"Denver-based Hispanic bar group hits proposed legal aid cuts
"By Ken Green
"February 16th, 2011 9:04 am MT.
"The Colorado Hispanic Bar Association has joined a number of other bar associations around the country in calling for Congress to leave the current funding for the Legal Services Corporation intact.
"President Obama recently unveiled his 2012 budget that proposed $450 million in funding for the LSC, an increase of 7 percent over the current year. But Republican Kentucky Rep. Hal Rogers, who chairs the House Appropriations Committee, is leading the charge to reduce funding for the LSC, which serves low-income residents across the nation, from $420 million to $350 million. That represents a 28 percent funding cut.
"In their statement released Tuesday, the CHBC, based in Denver, asked other members of the legal community as well as concerned citizens to join the fight to protect funding for the LSC.
“We urge (them) to contact their representatives and urge them not to cut this essential funding so that the Colorado Legal Services Corporation can continue to provide meaningful access to high quality, civil legal services in the pursuit of justice for low-income persons and members of vulnerable populations throughout Colorado,” the group said.
"The CHBC explained that the Colorado Legal Services Corporation is one of the direct beneficiaries of the funding and has used it to assist low-income residents of the city and state for more than 85 years.
"In addition, representatives from the LSC itself state that approximately 94 percent of the funding is distributed to 136 independent non-profit legal aid programs in more than 900 offices across the U.S. In 2010, they said, the funding was used to provide legal assistance to more than 2.3 million people."
What did you expect Hal Rogers to do when he got some seniority? People on SSI don't have money to pay lobbyists, so they should not expect any help from Hal Rogers. Next time they'd better vote for their own Democrat Party, rather than voting with the money. The big money wants war funding to kill Muslims, not poor people's programs. Next time vote Democratic.
2 comments:
Legal aid, including organizations which receive federal funding, is an essential element of a free and just society.
The "access gap" for legal services is one of the major sources of inequality.
Yes, and it says in the Bible, blessed is the nation where poor people are treated equally with rich people in the Courts. America might lose our blessed nation status if we turn our backs on the poor, and cease funding programs for the poor, like the Legal Aid program.
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