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HF Statement on the Senate Budget Deal

Hispanic Federation President José Calderón issued the following statement regarding the Senate budget agreement reached yesterday:

"After weeks of political gamesmanship, the leadership of the United States Senate offered a bipartisan budget proposal yesterday. Given the chronic gridlock in Washington, the mere fact that lawmakers were able to reach across the aisle and produce a compromise is something to be lauded. But bipartisanship isn’t enough. Budgets reflect values and yesterday’s budget agreement, while funding important initiatives in our community, also fails to honor American values, most especially around much needed immigration legislation.

Hispanic Federation and its network of member agencies were pleased that the Senate produced a budget that addresses some of our community’s priorities, including vital funding for Community Health Centers, educational support services and child care, and a 10 year extension of the Children’s Health Insurance Program. The budget deal also provides badly needed disaster assistance for Puerto Rico, including important support to stabilize Medicaid funding on the island. Given the federal government’s woefully inadequate response to the crisis on the island to date, it is encouraging to see Congress finally take some steps to help our people in Puerto Rico.

As much as we applaud the Senate for its work on these items, we are deeply disappointed that the budget deal fails to address the status of our Dreamers. Hundreds of thousands of young immigrants who have been raised in our country have had their lives thrown into chaos by the White House’s cruel decision last year to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals or DACA program. Despite public statements offering support to these young people, Republican leaders in the Senate and the House have systematically failed to come up with a solution that is fair and just. The budget deal is yet another example of the Republicans’ callous disregard for the Dreamers, their families, their employers, and their communities. It is long past time for our elected officials to resolve this issue. Any additional delay in addressing the status of the Dreamers is, in a word, unacceptable to us and to our communities. And it is for this very reason why we cannot support this budget deal."