🍎 citymeetings.nyc #33
Another Survey of Federal Funding & Policy Discussions at Last Week's Budget Hearings
Hi!
Another week, another survey of federal funding & policy discussions at the previous week's budget hearings.
You can read last week's survey here.
I'll be returning to regularly-scheduled programming in April (bullet point highlights for various meetings) followed by surveys again during Executive Budget hearings in May.
If there are issues you'd like me to survey across budget hearings in May, send me an email or reply to this one.
Vikram
Below you'll find a survey of discussions where changes to federal funding or policy came up at every budget hearing last week.
Of note:
- The Committee on Contracts did not discuss federal policy or funding cuts.
- Adrienne Adams commented extensively on potential federal cuts at her Stated Meeting address
To do this, I trawled ~25 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.
Health / Mental Health, Disabilities and Addiction ↗
On federal funding in DOHMH's budget & a letter to Robert Kennedy ↗
Commissioner Morse outlines federal funding in DOHMH's budget.
Commissioner Morse: "Federal funding makes up about 20% of our budget which amounts to $600 million."
"The majority of that funding goes toward emergency preparedness and infectious disease control."
"... As state Health Commissioner McDonald underscored in his testimony earlier this year, we expect the federal government to honor those commitments."
"In light of the White House directive to federal agencies asking them to reduce staff and funding, I sent a letter to HHS secretary Kennedy and acting CDC director Monarez."
"In it, I urge them to preserve national public health infrastructure that has more than proven its worth for decades."
DOHMH's contingency planning ↗
DOHMH is reviewing all their federal grants and doing scenario planning.
CM Schulman: "... in your testimony [you said] that you're putting together contingency plans. So what other sources of funding could DOHMH utilize to cover any federal funding gaps?"
Commissioner Morse: "... we are still in process, a multi month intensive process of doing a review of all of our current federal grants and doing some scenario planning about what possible scenarios for federal cuts could occur."
"However, as you all have seen, it is very difficult to predict the actions of this federal government and the timing of those actions, and therefore it makes it quite challenging to plan for different scenarios."
"Our ongoing work will be to... make sure that no matter what happens in terms of signals or decisions from the federal government, that we'll be able to keep our core public health services and work going to protect New Yorkers."
On the impact of CDC's workforce reduction, particularly on HIV prevention services in NYC ↗
DOHMH expects significant reductions to CDC's workforce and calls out HIV prevention efforts as an area of concern
Commissioner Morse: "We are watching very closely announcements about the reduction in workforce exercise that federal agencies are going through."
"... there are several more weeks of planning around the White House's directive to agencies to reduce their work force. So we'll be watching very closely for further announcements."
"But we expect that those are likely to impact significantly the CDC workforce and potentially CDC funding."
"The other thing that I'll mention is that it has been widely reported in the media and in the news that one of the areas of potential targeting for CDC funding is CDC's HIV prevention programs."
"We were concerned to learn of that news because we have seen a 71% reduction in HIV cases in New York City over the past 20 years because of that funding, because of the prevention funding for HIV."
"... We have about $36,000,000 in CDC HIV prevention funding. And that funding also funds many community based organizations that do HIV prevention services and care."
On potential cuts to Medicaid ↗
DOHMH is watching conversation around Medicaid cuts closely and outlines some numbers.
Commissioner Morse: "The numbers that have been mentioned in the news are $880 billion in cuts over ten years."
"This is certainly of concern to us in New York City. In New York City, half of New York City is on Medicaid and 60% of our children are on Medicaid."
"So our expectation is that if those cuts do happen, there will be significant impacts unfortunately in New York City for both health care as well as social care."
"In addition, we do receive some reimbursement funds for the people who seek care in our sexual health clinics if they are insured by Medicaid."
Housing and Buildings ↗
On impacts to HPD's ELLA (Extremely Low- and Low-Income Affordability) Program ↗
Uncertainty around federal funding pushes out timelines for housing under the ELLA program
HPD Commissioner Tigani: "So right now we are telling developers who are in our pipeline it will be five years or longer depending on available resources and conditions at that time."
"And there's a mix of things that we also have to consider. ... it's not only city resources, but it's also the availability of federal low income tax credits, the availability of HOME funds, which is a funding source we use primarily for our senior projects, both of which have been the top of topic when we're talking about HUD funding and federal appropriations."
"... There isn't a scenario given the cost, the increasing costs of these projects, and some of which are costs we're still considering as we think about tariffs or other federal legislation coming down the pipe."
"... we need the federal partner to assist us."
On cuts to the Emergency Housing Voucher program ↗
HUD is wrapping up the Emergency Housing Voucher program per this letter and nearly 8K households could lose rent aid in NYC
CM Sanchez: "Given the HUD letter from earlier this month on this program and yesterday's article in Gothamist, how will HPD ensure that nearly 8,000 New Yorkers who depend on these vouchers continue to stay housed?"
Deputy Commissioner Gardea Caphart: "So for the emergency housing vouchers, we get approximately $50 million a year..."
"The letter that you referenced came out in early March stating that the 2025 allocation will be the last allocation and that's what we were all pushing back against and continue to push back against."
"Because as you mentioned, our understanding is that has been all along that we will stop reissuing vouchers, but for those that remain, it will phase out over time to 2030, and that's what we're expecting."
"... the key here is to continue to push back."
"That's a commitment the federal government made to the City Of New York, to our residents, and we'll continue to fight to maintain that funding."
On the stability of federal Community Development Block Grants for code enforcement ↗
HPD's not sure what's going to happen with these yet.
CM Sanchez: "... 70% of HPD's code enforcement budget comes from community development block grant funds. So how are we feeling about the security, the stability of these allocated funds and what is HPD's plan if we're to face cuts on that front?"
Commissioner Tigani: "We have a number of individuals who are closely tracking and monitoring discussions in DC about CD writ large."
"... And until we know more, we're not sure what best way to plan. ... We count on the federal funding sources and it would be a very difficult source to replace writ large."
"... We're waiting for the president's budget to come out soon for fiscal year twenty six. And then we'll have to understand basically what the uses are, what our federal funding sources are, and what kind of choices we have to make moving forward."
Veterans ↗
On federal workforce reductions being a threat to DVS ↗
Commissioner Hendon discusses federal workforce & funding reductions as a threat in DVS' SWOT analysis.
DVS Commissioner Hendon: "If the federal government continues the massive reduction in force that is currently planned, then we'll see more New York City Veterans thrown into insecurity."
"This has economic and housing ramifications."
"Add to that, on one hand, we'll see an increase in the number of veterans who engage the VA for support, those who are unemployed.
"At the same time, the VA will be less effective at responding to those veterans recognizing that approximately 20% of its staff, more than 80,000 people, will have been terminated."
"It is important to note that one out of 10 working age veterans is employed by the federal government, 30% of federal workforce is comprised of US Military Veterans, separately 20% of all US employees works for a firm that is a federal contractor."
"... We fear that the VA will use an upcoming review of its medical infrastructure assets to close the VA hospitals in Manhattan and Brooklyn along with a community based outpatient clinic on Staten Island."
On veterans being affected by impacts to employment and healthcare at the same time ↗
Commissioner Hendon is concerned but states his team is stepping up.
DVS Commissioner Hendon: "It's terrifying what's going on ... where our community members may be terminated from their employment on one side, on the other side they go to the VA for care and you know they may not have as much available and that to be able to help them."
"... at a meta level as these things are stepping back on the VA side, the team is stepping up more."
Sanitation and Solid Waste Management ↗
On tariffs affecting the cost of Better Bins ↗
Tariffs will affect orders of Better Bins going forward
DSNY Commissioner Lohan: "First, you are all familiar with the Better Bin, our litter basket of the future, which is both easier to service than the traditional wire mesh basket and more rodent resistant."
"You may have seen press reports that the rollout of these baskets could be impacted by tariffs between US and Canada."
"I am afraid that those reports are accurate."
"... we were able to get about 5,000 bins in this fiscal year ahead of the tariff, but purchases next fiscal year will need to account for those tariff costs."
Federal funding in DSNY's budget ↗
Federal funding in DSNY's budget is for one-time expenditures that have already been done.
CM Abreu: "What specific programs and services does the $200 million in federal funding support and how critical is this funding to DSNY's overall budget?"
Deputy Commission Joseph Antonelli: "So the the $200 million that we have in the budget this year ... that was all for spending that happened prior to the start of the new year."
"That money's already been spent."
"$196 million of it was the American Rescue Plan's funding for waste export. So that's all done. And also there was some money for basket service, approximately $4 million."
"But there's no no risk or anything as that's all done. No ongoing federal funding to support."
CM Abreu: "What percentage of DSNY's total budget relies on federal funding and how does this compare to previous years?"
Deputy Commission Joseph Antonelli: "...in the out years and base line, we don't have regular federal funding."