The CDFI Coalition, a group of community development financial institutions that support the Treasury Department's CDFI Fund, is cautiously optimistic the program will survive the federal budget process without major cuts.
"We have friends on both sides of the aisle, particularly in the Senate," said Coalition Chairman Jeannine Jacokes. "The situation in the House is a little less clear because we haven't seen the committee assignments yet, but overall we are cautiously optimistic."
CDFIs and the CDFI Fund received unprecedented attention and levels of funding under a majority Democratic Congress and the Obama Administration, including loans to build capital using funds from the Troubled Asset Relief Program.
Jacokes acknowledged that it was unlikely that the CDFI Fund would see any budget increases from previous years but said the Coalition was working very hard to convince legislators not to make significant cuts.
