Before President Trump announced that his administration would reverse course and not pursue funding cuts to the Special Olympics, a local politician was vehement that the funding stay in place. That was Massachusetts congressman Joe Kennedy, whose great aunt Eunice spearheaded the Special Olympics. Eunice Kennedy Shriver was the sister of President John F. Kennedy and Sen. Robert Kennedy. Rep. Joe Kennedy, grandson of Robert Kennedy, spoke with WGBH All Things Considered anchor Barbara Howard about the proposal and the history of the Special Olympics. This transcript has been edited for clarity.
Barbara Howard: For your family, it's personal. The Kennedy family has long had a deep history with a Special Olympics. Can you talk about how it got off the ground?
Joe Kennedy: It started because of a family member. My great aunt Eunice was particularly close with her sister Rosemary, who was born with developmental differences, and their dedication, her dedication to Rosemary, and her relationship with Rosemary, led her to try to celebrate folks with developmental differences back in the 1950s and 60s. And the first game started in late 1960s. It started initially in her backyard, and has grown into a worldwide movement about inclusivity, about acceptance, and about just basic human dignity. And that's what makes these cuts so hard to understand.
Howard: Well, the idea of cutting funding for the Special Olympics was floated by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos as part of broader testimony that she gave before a House subcommittee on Tuesday, where she proposed deep cuts to education funding. There was an exchange that she had with Wisconsin congressman Mark Pocan, a Democrat, where he was asking how many Special Olympics kids would be impacted by the cuts:
“Betsy Devos: We had to make some difficult decisions with this budget...
Mark Pocan: ...Again, that’s not the question of how many kids, not about the budget...
DeVos: ...I don’t know the number of kids...
Pocan: ...OK, it’s 272,000 kids, I’ll answer it for you, that’s ok – no problem …
DeVos: ...Let me just say that I think the Special Olympics is an awesome organization, one that is well-supported by the philanthropic sector as well..."
Howard: Now, Congressman Kennedy, you did tweet immediately, and here’s what you wrote: “This will never happen. Full stop.” And it is the House that controls the purse strings. and it's the Democrats of course controlling the House right now. So is it fair to assume by that tweet that you don't think DeVos’ proposal is going to get a lot of traction?
Kennedy: It's getting no traction. And we do control the purse strings in the House, as you indicated. There's been rejection from Republican colleagues of mine here in the House and from Republican colleagues in the Senate. Senator Roy Blunt is one of the big supporters of the Special Olympics. He was in the Middle East about 10 days ago for the World Games, and he put out a statement saying that he was going to continue robust funding for the organization.
Howard: Now the Special Olympics is allocated a little short of $18-million, $17.6-million to be exact. That's from the federal education budget. It seems like small potatoes for the overall budget. Now DeVos says, though, that it should be supported by philanthropy. What do you say to that?
Kennedy: It is supported by philanthropy, and that's great. Because the Special Olympics does that well doesn't mean that we should go around and penalize them. The federal government supports a number of successful nonprofits that serve key roles and core services in our communities. That's exactly the way that our federal government and a lot of our funding structure works.
Howard: Does the roughly $18 million that the Special Olympics gets from the federal government represent a large portion of its budget?
Kennedy: It's a significant portion, certainly, and the impact is going to be significant.
Howard: OK, you go on to tweet about the funding cuts to the Special Olympics, saying “The mere suggestion illustrates how little this administration values the Americans and families they pledged to serve.” Now by “this administration” of course you're talking, I imagine, about the Trump Administration. Can you elaborate on that?
Kennedy: That's exactly right. Ms. DeVos tried to indicate that, because of budget constraints, they had to basically make difficult cuts that she didn't agree with. If that's the case, that's fine. But you can't ignore the fact that they just passed a massive tax cut that preserved or expanded tax breaks for private jets and are now saying that you can't afford the Special Olympics, and you can't afford autism funding, and you can’t afford after-school programs. And if that's the case, that's fine. But that's where the priorities of this administration lie.
Howard: Well thanks for joining us, Congressman Kennedy.
Kennedy: Of course.
Howard: That's Massachusetts congressman Joe Kennedy, speaking with us about the Special Olympics, founded by his great aunt Eunice Kennedy Shriver. This week, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos suggested that funding for the Special Olympics could be cut. Kennedy says that won't be happening. After Kennedy spoke with WGBH News, President Trump announced that funding for the Special Olympics would be preserved.
