In March 2017, then-PBA President Sara Austin issued a statement opposing the President Trump's budget elimination of funding for the Legal Services Corp. (LSC)

You may have seen in the news that the Trump administration has proposed to eliminate the Legal Services Corp. in their initial budget blueprint. Note that this is just the first step in the process and Congress will make the ultimate decision about the future of LSC funding. A coordinated effort is underway to convince a bipartisan majority of the House and Senate of the critical role of LSC. Please see the below information.

Statements and Letters Supporting LSC

A number of national entities have issued statements and written letters, including:

  • The LSC press release
  • The ABA president's statement
  • The National Legal Aid and Defender Association president's statement 
  • A letter from the Conference of Chief Justices/Conference of State Court Administrators to the Office of Management and Budget
  • A letter from the managing partners of more than 150 of the largest law firms in the U.S. to the Office of Management and Budget

How you can support the effort

The American Bar Association is launching a grassroots campaign to engage constituents around the country to fight to save LSC.  Here is how it works:

  • Constituents will be directed to http://www.DefendLegalAid.org to register as Legal Aid Defenders.
  • Participants will be asked to create a short message for their members of Congress and submit their contact information to create a Legal Aid Defender card (like the sample here). The cards can be personalized by submitting a photo.
  • The ABA will print and hand-deliver every card to each participant's members of Congress (Three cards for each participant - House member and two Senators).
  • The cards will be delivered by state delegations during ABA Day in Washington (April 25-27).

We want to deliver as many cards as possible, so we need your help to get the word out. Please consider sharing this campaign with your constituency in any way that you see fit. Effective methods of promoting the campaign include email blasts, social media posts, websites, newsletters and in-person events.

We are making all of the campaign materials available to any organizations and groups that want to use them. We intentionally left the ABA logo off of the materials so they can be customized. PLEASE FEEL FREE TO ADD YOUR ORGANIZATION'S LOGO AND/OR INFORMATION TO ANY OF THE ADS/GRAPHICS. If you need help adding your logo, please contact Jared Hess at the ABA.

A Dropbox folder has been set up with campaign materials.

 Additionally, here is another site with information and resources on how you can support legal aid: www.HelpLegalAid.org