Twenty-three senators from both parties have signed a joint letter expressing their support for the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund after President Trump directed the program to scale back staffing and operations.
Trump last week issued an executive order directing the CDFI Fund and other government programs and agencies to reduce their operations to the minimum needed to fulfill their statutory duties. Since then, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has issued a statement expressing the administration’s support for CDFIs’ “important role” in the communities they serve. Also, the American Bankers Association joined seven associations in a joint letter outlining how CDFIs support the administration’s economic agenda.
In a letter to Bessent signed by members of the Senate Community Development Finance Caucus, the senators reaffirmed their bipartisan support for the CDFI Fund and said CDFIs “are integral to the administration’s pursuit of job growth, wealth creation and prosperity.”
“Each year, CDFIs provide affordable growth capital to over 100,000 small businesses and finance over $100 billion in residential real estate, bringing down the cost of housing through new construction and affordable home mortgages,” the senators said. “The important work of the CDFI sector is strengthened by the CDFI Fund, which provides seed funding to new CDFIs, grows the capacity of existing CDFIs, and provides oversight to ensure federal dollars are spent appropriately. Elimination of key CDFI Fund functions would undermine this important progress, including for small businesses and homeowners.”
