LANSING, Mich., Dec. 11, 2025 — The Michigan Legislative Black Caucus today condemned House Republicans on the House Appropriations Committee for voting to disapprove more than $644 million in previously authorized Fiscal Year 2025 work project funding from programs that directly affect Black, Brown and other marginalized communities across Michigan.

The funding that was stripped had already been negotiated, passed by the Legislature and signed into law as part of the current state budget. By disapproving these work project designations, House Republicans are effectively taking back multi-year investments in health, safety and economic opportunity without meaningful input from the very representatives whose districts will be hit the hardest.

“Let’s be clear: this was not an accounting adjustment, it was a political choice,” said state Rep. Amos O’Neal (D-Saginaw), Chair of the Michigan Legislative Black Caucus. “House Republicans used a procedural vote to pull back dollars that our communities were promised and are already planning around — prenatal care, mobile clinics, mental health outreach, food assistance, and community safety. They did it without allowing lawmakers to ask questions, without engaging any of the Black Caucus members who sit on the committee. That is unacceptable because we are denying the people their own money.”

According to the nonpartisan House Fiscal Agency’s Dec. 10 memorandum on FY 2025 work projects, the disapproved funding spans multiple departments and includes, among others:

  • Prenatal and Infant Support Program (Rx Kids) – $18.5 million in TANF-funded support for low-income parents and babies.
  • McLaren Greater Lansing Mobile Clinic – $700,000 to bring primary health care and preventive medical services directly into neighborhoods.
  • Native American Health Services – $3.5 million for culturally competent health care in tribal and urban Native communities.
  • Community Impact Center – $2.5 million to support local, community-based services.
  • Local Food Infrastructure Grant – $3 million to strengthen healthy food access and local food systems.
  • Nurse Workforce Development – $4 million to address critical health care workforce shortages.
  • Mental Health Services and Community Outreach – $1.4 million for behavioral health and community-based supports.
  • Firearm Safety and Violence Prevention – $1.8 million to reduce gun violence and improve public safety.
  • Indigent Defense Commission Grants – $50 million to ensure poor defendants — disproportionately Black and Brown — have access to constitutionally required legal representation.
  • Office of Global Michigan Language Access and Regional Community Collaboratives – $1.3 million to help immigrant and refugee communities navigate state systems.

“These are exactly the kinds of investments that close racial disparities gaps in maternal health, violence exposure, and access to justice,” said state Rep. Cynthia Neeley (D-Flint), Executive Vice Chair of the MLBC. “At the same moment the federal so-called ‘One Big Beautiful Bill Act’ is reshaping Medicaid and SNAP in ways that will shift new burdens onto states, House Republicans chose to take a second bite out of the same communities by canceling state dollars that were already on the books. That is fiscally reckless and morally wrong.”

Neeley emphasized that work project status is not a new spending request, but a tool to allow already-appropriated dollars to be used over multiple years for complex projects and ongoing initiatives. 

“Removing work project status for these line items doesn’t save families money — it denies families services,” said state Sen. Sarah Anthony (D-Lansing), Michigan Legislative Caucus 1st Vice Chair. “You cannot claim to care about crime, infant mortality, mental health or economic development and then vote to pull back the very dollars that support community-based solutions.”

The Michigan Legislative Black Caucus is calling for:

  1. Full restoration of all disapproved work project dollars affecting health, safety, education, justice and economic opportunity in Black and other historically marginalized communities.
  2. A formal, public process for consultation with MLBC members whenever funding decisions disproportionately affect their districts or core constituencies.
  3. Transparent justification from House Republican leadership for each program they chose to target and an explanation to the communities that will lose services.

“The message from House Republicans is that the communities we represent are not important,” O’Neal concluded. “Our message back is simple: Black communities are not an afterthought in this or any budget. We will fight to restore every dollar and to ensure that decisions of this magnitude are never again made without our voices at the table.”

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