Illinois Senator Dick Durbin condemned the Trump administration’s plans to transfer student loan cases from the Department of Education to the Small Business Administration and cut funding for the National Institutes of Health. He claimed these changes would reduce efficiency and harm Americans.

The Center Square reports:

Illinois U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin is targeting President Donald Trump and Department of Government Efficiency leader Elon Musk with various criticisms of their efforts to cut waste and fraud.

Speaking on the Senate floor in Washington this week, Durbin blasted the Trump administration’s proposal to shift student loan cases from the Department of Education to the Small Business Administration.

“I want to make sure the Department of Education is efficient. I want to make sure that it’s responsive, but the notion that we’re going to shift all the student loans to the SBA is an example of someone who didn’t think it through. With fewer employees at that agency, they’ll be unable to do the the job which they were assigned the responsibility in doing and change the lives of a lot of American students in the process,” Durbin said.

Musk said in an interview with Fox News that the Small Business Administration was giving out loans to babies, and the loans were fraudulent.

“They do terrible things. They actually will see that a kid’s been born. They will steal that kid’s Social Security number, they’ll take out a loan and then leave that kid with a bad credit rating,” Musk said.

The fiscal year 2025 budget request for the Small Business Administration is $971 million in discretionary budget authority.

Durbin also blasted the Trump administration Wednesday at a Senate forum on the National Institutes of Health. Trump and Musk have moved to reduce spending and cut personnel at the NIH.

“Think about that moment, which many of us have faced and others have heard about over and over again, when the doctor says, ‘And here’s the diagnosis.’ And you gulp and you say, ‘Is there anything we can do? Is there a medicine, is there a surgery, is there a treatment?’ And you pray to God that some researcher at NIH found a breakthrough that’s gonna give you or someone you love a chance,” Durbin said.

The NIH had a budget of more than $47 billion in fiscal year 2024. The agency faced scrutiny after the COVID-19 pandemic due to allegations of taxpayer-funded gain-of-function research in China.

Under the federal Section 8 housing voucher program, taxpayers could be assisting with California rents as high as $7,030 near the Mexican border. The program’s goal is to offer tenants increased access to “Opportunity Neighborhoods,” which offer better job opportunities, public transportation, and schools.

The Center Square reports:

According to federal data, taxpayers may now be helping cover California rents of up to $7,030 near the Mexican border.

Under the federal Section 8 housing voucher program, families are expected to dedicate 30% of their incomes to housing costs, while a federal voucher covers the rest. Vouchers are portable, with the Department of Housing and Urban Development aiming to provide tenants with “greater ability to move into ‘Opportunity Neighborhoods’ with jobs, public transportation, and good schools.”

In San Diego County, there are three ZIP Codes where fair market rents covered by Section 8 exceed $7,000 per month for a four-bedroom home: swanky coastal Del Mar, whose notable homeowners include Microsoft founder Bill Gates and football star Aaron Rodgers, and neighboring Rancho Sante Fe, whose residents include Bill Murray and Phil Mickelson, is joined by Chula Vista, a more modest community that adjoins the California-Mexico border.

The San Diego County income limit for a family of five to qualify for Section 8 is $49,500, meaning that family would be expected to contribute up to approximately $1,237.50 per month towards the up to $7,030 fair market rent authorized for Section 8 vouchers of up to $5792.50 per month. 

According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which administers the Section 8 program, FMR is set by the 40th percentile rent, asdetermined by the results of the American Community Survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau. 

As of March 31, there are four four-bedroom homes for rent in Chula Vista’s 91914 ZIP code listed on Zillow, ranging from $3,800 per month to $10,000 per month, with two of the rentals under the $7,030 threshold. 

According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities’s January 2025 report, 2.3 million households receive Section 8 vouchers, which are expected to costfederal taxpayers $32.8 billion in fiscal year 2025.

Because maximum voucher amounts are set by local rents, expensive, densely-populated coastal regions receive a disproportionate share of voucher funding.