Legal aid activists in Texas are “deeply concerned” that President Donald Trump’s proposed fiscal year 2026 budget calls for eliminating Legal Services Corporation, the federal nonprofit that provides funding to legal aid organizations across the state that help military veterans access rightful benefits, victims recover from natural disasters, survivors of domestic violence obtain protective orders and more.
In Texas, the proposed elimination threatens more than $45 million in annual grants that help fund three major legal aid organizations: Lone Star Legal Aid, Legal Aid of NorthWest Texas, and Texas RioGrande Legal Aid. Those grants account for approximately one-third of these organizations’ total funding.
The fiscal year begins on Oct. 1, and the possibility of having to operate without LSC funding is already creating a climate of uncertainty. “Devastating” is one of the words heard around the legal aid community.
Retired Texas Chief Justice Nathan Hecht, who is widely respected in conservative political circles, said it “would be a calamity” if Congress and the president defund the LSC.
“That loss in Texas communities would be devastating,” said Betty Torres, executive director of the Texas Access to Justice Foundation, which also supports the three major organizations. “In that case, offices would definitely be shuttered all over the state and staff would definitely be laid off and, ultimately, that means thousands of people who won’t get services.”
LSC-funded organizations help Texans with civil legal matters ranging from disaster recovery, benefits for military veterans, domestic violence protective orders and housing disputes. Statutory restrictions dictate how LSC and its grantees can use funds, while also limiting the types of cases LSC-funded programs assist on to “really basic needs of people,” said Texas Supreme Court Justice Brett Busby. Busby was part of a Texas delegation that traveled to Washington, D.C., in April to visit with senators and congresspeople to petition for continued funding for LSC.
Studies have shown that civil legal aid has a strong positive return on investment, said Justice Busby, who has been a longtime supporter of legal aid. For every $1 invested, civil legal aid returns $7.48 in other types of government funds the state doesn’t have to spend, according to the last economic impact study done in Texas. In one other state, Louisiana, that number was as much as $17.99.
Federal funding of legal aid also has strong support in the business community.
Six corporate general counsel from Texas — ATT’s GC David McAtee, Dell GC Rich Rothberg, Jacobs CLO Joanne Caruso, Kimberly-Clark Chief Administrative Officer Jeff Melucci, Phillips 66 GC Vanessa Sutherland and USAA CLO Bob Johnson — joined 98 other chief legal officers at large American companies in signing a letter to members of Congress stating that federal funding of LSC is “critical to ensure the stability of families and communities.”
“Unaddressed legal issues resulting from a lack of access to legal resources lead to economic instability which negatively affects families and the business community,” the GCs state in the two-page letter.
“Somebody’s able to get their legal problem resolved, so they don’t end up homeless, they don’t end up without a job, kids don’t end up out of school because their parents have had to relocate. That causes other government expenditures,” Busby said. “So it makes sense, not only from a humanitarian perspective, but from a fiscal perspective, to spend this money on the Legal Services Corporation. … In the current budget environment where they’re understandably looking to cut, that’s not a good place to cut, because you’re going to end up spending more money elsewhere as a result.”
Without LSC funding, courts would be further backlogged, the existing housing crisis would grow and the need for shelters would expand, said Hannah Allison, director of strategic initiatives at Texas RioGrande Legal Aid, which provides aid to about 23,000 people across 68 Southwest Texas counties each year.
“We’re talking about our neighbors who are just one single hurdle away from losing everything, and oftentimes generationally,” Allison said. “It’s an impact that is faced by their children and their children’s children.”
The uncertainty creates a significant challenge for the legal aid organizations that are trying to put together their budgets now and makes staff “incredibly nervous,” said Merrit Klapperich, deputy director of Legal Aid of NorthWest Texas, which services 114 counties.
Created in 1974 under President Richard Nixon, LSC has survived past attempts at elimination. President Ronald Reagan proposed cutting LSC in 1974. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s 1994 legislative agenda Contract with America also threatened to end LSC. Under President Trump’s previous term, proposals to eliminate the LSC in four consecutive budgets were rejected by Congress.
LSC has enjoyed strong bipartisan support in the last decade, LSC President Ronald Flagg said. This year, 37 state supreme court chief justices, including Texas Justice Jimmy Blacklock, and 40 attorneys general signed letters urging Congress to maintain LSC funding. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton was notably absent from the list. The Texas Lawbook requested an interview with Paxton.
Texas Senator John Cornyn has long been a supporter of LSC.
“Equal access to justice is a nonpartisan issue,” Cornyn said in a video LSC published on YouTube in early June that included Republican and Democratic senators and representatives from across the country. “And I’ll continue supporting LSC’s life-changing work.”
“LSC ensures that the most vulnerable Americans have access to counsel, including domestic violence and human trafficking survivors, children, the elderly, and the disabled,” Cornyn said.
The Lawbook requested interviews with Cornyn and fellow Texas Senator Ted Cruz.
“I think we see much more recognition of legal aid as being … a nonpartisan issue: that a domestic violence survivor should get help, that a survivor of a hurricane or a flood should get help, that a veteran should get help in getting the veterans benefits they earned by their service,” Flagg said.
“That’s not a Republican issue. That’s not a Democrat issue. That’s a fundamental fairness issue, and it’s also a constituent-service issue,” Flagg said. “When I talk to people on Capitol Hill and they tell me that their job is constituent services, I say, ‘That’s our job, too.’ When your constituents need help with housing, family issues, public benefits, you members of Congress routinely refer your constituents to the programs we fund.”
That said, Flagg admits, “the risks associated with the White House proposals seem greater than they were eight years ago.”
LSC’s budget stood at $560 million for fiscal years 2024 and 2025, a figure that advocates say has not kept pace with inflation. LSC’s budget in 1994 was 33 percent less at $400 million.
For 2026, the organization is requesting $2.1 billion — a figure Flagg says adjusts for inflation and reflects what is needed to avoid turning away half of eligible clients.
Texas currently gets about 8 percent of LSC’s budget and would continue to get the same percentage if LSC got the increase it seeks, Flagg said.