1. White House releases harrowing budget requests. On Friday, the White House released their budget request to Congress. The 46 pg document seeks massive cuts for almost all social and educational programs domestically and internationally, cuts totaling $163 billion.
Departments of Defense and Homeland Security are two of the handful of that see increased spending in order to better fund police militarization and the deportation of immigrants and kidnapping of US citizens by ICE.
This week’s post will examine some key budget asks affecting the disability community. This is not a complete list, but a link to the full document is available here. Items 1-4 on this post are pulled directly from that spreadsheet. It’s important to note that these are *nonbinding requests* from the President. It will be up to Congress to write and pass specific legislation. Call them.
2. WH Budget Requests: Dept. of Education
$60 million increase in funding for charter schools
$4.5 billion in cuts for K-12 education / Title I programming for underfunded schools
$49 million in cuts for DoED’s Office of Civil Rights
A vague category of “Special Education” is listed to “remain at 2025 levels. it mentions IDEA by name, but it’s unclear to what extent programs and sub-departments will be included. The explanation also appears to employ Project 2025’s block grant distribution, meaning it’s suggested the money be used for special ed, but with limited oversight.
Many other DoED programs receive explicit cuts. There is no mention of special institutions, like Gallaudet, NTID, Printing House for the Blind, etc. in the document.
3. WH Budget Request, HHS
$500 million increase to “MAHA” a slush fund for RFK Jr’s antivax and “overreliance on medication” initiatives
$4 billion in cuts to LIHEAP the program that provides heat and AC assistance for low-income families.
$1.9 billion in cuts for services for refugee and unaccompanied minors
$315 million cuts to Preschool Development Grants
$1.7 billion cuts to HRSA, $3. 5 billion cuts to the CDC
$17.9 billion cuts to the National Institutes of Health (NIH)
$1 billion cuts to Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)
$180 million in cuts to STI and teen pregnancy prevention programs
$674 billion in cuts to Medicaid and Medicare Service
4. WH Budget Request, HUD:
$26 billion cut from rental assistance state block grants, money sent to states to support rental housing for the elderly, disabled, and those aging out of foster care.
$479 million in cuts from Native American and Hawaiian housing block grants
$532 million cut from Homeless Assistance Program
$296 million cut from Surplus Lead Hazard Reduction and Healthy Homes Funding
Additional cuts to other self-sufficiency, fair housing, and community grant programs
5. WH Budget Requests, our liberation is intertwined: Deep cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Parks System, the Department of the Interior (including significant reductions in funding for Native American reservation-based social services and education), aid-based programming within the DHS, FEMA and other disaster-relief funding, Department of Labor job skills programs, funding for libraries, HBCUs, PBS and NPR, programs to combat misinformation, and more have all been explicitly named and targeted for cuts at the President’s request.
These cuts will hurt everyone, and particularly those living at the intersection of multiple marginalized identities.
7. Gallaudet suspends enrollment of several majors as budget cuts loom. A list from Provost Rashid said admissions to the following programs will be suspended:
Secondary Education programs, including the BA and MA in Secondary Education in Biology, Chemistry, English, General Sciences, Mathematics, and Social Studies, Undergraduate Teacher Preparation, Programs in Early Childhood and Elementary Education
The announcement comes as deaf studies and education programs shutter at universities across the country.
GU leadership continues to be nontransparent about the future of the university without its DoED Liaison, who previously disbursed funding and advocated on behalf of deaf education. The University has gone so far as to say that the liaison has been reinstated, which is untrue.
The only liberal arts university for the deaf in the world faces an uncertain future without mention in Trump’s budget request (yes, that would be illegal).
8. Texas v Beccera lawsuit continues
Despite recent “clarifications” from HHS about the how mention of gender dysphoria in Final Rule’s preamble is not legally binding, involved parties have not revoked their original filing, which explicitly asks for 504 to be declared unconstitutional (p 37-42).
504 protects disabled people’s rights in all spaces that receive federal funding, and would have major implications in conjunction with rescinding of ADA guidance, the uncertain future of DoEd, and a separate suit going before SCOTUS next week.
A stay has been issued, and parties are now required to update every other month, with the next due June 21st.
9. RFK makes wild vaccine claims on air as HHS floats dangerous clinical trials.
Speaking live on News Nation Wednesday, RFK Jr. repeatedly claimed the MMR vaccine contains “aborted fetus debris.”
IT SUPER DOESN’T! The MMR vaccine, like most vaccines, was cultured within (sterile) fetal cells, one of two lines from the 1960s. It does not contain fetal cells or human DNA because the virus kills the cell. The vaccine virus is also purified before it is made into a replicable vaccine.
HHS also said they want to conduct placebo trials on existing vaccines, raising ethical concerns with public health experts. Not giving available effective and thoroughly-tested vaccines to trial participants and infecting them with, and allowing them to die from preventable disease is cruel, and in violation of the Hippocratic Oath.
10. HHS releases harmful anti-trans report, highlights willingness to distribute misinformation. On Thursday, HHS released a “report” seeking to disparage gender-affirming care for trans youth, care that is already known to be safe and effective as backed by decades of peer-reviewed research.
The report’s authors are anonymous, and it is not peer-reviewed. No trans people are consulted in the report, though anti-trans extremists are cited.
Every human deserves access to healthcare. The disability community stands with trans youth.
Multiple studies also estimate that 27-50% of trans people are disabled, too. (1, 2, 3)
The report also demonstrates a willingness to publish blatant disinformation to support the administration’s various eugenic vendettas. This won’t be the last.
Take Action:
What to do: Share this info. Disability is often lost in mainstream coverage.
Call your Representative and tell them not to accept the White House’s requested budget cuts. Choose 1 or 2 programs important to you personally and mention them by name when you call.
Call your Senator and tell them to take meaningful action against illegal deportations and ideological-based arrests.
Contact the Gallaudet Board of Trustees and urge transparency in communication with the community, and action to protect the university.
If your state is involved, contact your Attorney General and ask them to withdraw from Texas v. Beccera. Tell them you stand in solidarity with disabled people, and trans folks.
Consider how to move toward creative acts of mutual aid, and protest, including offline materials. Make flyers! Call out misinformation. Warn your neighbors in the presence of ICE. If able march, boycott, donate and/or volunteer with your local food pantry or library.