Cong. David Cicilline talks with pre-school students at Children's Friend in Providence. Photo by Steve Klamkin WPRO News
By Steve Klamkin WPRO News
Congressman David Cicilline kept up his drumbeat of criticism against the Republican Congressional leadership over automatic cuts to the federal budget contained in the so-called sequestration that took effect March 1.
Cicilline met with leaders of social service and other agencies that receive funds from the federal government, groups that have been told to expect cuts in the coming months.
"These cuts will have real impacts on real families, devastating impacts," Cicilline told reporters in a pre-school classroom at the Children's Friend agency on Point Street in Providence Monday morning.
"Over the next several months we'll begin to see this. These leaders are already grappling with these and figuring out how do they make these decisions and deliver the news to Rhode Island families about these impacts."
The President and CEO of Children's Friend, David Caprio said he has been told to expect about a 5% cut in federal funding for pre-school and other services offered by his agency. He talked about the potential impacts.
"Not just losing access maybe to Head Start, but by maybe losing access to health care, to WIC, I mean, taking away nutrition programs from pregnant women and young children. So there's multiple impacts to poor families as well as fewer jobs for the economy," Caprio said.
Housing programs stand to lose funding, said Rhode Island Housing Executive Director Richard Godfrey.
"We're looking at a $15 million dollar cut for housing for Rhode Islanders," said Godfrey. "Translating into families, that's about 1,500 families who will lose assistance."
"The Republicans in the House are saying, 'we're not going to generate revenues, we're not going to close a single loophole, we're not going to end a single subsidy, it's all going to be accomplished through cutting'," said Cicilline.
"That is going to put our very fragile economic recovery at risk," he added.
