Kentucky Nonprofit Launches Tracker to Document DOGE Impact on Residents

To lay out the budget cuts and program cancellations impacting everything from disaster relief and consumer fraud to school meals in Kentucky, the state’s Center for Economic Policy launched its own tracker this week.

The center’s executive director Jason Bailey tells Spectrum News 1:

“Issues ranging from disaster relief to school meals to education programs, the AmeriCorps program, for example, has been cut 41% of the grant funding for AmeriCorps that provides jobs for young people in about 700 sites in Kentucky. They provide tutoring and education services, community service programs, arts programs, public health programs, that’s been cut nearly in half,” said Bailey.

He said some cuts aren’t needed.

“I think you know it’s one thing to talk about just cutting so-called waste. It’s another thing when cuts actually happen and you see that it’s not things that are wasteful. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, for example, has been gutted by DOGE. There were 22,000 complaints for Kentuckians last year on predatory financial issues, including just having an incorrect credit score, having a debt collector collect on debt that a person didn’t even owe, or fees that were not fully disclosed. You know those things matter,” said Bailey.