In a move that many Jewish groups had opposed, the House of Representative has slashed $17 billion from previously approved spending.
The house passed the measure by a 227 to 200 vote on Thursday.
Many Jewish organizations had fiercely opposed the measure because it disproportionately targets poor Americans. The bill guts $7 billion from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the agency responsible for providing low-income housing across America.
The bill also slashes funds for nutrition programs for low-income children and pregnant women; eliminates energy assistance programs for low-income families; and guts summer youth employment programs.
House Republicans abandoned a provision of the bill that would have denied funds for abortions for poor women who are victims of rape and incest.
The bill also drew the ire of Israeli leaders and many in the Jewish community of cutting Jordanian debt relief from $275 million to $50 million.
The American Jewish Congress, one of several groups that criticized the measure, known as the rescission bill, called it “mean-spirited and short- sighted.”
“It is fundamentally immoral for the richest government on earth to act as if its poor have no special call on its resources,” said Mark Pelavin, Washington representative of the American Jewish Congress.
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