A press conference was held Monday to announce the findings of a report by the Legislature’s Welfare to Work Commission on the potential impacts the $5.1 trillion in proposed federal budget cuts over the next 10 years would have on Suffolk County. The press conference included an overview of the Commission’s November report, “The Proposed 2018 Federal Budget: A Fiscal and Human Services Crisis for Suffolk County?”; details on impacts to food security, programs that house the homeless, and Medicaid, including efforts to curb Long Island’s opioid crisis; and a personal story from a resident who spoke on how these cuts would affect her. The threat to human services funding is further complicated by the pending restructuring of the U.S. tax code. The most recent proposal, which could be voted on as early as next week, would add more than $1 trillion to the national debt, creating a likelihood of future cuts to health and human services programs.
