Today, the Trump Administration released a high-level overview of its FY 2026 Discretionary Budget Request, or “skinny budget,” which features a 90% reduction in funding for the CDFI Fund from its FY 2025 funding level of $324 million to just $33 million. In arguing for this reduction, the Administration stated:
“Consistent with the President’s goal of reducing the Federal bureaucracy, the Budget recommends eliminating CDFI Fund discretionary awards. Past awards may have made race a determinant of access to loan programs to “advance racial equity,” funded products and services that built so-called “climate resiliency,” and framed American society as inherently oppressive rather than fostering unity. The CDFI industry has matured beyond the need for “seed” money and should at this point be financially self-sustaining. Remaining funding supports oversight and closeout of prior awards, maintaining CDFI certification, and support for New Markets Tax Credit administration and the zero cost Bond Guarantee Program.”
Given that the Native American CDFI Assistance (NACA) Financial (FA) and Technical Assistance (TA) award programs are considered discretionary awards, Congressional approval of this Budget Request provision (see page 35) would eliminate the NACA program altogether. NCN also takes issue with the Administration’s blanket characterization that the “CDFI industry has matured beyond the need for ‘seed’ money,” as the vast majority of Native CDFIs have an asset size totaling less than $15 million, and many rely heavily on NACA FA and TA awards to spur their continued growth.
The Administration’s Discretionary Budget Request also calls for the creation of a $100 million Rural Financial Award Program (see page 34) to “provide access to affordable financing and spur economic development in rural America.” While this purportedly would prioritize the targeting of Native CDFIs, they would be forced to compete with several hundred non-Native CDFIs for awards from this comparably meager pool of funding.
To ensure that Congress protects overall funding for the CDFI Fund and honors NCN and Native CDFIs’ joint request for NACA Program funding at $50 million for FY 2026, NCN calls on all Native CDFIs to immediately engage their Congressional delegations. To engage your Congressional delegations, please consult the contact info below:
U.S. Senate: Contacting U.S. Senators
U.S. House of Representatives: Find Your Representative (locate by ZIP code)
U.S. House of Representatives: Directory by State, District, Last Name
JOINT ADVOCACY STRATEGY MEETING: MONDAY, MAY 5, 2:00 P.M. ET
NCN will hold a joint advocacy strategy meeting with all Native CDFI leaders and their partners early next week to game plan our collective next steps in the FY 2026 budget process. To register for this event, please click here.
Related News: NCN in Washington, DC This week to Advocate for Native CDFIs
Earlier this week, on April 29th, members of the NCN Board of Directors – CEO Pete Upton and Directors Russ Seagle, Rollin Wood, Cindy Logsdon, and Rolina Faagai – met in Washington, D.C. with CDFI Fund Director Pravina Raghavan and Clint Hastings. The meeting was positive and reaffirmed a shared alignment between NCN leadership and the CDFI Fund on Native programs and the certification process. The NCN delegation also met with staff from the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs to emphasize the importance of sustained federal support for Native CDFIs.
While the meeting was encouraging and very positive, CEO Upton emphasized that there is still much work to be done, especially in light of recent executive orders and the Administration’s proposed funding cuts. “We cannot assume that everything is secure – we must continue to engage our congressional leaders and advocate for increased appropriations and continued funding for the CDFI Fund and Native programs,” Upton said.