On Thursday, Rep. Matt Salmon introduced his latest bill as part of his 2016 Shrink our Spending Initiative which would eliminate the duplicative and wasteful Legal Services Corporation. The Shrink our Spending Initiative is intended to highlight and cut wasteful taxpayer-funded programs.
The Legal Services Corporation was created in the 1970s to provide civil legal assistance to indigent clients. However, this funding is little more than pay-outs to well-connected attorneys. Instead of helping those intended by the original law, the fund is used to engage in political hot-button issues. A significant majority of funding for legal aid comes from state and local grants, as well as private sector funding and other federal programs. Total savings: $385,000,000.
“Legal Aid services are a very common mechanism to assist our society’s poor who need legal representation. But these programs are funded at the state and local level, and connected directly to the people they serve. The Legal Services Corporation was chartered to be a federal variant, but in recent years it has been abused as a way to line the pockets of wealthy, well-connected lawyers who use its funds to lobby for new government programs, and then sue to expand them. And let’s not even mention the bogus charges for booze and travel. Let’s give the taxpayer a break and put an end to this waste.”