Trump Budget Puts Legal Services Back on the Chopping Block

The president also proposed to eliminate LSC funding In his 2018 budget proposal but Congress rebuffed the plan after an outcry from business leaders and politicians.

February 13, 2018 at 12:25 AM

2 minute read

By Jenna Greene
Editor and columnist at The Litigation Daily

Legal Services Corporation offices in Washington, D.C. March 18, 2015. Photo by Diego M. Radzinschi/THE NATIONAL LAW JOURNAL.

President Donald Trump in his 2019 budget plan released Monday wants to eliminate funding for the Legal Services Corp.—again.

In his 2018 budget proposal, the president also tried to shutter the LSC, which funds free civil legal services for the poor.

It didn't fly. Members of the legal community, business leaders, state attorneys general and state legislators all stepped up to defend the organization, bombarding Congress with letters of support. Even University of Michigan football coach Jim Harbaugh came to the LSC's defense, tweeting it is “CRUCIAL to making [the] justice system fair.”

In the end, Congress kept LSC's 2018 budget steady at $385 million.

“I am optimistic that Congress will continue to fund LSC, because LSC promotes the most fundamental of American values—equal justice under law,” said LSC President Jim Sandman in a news release on Monday.

He noted that “just last week Congress voted to give LSC an additional $15 million to fund legal services for victims of recent natural disasters. LSC has had broad bipartisan support on Capitol Hill for more than 40 years. And we have it now.”

LSC Board Chair John Levi added, “Our grantees in every congressional district across the country provide services to low-income Americans that go to the heart of their security and well-being—survivors of domestic violence seeking protections from their abusers, victims of natural disasters trying to obtain appropriate relief, veterans collecting benefits they have earned, the elderly protecting their assets from scams, and so much more.”