By Glynn Wilson –

The Trump administration is threatening to cut $6 billion from the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s budget in 2018, eliminating block grants for water and sewer projects in poor, minority areas in states, including Alabama’s Black Belt, according to a preliminary budget proposal obtained by the Washington Post.

Some Democratic senators denounced the proposed cuts as “unconscionable” in a sharply worded letter last week, warning that they could pose health risks, and called HUD Secretary Ben Carson to testify about the proposal before the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.

The draft budget would eliminate billions of dollars from public-housing maintenance funds to fix toilets, water pumps and heating equipment, and it proposes to eliminate community development grants completely to fund affordable housing, meal assistance and first-time homeownership programs.

While U.S. Senator Doug Jones did not sign the letter, he questioned Carson on the cuts that would threaten community development projects in rural Alabama, concerned about what he called “serious impacts … for Alabama’s Black Belt, where crumbling water and sewer infrastructure has become a public health crisis.”

Alabama received $39 million in 2017 in Community Development Block grants, which Jones said provide flexible aid for rural and urban communities alike.

“Altogether, communities nationwide would lose $4.1 billion per year if the cuts are enacted, leaving them to fill the gap for vital infrastructure needs like water and sewer systems, roads, affordable housing construction and rehabilitation, and economic development,” Jones said. “Many communities in Alabama use these federal funds on water and sewage infrastructure improvements.”

Responding to Secretary Carson’s suggestion that private investment would be sufficient, Senator Jones pushed for details on whether private investors would pick up where HUD is proposing to disinvest.

“Do you really expect a New York investor or somebody like that to invest money in one of the poorest counties in Alabama to help with their sewers?” Senator Jones asked. “Do you really think that’s something an investor is going to do?”

See the exchange on video:

Carson indicated during his confirmation hearing two months ago that he would not seek drastic cuts to existing HUD programs.

“If this reported budget stands, you will most certainly be presiding over an unprecedented attack on the health of some our most vulnerable Americans,” the letter from the Senators said. “It cannot stand and, if you are to remain true to the testimony you gave under oath, it must not.”

The letter was signed by several senators on the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, including Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Mark R. Warner (D-Va.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.) and Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.).

Brown, the ranking Democrat on the committee, voted in favor of Carson’s confirmation during the full Senate vote this month, to the disappointment of activists who said Carson was unqualified for the job. Brown defended his decision, citing assurances by Carson that he would uphold the core mission of the department.

“You testified to your understanding of the real impacts that substandard housing have on the health and opportunities of children and their families, in particular how it is far more costly to ignore lead hazards than to spend the money to abate them,” the senators wrote. “A cut of $1.3 billion — nearly 70 percent — in the public housing repair budget will mean more children, families, elderly, and individuals with disabilities will be exposed to mold, lead, and other health hazards.”

While the Trump administration has hinted at sending a massive infrastructure bill to Congress, no one in the White House has publicly discussed including housing projects in such a bill.

Committee members expressed skepticism over the proposed budget solution in the letter.

“The suggestion that some HUD funds will be addressed as part of an infrastructure package provides no assurance whatsoever,” the letter said. “The administration has made clear that infrastructure is not an immediate priority, and that it hopes to finance its plans through tolls and other offsets.”

Senator Jones indicated that he hopes Congress will continue to fund block grants, in spite of the administration’s proposal to gut the program.