“And by the way, can someone pull Betsy from under the bus?”
That’s what Rep. Mark Pocan, a Wisconsin Democrat, said Thursday after President Donald Trump said he was overriding Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’s proposal to cut nearly $18 million in funding for the Special Olympics.
“I have overridden my people. We’re funding the Special Olympics,” Trump said Thursday as he left the White House for a rally in Michigan. “I’ve been to the Special Olympics. I think it’s incredible.”
That undercut DeVos, who had staunchly defended the widely condemned proposal, saying earlier this week that her department had to make “difficult decisions” with budget cuts, and suggested the Special Olympics be funded through private donations. The Special Olympics itself actually is privately funded; the federal funding was for educational programs that support students with disabilities and promote inclusion.
With the House controlled by Democrats, the proposed budget cut had almost no chance of passing anyway.
“I’m extremely glad that the American people have convinced President Trump to do the right thing with Special Olympics. However, it shouldn’t take public outcry and shaming to restore funding to one of our nation’s most important special education programs,” Pocan said in a statement late Thursday.
And he pointed out that the Trump administration has proposed cutting Special Olympics funding each of the past three years. Those proposed cuts never made it to the final versions of either previous budget. “This is not a one-off mistake,” Pocan said, calling Trump’s intervention “an attempt to save face.”
