187,000 Kansas children miss out on free summer meals despite eligibility
Kansas Department for Children and Families data shows only 3% of eligible Kansas children received summer food assistance through the federal Summer Electronic Benefits Transfer program. (Sam Bailey/Kansas Reflector)
TOPEKA — An estimated 187,000 Kansas school-age children could have received free summer meals last year — their families just didn't submit the application.
Of the 193,000 potential applications estimated by the United States Department of Agriculture for the SUN Bucks program, according to the Kansas Department for Children and Families, there were 5,645 submitted — only 3%. The program, also known as the Summer Electronic Benefits Transfer program, gives families a $120 summer grocery card per eligible school-age child.
How to apply for SUN Bucks
Application is open now through Aug. 29, 2025.
Families who did not receive a letter from the Kansas Department for Children and Families in January can check their eligibility.
Families should apply through the DCF Self-service portal.
While most eligible children did not receive the SUN Bucks, 59,265 families automatically received them, according to DCF. The number of families who automatically received benefits were not counted into the 193,000 potential applications. Children in a household that had already submitted paperwork to receive free or reduced-price school lunches or applied for monthly food assistance programs, for example, were auto-enrolled. Families auto-enrolled for this summer received a letter in January.
The majority of states that offer SUN Bucks auto-enroll children in Medicaid. Kansas does not.
Haley Kottler, campaign director for food access at Kansas Appleseed, says DCF can't auto-enroll children on Medicaid because of capacity issues with its internal system.
'If systems were integrated and updated, approximately 60,000 more eligible children could be auto-enrolled in SUN Bucks,' Kottler said.
After federal funding was approved, families had from Aug. 12, 2024, to Oct. 15, 2024, to apply. This year, families have from Jan. 27 to Aug. 29 to apply — enlarging the window from two to seven months.
Kottler identified the small timespan as a reason for the low number of applications. The original application deadline was Sept. 11, 2024, and Kottler fought to change it. But she said that even with the extended window, applications didn't increase.
'It made it really challenging, because a lot of families just didn't know they were able to utilize this benefit,' Kottler said.
Erin LaRow, a spokeswoman for DCF, said her department spread the word via social media campaigns, messaging within the DCF phone system and self-service portal, a dedicated webpage and a statewide news release.
The department also shared a fact sheet, both in English and Spanish, with the Kansas State Department of Education.
David Rubel, a New York City-based education consultant, looked at 12 states' potential number of applications vs applications submitted. He found the percentage of applications submitted in every state was less than 20%.
North Carolina had the highest results, with 19.3% of applications submitted, followed by Missouri, with 18.3%. He said the comparatively robust numbers are because of communication about the SUN Bucks program from school districts.
'It's all about the school districts getting the word out to their families. And why I emphasize the school districts is because they're the only ones who have the current contact information for the families,' Rubel said.
Amber Wheeler, the superintendent of Humboldt School District — which has 33% of students approved for free and reduced-price lunches — said it has posted a DCF infographic on their social media accounts.
Robin Button, the food and service director for Fort Scott School District — with 56.7% of students approved for free and reduced-price lunches — said it plans on posting the infographic and mentioning the program at its town hall.
In the wake of President Donald Trump's promise to deport more people — and the use of federal documents to identify them — immigrant families are wary of submitting more documentation. While the Kansas DCF website states that receiving SUN Bucks would not affect a family's immigration status, fear remains.
'There's a chilling effect when it comes to programs like this,' Kottler said. 'It's absolutely causing them fear and to not apply.'
Trump and tech billionaire Elon Musk have been pushing spending cuts — a crusade that has trickled down to state-level officials. At the Kansas State Board of Education meeting on April 8, the board nearly cut the Public Education Partnership, which informs parents of the summer meals offered to them. The partnership was saved by one vote.
In the 2025-2026 Kansas legislative session, Republicans attempted to insert a provision in the budget that would ban the use of SUN Bucks on candy or soda. Democratic Governor Laura Kelly vetoed the provision — and while the Senate overturned her veto, the House did not — ultimately upholding her veto.
LaRow with DCF said the department has received 1,294 SUN Bucks applications as of April 11.
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Chicago Tribune
an hour ago
- Chicago Tribune
As labor costs rise, AI is learning to farm
A century ago, orchards were the primary source of income for Parker Flamm's grandfather and many others in Cobden, a 1,000-person town in southern Illinois. Today, Flamm Orchards is one of the last standing. 'Right now, it's pretty much just us,' said Flamm, a sixth-generation orchard owner whose primary customer is a Kroger distribution center in Louisville that buys their peaches and apples. He blames the mass exodus of orchards on the challenges rising labor costs and a shortage of workers pose to an industry where the standard is to do everything by hand, from pruning trees and harvesting to packing and shipping. 'For every dollar we make, you can safely say that half of it goes back into labor expenses,' he said. At peak season in June and July, Flamm Orchards employs about 90 workers from Oaxaca, Mexico, with temporary visas to do agricultural work. Flamm spends tens of thousands of dollars to get the workers into the country for just a few months at a time. The Tribune is launching a series of special reports analyzing the hurdles many farmers face in trying to be good stewards of the land as climate change intensifies. Experts preach growing a variety of crops as weather resilience and food security strategies. But Illinois farmers report that the labor demands of fruits and vegetables and the rising cost of that labor are deterrents to growing anything but corn and soybeans. While most produce must be handpicked from trees, vines and bushes, expansive and uniform rows of corn and soybeans cater to repetitive processes that are relatively simple to automate. Combines have been used to harvest grain and beans since the 1930s. Engineers are betting that, one day, artificial intelligence will provide a means of meeting the more delicate labor demands of specialty crops. 'You identify the fruit, reach the fruit and put it in a container. You need a brain and vision or you need a computer and cameras to see the fruit and complete the process,' said Yuzhen Lu, an assistant professor of biosystems and agricultural engineering at Michigan State University. Drawing on advances in facial recognition technologies and autonomous vehicles, Lu and his team aspire to develop an AI-powered robot that can recognize and harvest fruits and vegetables. Meanwhile, Juventino Garcia Chavez, 44, has been working at the orchard from March to October for over a decade. He makes the majority of his income during these seven months, then returns home to his wife, 14-year-old son and 5-year-old daughter in Oaxaca. 'I miss my family, but I need to work,' he said in Spanish. Chavez learned about the H-2A temporary agricultural worker program from several neighbors who have also used it to secure steady jobs. As domestic interest in farm work has declined, specialty growers are increasingly reliant on migrants who enter the country legally with an H-2A visa. So far, despite the Trump administration's aggressive crackdown on immigration, it has not targeted this program. The number of visas requested and approved ballooned eightfold from 2005 to 2024, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data. Three local residents applied to work for Flamm Orchards this season. One quit after a day. The labor is physically demanding and the conditions can be grueling: seven days a week, rain or shine, under the blazing hot sun or in freezing cold winds. With little success recruiting and retaining Americans, Flamm said he has been forced to turn to Mexico to fulfill his orchard's needs. On an early May morning, Chavez was packaging strawberries in a warehouse, hand selecting the fresh ones and discarding the rotten ones — a relatively painless activity. His least favorite task is picking cucumbers, which requires him to bend over for hours on end under the July and August sun. 'It can be hard because we work in the heat and the rain, but we go forth,' Chavez said. The demographic makeup of workers on Flamm's farm is emblematic of a larger trend in American agriculture. According to the latest data from the USDA, 55% of farm workers are Mexican, compared with 12% of the entire workforce. Before recruiting H-2A workers, farmers must prove that they've made a serious effort to advertise the job openings domestically. 'We feel like we have some of the best help in the country,' said Flamm, likening the 90 workers he employs every year to professional athletes. 'Outside the expense of the whole program, we cannot say a single bad thing.' Farmers who use the visa program must provide migrant workers housing, transportation and a minimum salary called the adverse effect wage. These expenses are on top of more than $300 per worker in administrative and processing fees farmers pay to the federal government and brokers. The federal government averages farmworkers' gross hourly earnings collected via annual surveys to set this salary floor. The adverse effect wage, which varies regionally, is meant to ensure farmers don't outsource labor at the expense of domestic job seekers. But farmers say it's prohibitive. The salary for visa holders is $19.57 per hour this year in Illinois, whereas the state's minimum wage is $15 per hour. And this adverse effect wage has been steadily rising, jumping more than $1 from 2024 to 2025 and over $5 since 2020. 'It's really scary and unsustainable,' said Flamm. 'A lot of people look at all those hoops and expenses that you have to jump through and decide (farming is) not worth it. So (rising H-2A expenses) definitely play a big part in the decline in farms.' Fifteen years ago, the Flamms also grew 400 acres of zucchini. Today, they've scaled zucchini down to 50 acres and just farm it to fill the void between peach and strawberry season in June. They can't afford the workers needed to sustain a larger operation. Elizabeth Wahle, a commercial agriculture specialist with the University of Illinois, said politicians must face the reality that farming will become increasingly dependent on foreign labor. 'Short of us having a whole new generation of people who just really love working outside year-round, I don't know if that's going to change,' she said. As many worry about labor shortages, others are looking to artificial intelligence to fill the void. 'We're living in very exciting times for AI and agriculture,' said Baskar Ganapathysubramanian, director of the AI Institute for Resilient Agriculture housed at Iowa State University. 'We're going to see significant progress in the next decade.' AI is already being used to scan fields for weeds and pests and then share that data with farmers to support decision-making. It's becoming increasingly good at making recommendations too, such as suggesting when and how much to fertilize, he said. The next step, according to Ganapathysubramanian, is having AI make decisions and take action using robotic limbs, essentially replacing human labor. These processes will have to be tailored to the unique care regime of each fruit and vegetable, adding a layer of complexity. Tomatoes need to be planted in mid-May and twisted off the vine before the first frost. Broccoli prefers chillier temperatures, so it can be planted as early as February and harvested as late as November, but the heads have to be hand-cut from the base of the stalk. Both can be frozen but should be eaten within six months for optimal freshness. In general, technology is further along for row crops because hundreds of acres of corn and soybeans are relatively simple to tend to en masse. Ag-tech conglomerates such as John Deere and CNH Industrial have also historically catered to the needs of row crop operations since they're such a large share of the nation's agricultural sector, accounting for $21 billion of agricultural production in Illinois alone. Specialty crops haven't received as much attention from corporate America. 'We don't have that kind of interest, at least here in the United States, for specialty producers,' said Dennis Bowman, a digital agriculture specialist at the University of Illinois Extension. He's leading a team of researchers training artificial intelligence to identify horseradish by feeding it photos of the root vegetable at different stages of maturity. Anything unrecognizable is assumed to be a weed, which activates a pinpoint sprayer or mechanical tool that targets the weed but doesn't harm the horseradish. The mechanical tool could be used to farm organic produce, Bowman said. Once the AI model is refined, Bowman said it could easily be modified to identify other crops. He expects this weeding technology will be on the market within three years and relatively affordable since his team is largely modifying pre-existing technologies. Lu, the Michigan State professor, said the harvesting technology he's working on is much further from commercialization. A robotic arm may, one day, be able to pick different fruits and vegetables, according to Lu. The team must first overcome significant challenges, including getting the AI to recognize a ripe crop under varying light conditions and developing a portable, powerful battery that can withstand long hours in a hot field. Farm labor is notoriously strenuous, and the migrant workers who are increasingly doing it are often vulnerable. 'The law isn't on their side,' said Alexandra Sossa, chief executive officer of the Chicago-based Farmworker and Landscaper Advocacy Project. Even though they're in the country legally, H-2A visa holders cannot unionize under federal law and are not eligible for overtime pay in Illinois. Still, many rely on this seasonal work to provide for their family year-round. The five months per year that Chavez is home in Oaxaca, he picks up odd jobs as available. Flamm Orchards provides his steady income. Sossa advocates for stronger worker protections as well as streamlining the application process to reduce the administrative burden on both workers and employers. Migrants can currently only stay in the country for up to 10 months at a time and their employer must reapply to bring them back the next year, a process that can take months. The federal government should consider reducing application fees and allowing multiyear visas, Sossa said. Many of the workers Flamm employs have returned several years in a row. Chavez, who arrived in March, reported having no problem renewing his visa and plans to return next year, as long as political conditions allow. At a Cabinet meeting in April, President Donald Trump reportedly expressed interest in expanding the visa program, according to an NBC News report, including creating avenues for the approximately 40% of U.S. crop farmworkers in the country illegally to reenter with H-2A status. However, Sossa expects the president's anti-immigrant rhetoric and recent actions — including his recent deportation of several Venezuelan migrants in the United States legally — will have a cooling effect on foreign interest in working in the U.S. This, combined with a lack of domestic interest in farm work, could negatively impact American farmers' ability to get food to market. But, more immediately, the Trump administration's tariffs have sent shockwaves through Midwestern farming communities. Soybean and corn farmers worry Trump's tariffs could hurt their businesses. China and Mexico have historically been two of the largest consumers of Illinois' No. 1 and No. 2 commodities. Flamm, however, is in favor of the administration's strategy. Even though it means he'll have to pay more for foreign-sourced supplies such as fertilizers and seeds, he said higher tariffs on produce from Mexico will make it easier for his relatively small operation to compete. 'From our standpoint, he can slap a tariff on Mexico for Mexican grown produce. We're all about it, even if it raises our inputs somewhat. To stop the Mexican produce coming into the country for next to nothing is invaluable to us,' he said. On the flipside, he also wants it to be easier for Mexican workers to enter the United States. The old white house where Hans Bishop's H-2A workers lived is falling apart. Bishop, 41, grew vegetables on his farm in central Illinois until 2023, when rising labor costs and unfavorable lease terms pressured him to pivot. Today, he exclusively grows corn and soybeans. In early April, down the road from the ramshackle house, dry corn shot from one of Bishop's grain silos into a semi-truck headed for Kentucky. Luke Darrow, a 32-year-old from a neighboring town and Bishop's only employee, monitored the loading process from the sidelines. The corn was collected last year with a mechanical harvester called a combine and has been stored in a metal silo for months. Truckloads of this dry grain have been leaving his farm all winter, providing him with a steady income year-round. Bishop grows organically on the majority of his acres, meaning he doesn't use any fertilizers or pesticides, which are often made with petroleum. It's widely considered an environmentally friendly practice. But, since he doesn't use pesticides, he has to take several passes through his field with a diesel-powered tractor to get rid of the weeds. 'Then we're burning a bunch of fuel to harvest corn and soybeans, and to truck it from the farm to the elevator, and to truck it from the elevator to the end user. It's just a system that's completely dependent on a non-renewable resource,' Bishop reflected. AI, however, doesn't promise to be much cleaner. It demands a staggering amount of power. While carbon emissions from AI used in agriculture are yet to be determined, just a simple search query on an AI-powered enginesuch as ChatGPT uses 10 times as much electricity as a basic Google search. Trends suggest that even when it's ready, AI won't penetrate farming communities quickly. Technology adoption in farming has lagged compared to other sectors, said Adee Athiyaman, a professor of agricultural marketing at Western Illinois University. Technologies that use sensors to monitor field conditions and apply chemicals precisely where and when needed have been available since the 1990s, but a 2023 USDA study found that only 27% of U.S. farms and ranches used them. Bishop, for example, just got a GPS this year and all three of his diesel-powered tractors are second-hand: one is from his grandfather, another is from his father and he bought the newest used. For him, the biggest barrier has been cost. The margins on his 700-acre operation haven't been enough to justify the expense. The adoption rates of technologies 'increase sharply' with farm income, according to another federal study, suggesting that AI could widen the gap between small and large farms. Large farms could get larger and small farmers could get smaller as they struggle to compete, hollowing out the middle. 'Small-scale farmers don't really want to spend time and energy and money on technology, but technology is the way to go if you want to really keep up,' Athiyaman said. Flamm is ready to experiment. He and his family have seen too many neighboring orchards shutter as their own expenses continue to rise. 'Whenever the technology is there, it's going to require some serious looking into because if we could cut down on the labor expense, that would be huge,' he said. But Chavez isn't worried about AI taking his job any time soon. 'There are jobs that cannot be done with a machine at 100%. The hands of people are needed to be able to do this job,' said the migrant worker.
Boston Globe
an hour ago
- Boston Globe
New taxes, money for primary care: Here's what's in the revised $14.3 billion R.I. state budget
Reimbursement rates for primary care doctors Shekarchi, a Warwick Democrat, said the House budget adds $45 million to boost Medicaid reimbursement rates for Get Rhode Map A weekday briefing from veteran Rhode Island reporters, focused on the things that matter most in the Ocean State. Enter Email Sign Up 'We are facing a primary care crisis in the state of Rhode Island,' Shekarchi said, noting that his own doctor retired and he does not have a primary care physician. He said legislators had heard from constituents that they are struggling to find primary care doctors. Advertisement 'There is a real problem,' Shekarchi said. 'And we can't afford to just study it another year or two. We need to take action.' The budget also provides an additional $38 million for hospitals and invests $12 million more in nursing homes. 'We recognized health care is important to our constituencies,' Shekarchi said. 'Taylor Swift' tax and other tax changes The revised budget creates a new tax on non-owner occupied homes worth more than $1 million, which has been dubbed the 'Taylor Swift tax' in the past because the megastar singer owns a $20 million home in Westerly. Advertisement The tax would be assessed at a rate of $2.50 for every $500 of the assessed value in excess of $1 million. The House has not yet calculated how much revenue the new tax will generate, but Shekarchi said the money will be committed to producing housing and addressing homelessness. The budget also would increase the hotel tax from 1 percent to 2 percent and includes McKee's proposal to impose a 5 percent tax on short-term rentals of entire homes, which are common on platforms such as AirBnB. The budget also would increase the real estate conveyance tax. The new budget bill also extends the 7 percent sales tax to parking, a request by Providence Mayor Brett Smiley. The budget does not include McKee's proposal to hike the cigarette tax by 50 cents to $5 per pack. No new income tax on the rich The budget would not raise incomes taxes on the rich. With the Trump administration slashing key programs and the state facing a budget deficit, advocates were calling for lawmakers to As the — Edward Fitzpatrick (@FitzProv) Advocates cited the example of Massachusetts, which has generated $2.6 billion in revenue this fiscal year with a voter-approved millionaires tax. Opponents warned the tax hike would hamper Rhode Island's ability to compete for businesses, hurt pass-through corporations, and drive the rich to tax-friendly states. Shekarchi said, " We don't know what changes are going to be made in the federal tax code. We felt comfortable enough to do the non-owner-occupied taxes over a million dollars at this time, and we will revisit that (tax the rich) issue when we have more clarity from Washington." Advertisement Gas tax increased to fuel RIPTA The budget would raise the state gas tax by 2 cents per gallon to fund the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority. Shekarchi said this is not a one-time infusion of revenue such as the $15 million in federal COVID aid the legislature provided RIPTA last year Shekarchi said public transportation is necessary for many Rhode Islanders, and he said the budget ensures the agency will not cut the Transit Tax relief for Superman The amended budget bill incorporates the sales tax relief requested by the owners of the Advertisement Washington Bridge money Lawmakers plan to reallocate $22 million in Rhode Island capital funds toward the Washington Bridge, now that McKee has laid out a Truck tolls Despite no public plan to turn them back on, the budget includes $10 million from resuming truck tolls, which had been halted after a In December, a federal appeals court ruled that the state can resume the tolls as long as it removes caps for in-state trucks. The tolls had been generating $40 million a year before they were stopped. Shekarchi said the Department of Transportation has not provided a date for reinstating the tolls. No new tax on digital advertising McKee proposed a new 10 percent tax on digital advertising revenues in the state, which would only apply to media companies with more than $1 billion in global revenues. But the administration quickly reversed course and said the proposal would exclude news media outlets. And the budget includes no revenue from that proposal. 'Honestly, it was just too speculative,' Shekarchi said. 'There's only one state in the union that's doing that. That's Maryland, and they're currently in two lawsuits. I did not feel comfortable putting that into the budget.' No Citizens Bank building The budget provided no money for McKee's proposal to purchase and renovate a 210,000-square-foot building from Citizens Bank in East Providence and move 800 state employees there. Advertisement Education and child care Lawmakers increased funding to special education in the state's funding formula, which Majority Leader Christopher R. Blazejewski said would result in $16.5 million more for school districts compared to McKee's proposal. The total amount of education spending for public school districts and charter schools is $1.3 billion. The revised budget also makes a change to how child care is funded, separating infant and toddler rates so that child-care centers can get a 20 percent higher subsidy for infant rooms, which are the most expensive to run because of mandatory teacher-to-infant ratios. The high costs have been Electric vehicle and hybrid car owners zapped with higher fees McKee had proposed to increase registration fees for electric vehicles, and lawmakers opted to raise those fees even higher. The electric vehicle registration fee would be $200 per year, plug-in hybrid registrations would cost $100, and hybrid vehicles would cost $50 a year. Edward Fitzpatrick can be reached at
Politico
an hour ago
- Politico
‘Big, beautiful bill' spurs Democratic plans for emergency actions to counter cuts
Democratic governors facing potential big budget problems exacerbated by the GOP megabill being fast-tracked in Washington are considering emergency measures to try to soften the blow. Blue state policymakers from Connecticut to California to New York are raising the specter that they will call lawmakers back for special sessions to tackle what could amount to hundreds of millions of dollars in additional costs as a result of President Donald Trump's 'big, beautiful bill.' And even some deep red states — like Florida — are taking steps to address the financial fallout. The preparations signal the depths of concerns about how the Republican package might reverberate in state capitals, even as passage is far from assured, especially given the recent vitriolic attacks on the spending bill from Elon Musk. State officials are scrambling to navigate the likely fiscal challenges in what's already the toughest budget year since before the pandemic in many states. 'The bill is destructive and risks destabilizing the entire network of supporting programs,' said New Mexico Treasurer Laura Montoya, a Democrat whose governor has all but guaranteed a special session will be necessary. The bill, which cleared the House last month and now awaits Senate action, would cut some $300 billion from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, largely by forcing states to pay into the program for the first time. It would also kick 7.6 million people off Medicaid and save $800 billion over 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The special session threat could be a way for Democratic governors, some of whom enjoy large legislative majorities, to respond to pressure from constituents angry about cuts to health care and food benefits — even if there's little they can do to combat Trump's agenda. The details of what the governors would even ask the lawmakers to do are scant given the high degree of uncertainty around the final bill. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, referencing potential cuts to education, school meals and Medicaid, warned earlier this year that 'nothing prohibits us from coming back in a special session to deal with anything that comes our way from the federal government.' Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said last month 'we will definitely be back in a special session to deal with' the reconciliation package if the House-passed version is adopted. There could be immediate substantive reasons for a special session in response to the GOP bill, even though provisions like sharing the costs of the nation's largest food aid program with states wouldn't take effect until 2028. The vast majority of states start their fiscal years on July 1 — meaning that their budgets have been crafted based on current conditions even as officials leave the door open to make changes later and minimize the pain in response to the final federal legislation. 'Bottom line is states will not be able to absorb all the costs, and decisions will have to be made,' said Brian Sigritz, director of state fiscal studies at the nonpartisan National Association of State Budget Officers. 'All states will be impacted.' Some Republicans have also expressed concern at the downstream impacts of the GOP megabill. Alabama Commissioner of Agriculture and Industries Rick Pate, a Republican who recently announced a bid for lieutenant governor, previously told POLITICO that in his state 'there would be very little interest in us generating the dollars it would take to fund something huge as SNAP.' Others are using the special session chatter as a cudgel to hammer Democrats in blue states for being in a precarious fiscal situation to begin with. 'I would say that our priorities have been on the goofy side,' California Assemblymember Tom Lackey, a Republican on the budget committee, said in an interview regarding his state's poor fiscal outlook, pointing specifically to massive spending to attack homelessness that's failed to dent the problem. 'We're trying to offer too much to too many people when we can't even offer basic services.' Still, states would be impacted across the board even if it's only Democrats that have the political incentive to publicly oppose the reconciliation bill. That means states will need to turn to unpopular choices like cutting benefits or raising taxes to fill as much of the gap left by the federal cuts as possible, in addition to other maneuvers like drawing from their rainy day funds, said Sigritz. Some legislators are accepting that they will likely return to their statehouses for special sessions. Connecticut Treasurer Erick Russell, a Democrat, said in an interview that a special session will likely be necessary if the federal budget significantly shifts costs to states to ensure that lawmakers are 'building in some flexibility to try to make whatever adjustments we may need to safeguard residents of our state.' Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont's office told POLITICO that he and legislative leaders are considering declaring a fiscal emergency in order to raise the spending cap, a move that it argues would be necessary to pay for the costs shifted to states under Republicans' megabill. New York state Sen. Gustavo Rivera, a Democrat who chairs the chamber's health committee, said he fully expects to return to Albany in a special session if the reconciliation bill clears Congress — and that he will push to 'raise taxes on the wealthy' to cover some of the Medicaid spending the federal government plans to cut. In California, a spokesperson for Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas said there is 'a scenario where lawmakers come back later this year' to deal with new budget realities brought by federal cuts. 'I'll come back any day,' said California Assemblymember Patrick Ahrens, a Silicon Valley Democrat. 'This is our job. And if we have to come back in the fall, I will gladly come. In fact, if it means protecting some of these programs, then I think we should come back in the morning, noon, weekend, holidays.' And in deep-red West Virginia, Mike Woelfel, minority leader in the state Senate and one of the 11 Democrats in the entire Legislature, said he wants his Republican governor Patrick Morrisey to call a special session if the federal cuts are adopted. 'This is the kind of thing that should trigger special sessions if we get into this hellhole that this legislation would put our most vulnerable citizens in,' Woelfel said. 'But there's political risk in (the governor) doing that.' Eric He and Katelyn Cordero contributed to this report.
