos before the Senate Appropriations Commission.

Durbin said that whoever is responsible for the proposed Special Olympics cutting deserves a "aureate medal for insensitivity," and asked DeVos, "Did you lot personally approve — I think a 'yes' or 'no' will practice — the $18 million cut of the funding for Special Olympics?"

DeVos replied, "No, I didn't."

"To think we tin't spend $18 million to fund this dramatically successful venture," the senator said, stressing that this amount is only a small-scale function of the Department of Didactics's upkeep of more than $threescore billion.

In 2017, the Special Olympics reported a total of $148 million in funding from various sources.

Two days earlier, on Tuesday, DeVos was grilled past Democratic representatives on a House subcommittee most the proposed Special Olympics cut.

Special Olympics Chairman Timothy Shriver told MSNBC on Wednesday that losing federal funding would hurt the organization's school programs for children with intellectual disabilities and increment their "social isolation."

At Thursday's hearing, DeVos emphasized she supports the Special Olympics. "You know I love the Special Olympics myself," she said, adding she has given a portion of her salary from the Education Department to the organization.

The proposed Special Olympics cut came every bit part of the Trump administration's overall reduction of the education budget by x percent or $seven.i billion.

DeVos defended the proposed cuts, saying, "It'due south easier to proceed spending," simply reductions are necessary.

Democratic Sen. Chris Irish potato of Connecticut said the proposed reductions are "very hurtful."

"I will say to my commission members, information technology is difficult to stomach a lecture from this assistants on the danger of deficits," Murphy said, citing the regime's $234 billion monthly deficit in Feb, the largest ever on tape.

Ben Kesslen is a reporter for NBC News.

Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-reverses-course-special-olympics-funding-cut-after-betsy-devos-n988576

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