Longoria: South Texas Rotarians were shocked when I told them who the budget cuts will affect

EDINBURG, Texas - The director of Hidalgo County’s Community Service Agency (CSA) says Rotarians from across South Texas were shocked when he told them the extent of the cuts his agency is facing, should Congress adopt President Trump’s budget proposals.

Jaime R. Longoria met recently with Rotarians from across the Rio Grande Valley, Laredo, and the Coastal Bend.

Specifically, Longoria spoke about cuts to the Low-Income Household Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), a utility assistance program designed to assist low-income households in meeting their immediate energy needs. 

Longoria said that in President Trump’s budget, $8 million that comes to Hidalgo County for LIHEAP “would disappear.” He said: “That's $8 million to assist about 8,000 families across Hidalgo County afford utilities.”

Longoria continued: “Now, those 8,000 families, I know we like to villainize… I spoke at a meeting of the Rotarians across South Texas, and I mentioned, we like to villainize the vulnerables, that, well, these are people that maybe don't want to work. These are people that are of another country. 

“But in reality, about 45 percent of those 8,000 are people over the age of 60. About 30 percent of those families, those individuals that come to us are children under the age of 18. So that's 75 percent of our population that is either elderly or are under the age of 18. 

“So, these stereotypes that we have of who we're helping, who CSA is helping, it does not hold a lot of water. I know that the Rotarians were shocked when they heard those numbers. And these are Rotarians from Corpus Christi, Victoria, and Brownsville to Laredo, all of the Rio Grande Valley. They were shocked.

“And I said, you know, don't believe the narrative. These are actual people. I can show you the numbers. That $8 million would go away.”

Longoria made his comments in a webinar hosted by Hidalgo County Prosperity Task Force. The webinar comprised officials from numerous nonprofits who stand to lose funding under the so-called “Big, Beautiful Bill.” Longoria said that while this bill includes cuts to Medicaid and SNAP, his agency had to remain focused on President Trump’s “skinny” budget.

“What our program is really concerned about is the proposed zeroing out of the Community Services Block Grant, the zeroing out of LIHEAP, which is our utility assistance program, and the zeroing out of our AmeriCorps program.”

Longoria said the President's “skinny” budget is different from the “Big, Beautiful Bill.”

“All of our programs are zeroed out. So, what does that mean, financially? That's $2 million in CSBG funding. So that is the disaster funding that I talked about in Commissioners Court today, which helped us respond to the flood, which helps us respond to fires, domestic violence on a daily basis, which helped us respond during COVID so quickly, to put people in shelter and buy food for people in shelter. That $2 million would be gone.”

Longoria said the CSBG funding has been in place since 1980, and its forerunner has been in place since 1968.

“So, that money has been in place for 60 years to help address poverty the way Hidalgo County sees fit.”

He said Cameron County would lose a little over a million dollars in CSBG funding, while Starr County would lose about $700,000.

Editor’s Note: Here is an audio recording of the remarks Longoria made during the Hidalgo County Prosperity Task Force webinar.

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