President Obama, Congress Have Made Progress with Latinos!
President Obama, Congress Have Made Progress with Latinos, Coalition Says.http://a57.foxnews.com/img.foxnews.c...NEWSLATINO.jpg
Published August 11, 2011
President Barack Obama waves as he prepares to walks off stage after delivering remarks at the National Council of La Raza (NCLR) annual conference luncheon in Washington, Monday, July 25, 2011.
The key players in Washington have improved when it comes to the needs of Latinos – but proposed spending cuts could reverse that progress, a coalition of Hispanic advocacy groups said.
The National Hispanic Leadership Agenda gave good marks Wednesday to President Barack Obama and Congress. It praised them, for instance, on education, health care reform, programs for veterans and Hispanic businesses, and appointments of record numbers of Latinos to the administration.
On immigration and related enforcement, however, the tone changes. The coalition, consisting of 30 Latino groups, said in a progress report that Obama and lawmakers "over promised and under delivered."
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Several of those gains have required increased spending, such as those included in 2010 appropriations bills to expand Head Start and Early Start by 70,000 in 2010. One in five children under 5 is Hispanic.
Lillian RodrÃ*guez-López, the coalition's chairwoman, said the groups fear losing ground in upcoming budget debates and spending cuts proposed by a bipartisan super-committee tasked with slashing the federal budget deficit by more than $1 trillion.
"Deep cuts to programs that have kept families working and in their homes cannot be sacrificed during their negotiations," RodrÃ*guez-López said.
The coalition includes some of the heavyweights among Hispanic advocacy groups, such as the League of United Latin American Citizens, National Council of La Raza and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund.
Political parties already have been sparring over whether the achievements the Obama's administration cites as benefiting Hispanics, such as health care reform, will outweigh Latinos' disappointment over immigration failures and unemployment when it comes time to cast votes in 2012.
The progress report is based on a list of recommendations the coalition made in 2008.
"We said these are our priorities and we will look at these issues to see whether or not you are valuing this community and taking seriously the community's needs and challenges," RodrÃ*guez-López said.
Based on reporting by The Associated Press.
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