During his daily TVOne morning show, “News One Now,” host and managing editor Roland Martin interviewed Tanya Clay House, Former Deputy Assistant Secretary, P-12 U.S. Department of Education, and Republican political strategist Rina Shah Bharara about President Trump’s significant cuts to civil rights agencies in his 2018 budget. Under President Trump’s 2018 budget, the Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights, which is responsible for investigating discrimination charges in school districts across the nation, 40 employees would lose their jobs and the Environmental Protection Agency would close its environmental justice program. Also,  the Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs will fold into the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. “What we’re really seeing is that this is a budget that really speaks to what their true belief is. We’ve always talked about how the budget is a moral document, and essentially that’s what this is,” said House. “You can say that you believe in civil rights, that this is something you want to protect, but when you, in your budget, want to eliminate over 10 billion dollars from the Department of Education’s budget…this is cruel, it’s disheartening, and frankly it’s a morally deficient budget that undermines the concept of what it is that we should believe in – that education is a civil right.” Bharara echoed those same sentiments, saying, “It’s a very simple message here of what he’s done – he’s slashing. That’s what his base likes. What’s wrong here is that there is so much beneath the surface that makes America great. The federal government is there to protect our civil rights – that’s not something we should be debating in 2017. It should be bipartisan in that we need to be protecting our civil rights, not slashing offices which help ensure that they’re protected.” Watch video of their conversation below and you can watch tonight’s TVOne special, National Urban League Presents: State of Black America® Town Hall which premieres at 8 PM EST.

Source: President Trump’s 2018 Budget Will Slash Five Decades of Civil Rights Protection – JetMag.com