The President’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2027 budget is a proposal to Congress about how the federal government should spend money. Congress, not the President, makes the final decisions about how federal money is spent. This year’s proposal includes cuts that would seriously harm people with disabilities and the systems they rely on.
Our network members, the Protection and Advocacy programs in every state and territory, are facing proposed cuts.
Cuts to the P&A Network include:
- 65 percent cut to the Protection and Advocacy for Individuals with Mental Illness (PAIMI) program. This program allows P&As to investigate abuse and neglect, provide oversight, and ensure access to community-based services.
- Elimination of the Protection and Advocacy for Individual Rights (PAIR) program. This program allows P&As to advocate for people with disabilities not clearly defined under other grant programs. This includes physical disabilities, sensory disabilities, and neurological disabilities.
- Elimination of the Client Assistance Program, which helps individuals access vocational rehabilitation to secure jobs and independent living in their community.
- Elimination of the Protection and Advocacy for Voting Access program, which helps people with disabilities fully participate in voting.
Additionally, the budget also:
- Keeps the same funding level for State Councils on Developmental Disabilities
- Cuts funding for the Paralysis Resource Center
- Cuts funding for the Limb Loss Resource Center
- Cuts funding for University Centers for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (UCEDDs)
- Cuts funding for Developmental Disabilities Act Projects of National Significance
- Increases funding for the National Independent Living Program by $100 million
NDRN strongly opposes budget cuts to listed programs that serve the disability community. These programs help people with developmental disabilities live, learn, work, and participate fully in their communities. We also support an increase in funding for the National Independent Living Program.
We are aware that disability programs in multiple states are facing state-level budget cuts that could directly impact thousands of people with disabilities.
Eliminating any of these programs would have consequences.
- Fewer trained professionals
- Less support for families
- Weaker state accountability systems
- Fewer tools to protect the rights of people with disabilities.
It would also undermine the purpose of the Developmental Disabilities (DD) Act. Congress created the DD Act to promote independence, inclusion, and self‑determination.
These cuts were proposed in prior years and were rejected by Congress on a bipartisan basis. We must continue to remind representatives that these programs have value and that removing them would cause real harm!
NDRN urges Congress to:
- Reject the proposed cuts to disability services and supports
- Continue supporting funding for Independent Living Programs,
- Fully fund all P&A Programs
- Uphold the DD (Developmental Disabilities) Act through support of relevant programs
People with disabilities deserve strong, stable systems that support their rights and inclusion, not repeated threats to programs that communities rely on every day.
Want to help ensure these programs are funded? Write your representative using our action alert.
