Layoffs and library closures: DOGE cuts hit states

Politico

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The Trump administration's budget-slashing campaign is beginning to hit state governments in full force, as legislatures finalize their spending plans for the next year and confront a harsh reality: less federal help, more layoffs.
The cuts are forcing local lawmakers — most of whom have to balance their budget — to scale back public goods, including health programs and libraries, regardless of whether they live in red or blue states.
President DONALD TRUMP's decision in March to abruptly rescind $11.4 billion in Covid-related public health grants from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, along with $1 billion from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, has led to significant state-level layoffs. While a federal judge halted the CDC funding cuts, states have not received the funds back, according to DANIELLE CONLON, a spokesperson for the Utah Department of Health.
In Virginia, the state health department laid off or froze contracts for 530 workers, including 13 full-time employees, blaming the federal cuts.
Minnesota let go of 170 employees, citing the same funding shortfalls. State officials in Arkansas, Alaska, and Utah each reported additional layoffs in the double digits and blamed the federal cuts.
While originally allotted for pandemic recovery, much of the now-canceled CDC funding was also being used to bolster testing and reporting for bird flu, measles and other infectious disease threats, programs that state officials say remain critical. The CDC funding was supposed to last until 2026 or 2027.
Libraries are also feeling the squeeze. In Washington state, both the State Library and the Talking Book & Braille Library will close their doors on July 1 after the Institute of Museum and Library Services, a small federal agency, cut grants because Trump ordered it to reduce operations 'to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law' and the group subsequently cut grants.
South Dakota's State Library closed in April. And in Maine, the state library is down to curbside pickup after laying off nearly one-third of its staff in April.
Other states are turning to broader measures to address budget constraints. Massachusetts announced an executive branch hiring freeze that took effect in late May, citing expectations of further federal cuts and inflationary pressures.
And more pain may be on the way. The GOP's megabill pending on Capitol Hill could impose additional federal spending cuts, including reductions to Medicaid and SNAP, with likely consequences for state budgets already stretched thin.
'If federal cuts go through as planned, states will have to make difficult choices,' the Tax Policy Center wrote in a recent analysis.
'They could cut their own spending on SNAP and Medicaid, potentially hurting some of their most vulnerable residents. Cutting other spending, on education, public safety or transportation for example, may also affect the quality of services and be politically challenging.'
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POTUS PUZZLER
Which former president disclosed in a live TV address that a supporter had donated a dog to his family?
(Answer at bottom.)
Agenda Setting
FIRST IN WEST WING PLAYBOOK: Office of Management and Budget Director RUSS VOUGHT will testify before the Senate Appropriations Committee next week on the rescissions package that could codify a modest portion of DOGE's cuts.
Vought's plan is to put as much pressure on the Senate as possible and leave them without more excuses on passage of the bill, a person familiar with his plans said. The bill requires a simple majority in the chamber.
MUSK'S BIG LIES AT SSA: ELON MUSK and his allies systematically spun a false narrative about widespread fraud at the Social Security Administration to justify DOGE's takeover of the agency and attempts to gain access to its data, NYT's ALEXANDRA BERZON, NICHOLAS NEHAMAS and TARA SIEGEL BERNARD report.
Musk's fixation with SSA — including his repeated, and debunked, claims that millions of dead people were receiving Social Security checks — developed in February after his team misread government spending data, the NYT investigation found. DOGE officials acknowledged in an internal memo that the deceased were not receiving checks, but Musk continued to peddle the conspiracy on social media and in interviews.
SSA employees conducted an extensive analysis of DOGE's claims, which they found to be largely inaccurate. After Musk claimed that 40 percent of the calls SSA received were from scammers, employees had even drafted a response to correct the record.
But LELAND DUDEK, the agency's DOGE-sympathizing former acting commissioner, received an angry call from KATIE MILLER, who handled communications for DOGE in the White House, demanding, 'Do not contradict the president.' The investigation also found that DOGE used SSA to flex its political power, including by instructing Dudek to cancel contracts in Maine amid a public spat between Trump and Democratic Gov. JANET MILLS.
FANNIE AND FREDDIE AND DONNIE: Republican lawmakers and mortgage industry experts are baffled by Trump's plan to reshape the country's housing finance system, setting up a potential rift in the GOP, our KATY O'DONNELL reports.
Trump last month pledged to take public Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, while his top housing regulator, BILL PULTE, said the administration is exploring ways to sell shares while keeping the companies under government authority. Trump was widely expected to support the long-held Republican priority of reducing the government's footprint in the housing market by privatizing the firms, which were seized by the Bush administration during the 2008 financial crisis.
Knives Out
IMPOUNDMENT ANNOUNCEMENT: The Government Accountability Office concluded today that the Trump administration violated the Impoundment Control Act by clawing back federal funding appropriated by Congress to support libraries, archives and museums across the country, our JENNIFER SCHOLTES reports.
It's the second time this year the GAO has slapped the administration with impoundment violations, and the watchdog is expected to issue similar conclusions in the coming months as it pursues at least 39 investigations into whether the Trump administration violated the law.
A SUB IN THE LIBRARY: The group at the center of the funding firestorm, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, is being overseen by KEITH SONDERLING, who is moonlighting from his main job as deputy Labor secretary, our NICK NIEDZWIADEK writes in. Vought has openly expressed contempt for GAO's position with respect to impoundment and his office told GAO on May 30 it will continue to cooperate only when the administration sees fit.
WHO'S IN, WHO'S OUT
YOU'RE FIRED: Trump terminated CHRISTOPHER HANSON from the top job at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in the latest move by the White House to assert control over independent agencies, our JOSH SIEGEL and KELSEY TAMBORRINO report.
The former commissioner, appointed chair by former President JOE BIDEN in 2021 but initially tapped for the commission by Trump in 2020, said in a statement today he had been fired 'without cause' and 'contrary to existing law and longstanding precedent regarding removal of independent agency appointees.'
What We're Reading
What Did Elon Musk Accomplish at DOGE? (The New Yorker's Benjamin Wallace-Wells)
How Amy Coney Barrett Is Confounding the Right and the Left (NYT's Jodi Kantor)
The Next Conservative Civil War Is Coming (POLITICO's Ankush Khardori)
Trump's FAA pick has claimed 'commercial' pilot license he doesn't have (POLITICO's Oriana Pawlyk)
POTUS PUZZLER ANSWER
Former President RICHARD NIXON, at the time a senator from California and the running mate to former President DWIGHT EISENHOWER, declared in an infamous 1952 speech that he had received a political gift in the form of a dog from a supporter in Texas. Nixon's 6-year-old daughter, TRICIA, named the pup CHECKERS — and 'regardless of what they say about it,' Nixon said, 'we're gonna keep it.'