The House Appropriations Committee has proposed cutting $197 million from the budget of the U.S. Treasury's Community Development Financial Institutions Fund for this fiscal year.

The administration's proposed budget for 2012 was released today and details for how it may pertain to CDFI have not yet become available.

Because 2011's budget has yet to be passed, the federal government has been funded by continuing resolutions, measures which have maintained funding at roughly the 2010 level.

The latest proposal from the House Appropriations Committee is the latest attempt to fund this year's budget and the first since the Republican Party took control of the committee after becoming the majority party in the House.

In addition to being $197 million below the CDFI funding level enacted in 2010 and carried on so far in 2011, it is also $200 million below the level the Obama administration proposed, according to the CDFI Coalition.

The coalition, made up of stakeholders in the CDFI Fund, including credit unions, decried the proposed cuts and urged its member institutions to contact Congress.

"CDFIs across the country are financing small businesses and affordable housing development in low income and underserved communities that lack access to capital especially in recent years as conventional lenders have pulled back," the coalition said. "CDFIs are working to create and retain jobs and we cannot afford to reduce their funding by 80% at a time when demand for CDFI financing is robust and essential," it added.