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While the organization lauded his decision, Special Olympics Chairman Tim Shriver tells PEOPLE that his mother,Eunice Kennedy Shriver, would have been “furious” about the possible defunding.
“I went to the Hill with her for years and she thought it was outrageous that people would not support this work in a country as rich and powerful as ours,” says Tim, brother of former California First LadyMaria Shriver.
Tim, 59, says the asked-for cuts were an “enormous slap in the face for these people and an insult to our values.”
For the third year in a row,according to CNN, the Trump administration called for ending federal government money to the Special Olympics as part of an overall reduction in the Education Department budget.
The president has asked to cut about 10 percent of the department’s budget for fiscal year 2020 in what an official described as a “desire to have some fiscal discipline and address some higher priority needs,”according to theNew York Times.
“If the money were not to come, it would be devastating and an enormous setback” says Tim. “This is a community of people who struggle every day — for health care, for friendships, for the chance to get on a playing field and a school field.”
“We represent a very small and vulnerable and non-powerful and economically weak community, and yet one that is so rich in spirit and powerful at heart,” Tim says.
Eunice, whodied in 2009 at age 88, founded the Special Olympics in 1968 in memory of her sisterRosemary Kennedy, who had an undiagnosed developmental disorder and was lobotomized.
The federal government provides $17.6 million to the Special Olympics in support of its work in schools. The organization, which oversees more than 100,000 competitions for more than 5 million athletes, also receives significant private funding.
“I still can’t understand why you would go after disabled children in your budget,” Rep. Barbara Lee told DeVos on Tuesday.
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Eunice Kennedy Shriver (left) and Maria Shriver.Steve Jennings/WireImage
Tim Shriver tells PEOPLE: “These are the people in our country who struggle the absolute hardest to make it. They have done nothing wrong. This is a community that has to work 10 times as hard as everybody else and is always overlooked and rarely complains.”
Speaking with reporters on Thursday, President Trump said he had only just been made aware of the issue with the Special Olympics even though his budget proposals have regularly called for funding cuts.
“I’ve been to the Special Olympics. I think it’s incredible. And I just authorized a funding,” he said. “I heard about it this morning. I have overridden my people. We’re funding the Special Olympics.”
Last year, under Republican control, Congress actually increased the Education Department’s budget.
Regardless of any potential threat to the organization, Shriver pledges the Special Olympics will survive and strengthen.
“We are powerfully committed to sustaining this cause. We feel like we are just getting started,” he says. “There’s a tremendous amount of work to do and goodness to be unlocked and we are not going away. We are going to win it.”
source: people.com
