🍎 citymeetings.nyc #32
A Survey of Federal Funding & Policy Discussions at Last Week's Budget Hearings
Hi!
I'm speaking at School of Data 2025 this Saturday.
I'll primarily discuss how I'm able to publish accurate meeting breakdowns same-day across 50+ hours of hearings each week.
I hope to see you there!
Vikram
This week I compiled a survey of discussions where changes to federal funding or policy came up at every budget hearing last week.
To do this, I trawled ~50 hours of hearings using tools I've built
The content is structured by committee. For each, you'll see a heading with the committee name followed by one or more discussions with headings like On legal threats to NYC.
Arrows link out to chapter or meeting pages on citymeetings.nyc, but I've excerpted discussion in the email so you don't have to click out unless you want to dig in.
The City also published this guide with helpful context on how cuts might affect NYC.
Comments, questions, or feedback? Please email me or reply to this newsletter.
Cultural Affairs, Libraries and International Intergroup Relations ↗
Funding losses that affect services for immigrant populations ↗
The Workforce and Innovation Opportunity Act funds ESOL services.
Queens Library President Dennis Walcott: "... we receive federal dollars on WIOA ..."
"... and so that impacts our immigrant populations and again as indicated in my testimony, mean we have a 2,000 person waiting list for services of people for ESOL and others."
"And so that money would be threatened by the federal government and the loss of dollars to serve that particular population."
On federal policies discouraging international visitors ↗
In her opening remarks, Carlina Rivera discusses impacts to tourism.
CM Rivera: "While tourism is rebounding, international visitor spending remains more than 20% below pre pandemic levels."
"A troubling trend ... given that international tourists spend twice as much as domestic visitors and make up a crucial portion of audiences for Broadway, the Met Opera, and our museums."
"Federal policies including restrictive immigration measures and harmful trade policies have already discouraged international travelers from visiting the US, threatening the financial health of our cultural sector."
"Just this month, a British tourist on a four month backpacking trip across North America was detained by ICE for ten days simply for attempting to enter the US from Canada."
On the impact of the executive order targeting the Institute of Museum and Library Services ↗
DCLA Commissioner Laurie Cumbo discusses how the executive order impacts NYC.
DCLA Commissioner Cumbo: "The elimination of IMLS is very disturbing to our agency for the organizations that we support."
"We do not receive federal funding from IMLS, but many of the organizations that we do provide funding for do receive IMLS funding, do receive fast track grants, and we are very concerned."
"And we are working with our organizations in terms of recognizing how this is going to impact their operations."
On immigration enforcement at cultural celebrations ↗
Carlina Rivera brings up concerns she has heard from constituents regarding ICE targeting cultural celebrations.
CM Carlina Rivera: "Other actions from the federal government, especially around immigration and free speech, left many people in the cultural community concerned about their future."
"And something that groups have said to me recently is many people wouldn't think that ICE would show up at a cultural celebration at a museum, but this is a very real fear that they have, that this can become a target simply for commemorating and celebrating a holiday or just a a population that has contributed so much to our city."
Committee on Economic Development ↗
On tariffs affecting international traveler forecasts ↗
President & CEO of New York City Tourism and Conventions Julie Coker shares thoughts on their international traveler forecast.
CEO Julie Coker: "Where we really need to double down is that we need to take a look at the fact that we just recently adjusted our forecast for international travelers down 3%."
"And as we are all watching the conversations around tariffs unfold, there is a concern about our forecast that we just recently did and we're hoping that we can hold those numbers."
Environmental Protection, Resiliency and Waterfronts ↗
On federal layoffs ↗
Alexa Aviles talks about recruiting laid-off federal workers
CM Aviles: "In terms of the vacancies that we talked about a little earlier, given that the federal government no longer believes in science and is gutting all the agencies that we depend on and will quite frankly impact us in laying off all these workers..."
"... we might have a good hiring option and recruitment to get folks to New York City where we believe in science and where we will utilize all those tools."
On EPA rolling back protections and being gutted ↗
Lincoln Restler and Commissioner Aggarwala discuss the budgetary and policy impacts of EPA rolling back protections and being gutted.
CM Restler: "... does the EPA's announcement that they're rolling back certain protections in the Clean Water Act and removing federal protections for certain areas in various areas impact EPA's efforts today to maintain clean water and avoid filtration at these two locations [in the watershed]?"
DEP Commissioner Aggarwala: "The reality is that so much of what we do is actually directly regulated by the state and not just by the federal government."
"And the governor and I did recently meet with the newly nominated commissioner of state DEC, you know, but the governor has expressed that New York state is not backing down for many of its environmental regulations and so I am hopeful and cautiously optimistic that New York state will continue ... all the protections that we currently rely on."
CM Restler: "Yesterday, Administrator Zeldin has indicated he's planning to gut two thirds of the agency ... You spoke in your testimony to the budgetary impacts that we could experience with all of the chaos happening in Washington. ... But could you speak to the policy impacts?"
DEP Commissioner Aggarwala: "You know, there have been a number of important decisions EPA has made in recent years around PFAS and the forever chemicals, around lead service lines, around any number of things."
"... we are now very much trying to bear in mind where we depend on the federal government in ways that we might have taken for granted to such an extent that we don't even notice, and now we have to make sure we notice."
Governmental Operations, State, and Federal Legislation ↗
On electricity tariffs ↗
DCAS' and NY state's understanding is that a 25% tariff imposed on Champlain Hudson Power Express (CHPE) will not significantly affect electricity pricing.
CM Restler: "Have you begun discussing with colleagues internally the impacts of the potential Canadian tariffs on the city's electricity bills and what the potential costs will be for us?"
DCAS Commissioner Barakat: "... the big part of it is that it's not even certain that electricity sales will be part of the tariff."
"It does increase the cost, but at the same time we were doing all these other things that help reduce the cost including demand response ... and energy efficiency projects ... with the goal to reduce energy consumption."
"Our understanding it's not going to be significantly affecting the pricing. The report came out actually two days ago from the state ... saying the same."
On legal threats to NYC ↗
Corp. Counsel Goode-Trufant confirms the Law Department is taking proactive steps to review potential legal threats to NYC.
CM Restler: "... has the law department taken any proactive steps to review potential legal threats that the city is facing from the Trump administration? Are you expanding staff capacity to litigate and protect New Yorkers against the kind of chaos coming out of Washington?"
Corp. Counsel Goode-Trufant: "We most definitely have taken proactive steps. ... we have a multi divisional team that looks at various questions that's in addition to items that are examined within our particular divisions such as, but not limited to, our affirmative litigation and environment law divisions."
"... we are closely reading, we're closely monitoring, there are places where we are participating as a party, places where we are an amicus, instances where we might be part of a common interest agreement with partners in order to watch a topic and when the time is ripe to take the next step."
On Mayor Adams' conflicts of interest with the federal government ↗
CM Restler asks if Mayor Adams is conflicted out from dealing with issues relating to the federal government
CM Restler: "Is he conflicted out from dealing with any issues relating to the federal government, the Justice Department as a result of his his situation?"
Corp. Counsel Goode-Trufant: "I would like to not answer any questions about his personal situation because we represent only the city and we make certain that we keep that line very bright."
Committee on General Welfare ↗
On the impact of potential federal budget cuts to NYC social services ↗
DSS Commissioner Molly Wasow Park discussed the potential impact of federal cuts in her testimony.
DSS Commissioner Park: "It would be irresponsible of me not to focus some of this presentation on the threats to federal funding currently being contemplated by Congress."
"As I've highlighted in my testimony, DSS, HRA, and DHS budgets are significantly reliant on federal dollars, but more importantly, the 3 million people we serve receive significant benefits from the federal government."
"We are seeing increasing demand for these services at the same time that they are under threat."
Commisioner Parker goes on to detail the cuts extensively in her testimony.
What are DSS' contingency plans if federal funds are cut? ↗
Diana Ayala asks Commissioner Park about contingency plans
CM Ayala: "... has there already been a conversation between DSS and OMB to start strategically talking through some contingency planning for the potential federal cuts?"
Commissioner Park: "We are actively working on contingency planning as an agency. ... I will say there are no easy solutions here given the magnitude of the potential cuts"
"... I don't see a realistic pathway for the city or even the city and state to backfill what's potentially lost from the federal government."
On the impact of SNAP cuts in NYC ↗
Commissioner Park outlines the extent and impact of SNAP cuts.
Commissioner Park: "The house budget resolution that was passed at the February, right, included a $230 billion cut to the committee that administers SNAP. We assume that the bulk of that cut would translate to SNAP cuts."
"Our very rough estimate ... is that for New York City that would translate to a cut of about $870 million a year. For a family of three on SNAP that's a loss of about $1,500 a year which is a very real cut."
"There was an announcement I think last week that pulled back $1 billion across the country that was going to help schools and food pantries purchase from local farms."
"The SNAP cut is certainly the elephant in the room, but it's not the only place where we are concerned on the food side."
"I don't see a situation where the city or the city and the state comes in to back fill that in its entirety."
Children and Youth ↗
Federal funding to DYCD ↗
Althea Stevens shared federal funding numbers and expected/had already heard of impacts to DYCD programs
CM Stevens: "The preliminary budget includes $110.4 million for federal funding for DYCD in FY2025."
"With all the edicts being issued by the Trump White House, we can never be sure of what funding is in jeopardy, but it's likely that some proportion of this funding will be reduced or eliminated."
"We are also hearing that there are already been cuts from federal from the federal government that will affect our Runaway Homeless Youth (RHY) population, which which will be stopping section eight and NYCHA access."
Housing Assistance for Runaway Homeless Youth ↗
DYCD shares there's no current impact to runaway and homeless services.
DYCD Deputy Commissioner Haskell: "We are aware there could be impact to federal fundings like Section Eight, Housing Choice Vouchers for NYCHA and all the support housing opportunities that we seek out for young people in runaway homeless services."
"But at this time there's no impact to runaway and homeless services specifically and we will continue to seek out all stable housing opportunities for runaway and homeless who are you know in our programs."
On planning for cuts to DYCD ↗
Althea Stevens asserted that NYC should expect an impact to DYCD's programs and was frustrated that she didn't hear any contingency plans.
CM Stevens: "We cannot control what we cannot control, but for me planning is the best solution for us to have moving forward because we know that there will be an impact."
"And if we don't have a plan, then let's meet to make a plan because there's no way that this is not going to have an impact ... if you're flagging it, that means we know this is something that's coming down the pike."
Federally-funded ACS Programs ↗
ACS Commissioner Dannhauser shares which ACS programs are federally funded.
CM Stevens: "Federal funds make up 39.1% of ACS's budget in FY26 and 42.6% in FY2025."
Commissioner Dannhauser: "... in federal FY25 we expect about $1.35 billion in federal resources. It primary supports two areas."
"One is the child care block grant ... a significant source of the resources for the major expansion in child care assistance. The other larger component is foster care ... our Title IV-E funding stream."
Transportation and Infrastructure ↗
On how the Federal OMB Memo pausing grants, loans, and other financial assistance affects DOT ↗
Selvena Brooks-Powers asks what might happen if the city isn't able to collect DOT's federal funding.
CM Brooks-Powers: "On 01/27/2025, the Trump administration issued a directive to pause federal loan and grant spending."
"This directive was quickly rescinded two days later but an executive order issued by the president to review funding remains in effect."
"The preliminary plan includes $109 million of federal funding for a DOT in FY25, 8% of the agency's budget and $84.4 million for FY26, which is 6% of the agency's budget."
"If the city is unable to collect this federal funding, how does DOT plan on addressing this potential federal shortfall and how will it affect operations?"
DOT Commissioner Rodriguez: "If there's less resources, you know, the agency had to figure out a way how to keep our infrastructure in a state of repair."
"... 98% of the job is more than bus lane and bike lanes. It's about the $17,000,000,000 in the next ten years we already have secured to invest in for our bridges, for our roadways where we have 1,600 men and women taking care of the roadway."
"... we have not had any definite news that the grant ... is something that DOT will lose. But if anything comes, you know, we have a great team."
Which federal grants were applied for and awarded to DOT? ↗
DOT's Paul Ochoa shares federal grants DOT applied for and won, and when they might continue funding a project if a grant is rescinded.
DOT Executive Deputy Commissioner Paul Ochoa: "We've had Reconnecting Communities, ATTAIN, RAISE, the Bridge Investment Program."
"We've won essentially grants in every single one of these competitive grants ... I'm pretty sure when I say this that we were awarded a at least one type of grant for every type of competitive grant that was put out."
"The administration was very aggressive in pursuing competitive grants from both the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act."
"If any grant is rescinded, you'll be the first to know. And as the commissioner mentioned, we would work with city hall and OMB to make sure that if a program is a pilot, that we can try to fund it."
"And if it's a street reconstruction project for example ... most of those projects were funded with city tax dollars, which means that the federal funding would be displacing city tax dollars."
"All that means is that the project's gonna move forward whether or not it's with city dollars or with federal dollars."
Consumer and Worker Protection ↗
On DCWP filling federal consumer protection gaps ↗
DCWP's General Counsel shares where DCWP is looking into filling in consumer protection gaps that CFPB may not fill.
DCWP Commissioner Mayuga: "So I actually wanted General Counsel Mike Tiger to share some of the things that we're also looking into considering ... especially with the Consumer Protection Bureau and related agencies."
DCWP GC Michael Tiger: "We're all aware of how dire the situation is in DC for the federal consumer protection regulatory agencies."
"We're looking at junk fees, which was a very big initiative by the Biden administration and the previous administration with the Federal Trade Commission. And that's something we're looking ... to do some rule making [around] this calendar year."
"And we, as you may know, licensed debt collection agencies in the state of New York can have consumer protection rules devoted to debt collection. And we are going to do another round of rule making."
"We're really looking at where we can get, where we can fill in, in spaces where we had once assumed that the federal government could really take the leadership role on."
"And I think, especially in something like debt collection, we really would like to invite all of you, as you're talking to people in your community, to make sure that complaints that they may have in the first instance have gone to those federal regulators, make sure we're open for business."
On local labor rights enforcement ↗
DCWP Commissioner Mayuga affirms that DCWP will enforce local labor rights in spite of actions by the Trump administration
CM Caban: "How are the federal government's actions under the Trump administration impacting local labor rights enforcement, and what steps is is DCWP taking to strengthen those protections in in response specifically?"
DCWP Commissioner Mayuga: "... we try to always make it a point to stress to all New Yorkers in our outreach and education that we're here to serve every single person."
"... we will be quite the staunch advocates and make sure that we obtain any restitution that they're entitled to when there's been violations of the law."
Small Business ↗
Small business services doesn't expect cuts ↗
SBS Commissioner Gross doesn't expect an impact to small business services.
CM Feliz: "How would decreases in federal funding affect the services that you provide?"
SBS Commissioner Gross: "... at this point we have not seen or heard of any federal plans that would jeopardize the sources of federal funding that SBS relies on"
"... workforce and small business services have generally enjoyed broad bipartisan support ... we have no reason to expect that the sources of federal funding that we rely on are in jeopardy."
CDFIs are losing funding
This executive order encompasses Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) and the CDFI Fund. Two public testimonies focused on this this EO.
Yanki Tshering from Accompany Capital: "So what I would like to quickly say is executive order from the current administration is putting the future of the federal CDFI fund at risk." ↗
Jessie Lee from Renaissance Economic Development: "Last week, an executive order from the White House threatened the stability of the CDFI fund at the US treasury." ↗
Parks and Recreation ↗
Cuts Affecting Natural Area Staff ↗
Natural Areas Conservancy brought the only mention of federal funding cuts to Parks & Rec in NYC.
Emily Walker from Natural Areas Conservancy: "There are currently 22 natural area staff whose positions are being covered through federal funding that's current imperiled."
Thanks for reading!
Comments, questions, or feedback? Reply to this email or shoot me a note at vikram@citymeetings.nyc