Trump plan to slash Appalachian Regional Commission budget by 93% gets pushback
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- White House proposes $186M cut to Appalachian Regional Commission budget
- More than 80 officials and groups request Congress maintain ARC’s current funding
- Reductions threaten grants for job creation, revitalization and energy projects
Several Kentucky nonprofits joined calls to stop a Trump administration plan to slash funding to the Appalachian Regional Commission, a federal-state partnership that works to better the region’s socioeconomic standing.
In a budget proposal released in May, the White House called for a 93% reduction in the organization’s budget, from $200 million to $14 million.
The Appalachian Regional Commission, which covers all or parts of 13 Appalachian states, has been a conduit for hundreds of millions in aid to Eastern Kentucky since it was founded in 1965, when poverty rates exceeded 50% in some counties and much of the region lacked adequate water, highways and health care.
More than 80 elected officials and groups within the Appalachian Regional Commission’s territory signed onto a letter pleading with U.S. Congressional leaders to “adequately fund the Appalachian Regional Commission consistent with recent fiscal year funding levels.”
Those signatories include a handful of Kentucky organizations like the Mountain Association, the Kentucky Nonprofit Network, Appalachian Voices and the Kentucky Conservation Committee.
“We are deeply concerned about the White House budget proposal to drastically cut funding to the Appalachian Regional Commission to $14 million in the FY2026 budget bill, down from $200 million in recent years’ budgets,” they wrote. “Though funds remain from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act funding and prior years appropriations to continue some grant programs, this unprecedented cut to funding for the ARC would result in major reductions to actual benefits delivered to the people of Appalachia.”
Jeffrey Justice, president and executive director of the Pine Mountain Partnership, told the Herald-Leader it was his understanding the cut down to $14 million would allow the commission to keep its staff but would hamstring its grant-awarding abilities.
The Mountain Association’s Chief Advancement Officer, Leslie Ferguson-Oles, said she had the same understanding of the budget proposal. The ARC works across more than a dozen states, and because of wide congressional representation and close ties to state governments, Ferguson-Oles said its funding has always been durable.
“But this feels a lot more threatening. There’s a lot more uncertainty around it,” she said, adding that grants provided by the ARC are vital to infrastructure projects, opioid recovery programs and more. Ferguson-Oles said it’s “hard to imagine” the commission having a smaller financial footprint.
The Mountain Association is a nonprofit that serves 54 Appalachian Kentucky, managing $25 million in small business loans and pairing that support with technical assistance and clean energy assessments.
Rep. Hal Rogers, whose 5th Congressional District sits entirely in commission territory, said in a statement he intends to protect the funding.
“The Appalachian Regional Commission has been under the ax of nearly every presidential administration since I’ve been in office. However, as a senior appropriator, I have protected funding for the ARC year after year, and I won’t stop now.
“The ARC has proven its worth to our 13 Appalachian states, especially in Kentucky, where we have worked together to lower poverty rates, extend broadband access, strengthen workforce training and development, drive down overdose death rates, expand clean water and reliable wastewater systems, and much more to improve our most rural communities,” Rogers wrote.
The budget proposal from the Trump White House advised even more drastic action against six other federally funded regional commissions and authorities like the Southeast Crescent Regional Commission or the Great Lakes Authority: complete elimination.
“Unlike the smaller, unnecessary commissions, the budget continues funding for Appalachian Regional Commission’s operations at $14 million,” the budget proposal reads. “... ARC serves a region uniquely hard-hit by the loss of good coal mining jobs and the opioid crisis.”
Ferguson-Oles said what makes the ARC and other commissions such community staples is that they don’t overlap.
“They’re really place-based in a way that other government offices aren’t always rooted,” she said. “They’re really integrated with state governments and that partnership is generally really strong with the ARC. So, it’s a loss for communities in terms of a kind of thoroughfare from the ground up to Washington.”
Though they acknowledge that the Bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, a hallmark piece of legislation under the administration of former President Joe Biden, allows for some grants to continue, the signatories on the letter said the negative effects would be far-reaching.
“In recent years, Appalachia has built incredible momentum towards a multi-industry economy that provides good jobs that take good care of the communities around us. The ARC has been instrumental in driving forward this potential. Reductions to its programs pose a risk to innovative initiatives in workforce development, community revitalization and American made resilient energy,” they wrote.
The Mountain Association has a revolving loan fund generated from the ARC it uses to invest in small businesses. The ARC has also supported the nonprofit in assessing and addressing community needs and investing in entrepreneurship and small business creation.
“It would be almost impossible for somebody, for a nonprofit, to be working in the region on economic development and not bump into the ARC in multiple ways,” Ferguson-Oles said. “They’re really just ingrained in the long-term, sustained effort to improve communities in the region.”
This isn’t the first time the Trump administration has proposed cuts to the commission.
In 2017, early in the president’s first term, the administration proposed eliminating money set aside for the Appalachian Regional Commission. That was partially in order to pay for a proposed U.S.-Mexico border wall, a top priority for the president during that 2017-2021 term.
That proposed cut never happened.
Trump ultimately signed into law a bill that kept the organization’s funding levels roughly the same.
Rogers’ chief of staff Karen Kelly posted on X that the resolution of the 2017 proposal was “thanks to Hal Rogers.”
Sen. Mitch McConnell also defended the commission in 2017. Robert Steurer, a spokesperson for his office, said he will keep Kentucky’s funding priorities in mind during the budget process.
“Senator McConnell has long been a strong supporter of ARC, and as a senior member of the Senate Appropriations committee, he will continue to look out for Kentucky priorities during the process,” Steurer wrote.
This story was originally published July 10, 2025 at 11:42 AM.
