The Trump administration is one of the most unprecedented presidential administrations to date. From the elimination of widespread government organizations to the issuance of a laundry list of executive orders, the Trump Administration is restructuring the entire United States government. Many of these changes are negatively impacting the US territories.
While President Trump (R) hails his budget cuts as belt-tightening for DC, the sharpest pain is endured thousands of miles from the mainland. Across Puerto Rico, Guam, the US Virgin Islands, and other territories, frozen education dollars, looming Medicaid cuts, and slashed housing funds threaten essential services in communities already struggling with limited resources.
$6.2 billion of federal K-12 education funds remain frozen by the US government, according to a blog by the Learning Policy Institute. This leads to underfunded states, many of which are US territories, having to bear the brunt of the shortfall.
In American Samoa, approximately 20% of the total education funds are being withheld, negatively impacting the education system. Similarly, the education funds, which are supposed to be allotted to the Northern Mariana Islands, are a quarter unaccounted for.
Medicaid is another significant cut that disproportionately affects the territories due to their predominantly older and aging populations. Over the last decade, the US territories have experienced an 11.6% decline in birth rates, and the average age in these territories is significantly higher than the national average. This means that medicaid cuts have a more substantial impact on the territories.
The Trump Administration has cut Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program by around $1 trillion, per the Center on American Progress. Puerto Rico has even been told to expect a 21% cut in federal medical assistance, meaning both old and young Puerto Ricans will feel the effects of Trump’s budget cuts in their healthcare.
Housing funds have also declined. Due to how many of the US territories experience a large amount of natural disasters like hurricanes, they are often promised federal assistance in their recovery efforts from organizations like FEMA and HUD. However, this assistance has decreased, halting many reconstruction projects, which has been devastating to Puerto Rico, as it is still recovering from Hurricane Maria.
Overall, Trump’s budget cuts are not helping the territories much, if at all, and many citizens are worried that if these cuts continue, their states could be detrimentally impacted. Many Guam residents have even taken to Facebook to convey their deep concern, with one resident commenting, “We feel like we have nowhere to turn,” expressing the profound anxiety of US territory residents about what they are currently experiencing as a result of the Trump Administration’s actions.
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