HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.
![handle is hein.cbhear/fdsysajvm0001 and id is 1 raw text is: AUT-ENTICATED
US. GOVERNMENT
INFORMATION
GP
COMMERCE, JUSTICE, SCIENCE, AND RE-
LATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS FOR
FISCAL YEAR 2017
U.S. SENATE,
SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS,
Washington, DC.
NONDEPARTMENTAL WITNESSES
[CLERK'S NOTE.-The subcommittee was unable to hold hearings
on nondepartmental witnesses. The statements and letters of those
submitting written testimony are as follows:]
PREPARED STATEMENT OF THE AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION
Chairman Shelby, Vice Chairwoman Mikulski, and subcommittee members, I am
Paulette Brown, President of the American Bar Association (ABA) and a partner at
Locke Lord LLP.
REQUEST: I am submitting this statement today on behalf of the ABA, which
has over 400,000 members. The ABA recommends funding for the Legal Services
Corporation (LSC) at $475 million, the administration's fiscal year 2017 budget re-
quest.
For the implementation of Equal Justice Under Law, our Government has a
true partner in the ABA. We have created an annual ABA Day of Service in Octo-
ber, operate an ABA Center for Pro Bono, produce an annual award program for
pro bono work, established the Commission on the Future of Legal Services, and
host, with our colleagues at the National Legal Aid and Defender Association, the
annual Equal Justice Conference.
To strengthen legal aid is to strengthen the rule of law. I do not just pay lip serv-
ice to legal aid and to pro bono work; I am very passionate about these services and
try every day to remember and live to whom much is given, much is required. In
my third year of law school I personally participated in a clinical program which
partnered with Essex/Newark Legal Services in New Jersey. Following my gradua-
tion and for several years thereafter, I worked pro bono for that same legal services
office, successfully representing dozens of tenants in an important landlord/tenant
case. Later, as a member of the ABA Litigation Section, I helped train young legal
services lawyers and other lawyers who provided pro bono services. Furthermore,
I have provided pro bono services to members of our military. However, pro bono
services themselves are not sufficient to meet the needs of our vulnerable.
HISTORICAL NEED: First of all, I want to thank the Senate subcommittee for
taking the initiative to restore LSC's budget-5.4 percent, 2.6 percent, and 2.6 per-
cent increases over the past 3 years.
However, the fiscal year 2016 LSC appropriation is still 15.7 percent lower than
it was in 2010 (in fiscal year 2016 dollars), while the number of people qualifying
for assistance is about 25 percent higher than it was in 2007. Compare also the fis-
cal year 2016 funding of $385 million to LSC's average appropriation of
$663,944,870 (in fiscal year 2016-adjusted dollars) during the 1980s. LSC seriously
needs an increase.
Furthermore, robust funding for the LSC is desperately needed because other
funding sources have diminished since the country's economic downturn. All States,
save Alabama, Florida, and Idaho, now provide State-government funding for legal
aid programs. However, as a lingering effect of the recession, in some States State
funding is indeed way down due to declines in filing fees supporting legal aid. Rev-
(1)](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.cbhear/fdsysajvm0001&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)