WASHINGTON — In what has almost become an annual ritual, the Bush Administration has cut the amount of money it wants for the U.S. Treasury Department's Community Development Financial Institutions Fund.

The Administration proposed spending $28.6 million on the CDFI Fund, $24.4 million for the actual CDFI program and $4.2 million for the New Market's Tax Credit Program. The new budget request did not request any money for the Bank Enterprise Program or programs seeking to help Native American community development financial institutions.

The proposed budget is an almost 70% cut in the funding that was actually appropriated for the CDFI Fund this year. This has been the pattern where the Bush Administration has sought to cut or in some years eliminate the fund while Congress has restores the funding during its appropriations process.