Legal Services Corporation: “President Trump’s budget [Review LSC’s FY 2026 Budget Request here], released Friday, proposes the elimination of the Legal Services Corporation (LSC), putting at risk essential legal protections for veterans, seniors and children across the country. If this budget is approved, LSC-funded aid would disappear for everyday Americans facing urgent civil legal problems like evictions, foreclosures, domestic violence, fraud, consumer scams, and predatory or medical debt.

For FY 2026, the Trump Administration has proposed that LSC receive just $21 million for close-out costs. In FY 2025, LSC received a Congressional appropriation of $560 million through the Continuing Resolution signed by President Trump. This was flat funding based on the FY 2024 appropriation for the federal government. LSC is the nation’s single largest funder of civil legal aid. Currently, LSC funds support legal services for more than five million low-income Americans annually. This includes more than a million children, over 200,000 survivors of domestic violence and nearly 45,000 veterans. Defunding LSC would strip grant funding that supports 130 legal aid providers with over 900 offices in every county of every state, as well as the District of Columbia and the U.S. territories. These LSC-funded legal aid organizations do vital work assisting low-income people who are facing urgent civil legal problems that could cause them to lose their home, income, healthcare, custody of their children or an order of protection from an abuser. These organizations are a lifeline for working families, senior citizens, veterans, people with disabilities and those recovering from natural disasters. Without sufficient funding, legal aid providers will be forced to shrink their programs, reduce staff, shutter branch offices, close legal resource clinics and turn away an increasing number of eligible clients with significant legal problems…”