Flathead Beacon: House Budget Cuts Could Result in Kalispell Health Clinic Closure
The major budget-slashing measure Congressional Republicans passed last week contained a funding cut that could force the two-year-old public health clinic in Kalispell to close its doors.
“The cuts in the continuing resolution will defund 127 new access programs,” Wendy Doely, executive director of the Flathead Community Health Center, said, “which essentially means that we would close.”
“The only one in Montana that will disappear if this goes through is us,” she added.
The Flathead Community Health Center is approaching the end of a two-year operating grant provided through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, also known as the stimulus. The House voted Saturday to slash more than $60 billion from the federal government in the Continuing Resolution, which funds its operations for the next seven months. The reduced budget sets up a showdown with the Senate’s Democratic majority and the White House.
