Latest news with #FundingCuts
CNN
18-07-2025
- Politics
- CNN
5 things to know for July 18: DOGE cuts, Emil Bove, Police violence, Trump and Epstein, Stephen Colbert
The Trump administration has ended the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline's specialized service for LGBTQ+ youth. Previously, people who called 988 for help could 'press 3' to reach counselors specifically trained to respond to the needs of this community. Since it launched in 2022, the specialized service has received nearly 1.5 million calls. Here's what else you need to know to get up to speed and on with your day. House Republicans approved a package of $9 billion in spending cuts overnight, handing a win to President Donald Trump. Roughly $8 billion will be pulled from US Agency for International Development (USAID) programs and another $1.1 billion will be withdrawn from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which helps fund NPR and PBS. The measure will now head to the president's desk to be signed into law. A study published recently in The Lancet estimated that the USAID funding cuts could result in more than 14 million additional deaths by 2030. As for public broadcasting, Trump and many Republicans have long accused PBS and NPR of being 'biased,' but public media officials said critics distort what actually airs. Although the funding will start to dry up in the fall, some stations are already laying off staff, preparing to cut programs and searching for 'new funding models.' Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee voted on Thursday to advance the nomination of Emil Bove, President Trump's former personal attorney, to a federal judgeship. The decision came over the loud protests of Democrats who walked out of the committee proceedings. Bove's nomination has been contentious. Earlier this week, more than 75 former federal and state judges called on the panel to reject Bove, saying his 'egregious record of mistreating law enforcement officers, abusing power, and disregarding the law itself disqualifies him for this position.' In June, a whistleblower letter from a terminated DOJ employee alleged that Bove and other top officials intended to ignore court orders and mislead federal judges. Bove rebuffed such claims during his confirmation hearing. The former police officer who was found guilty of violating the civil rights of Breonna Taylor — when she was shot and killed in her Louisville, Kentucky home during a botched 'no-knock' raid in 2020 — will face sentencing on Monday. Although Brett Hankison wasn't the officer who killed Taylor, he did fire blindly through her window. In a court filing Wednesday, the DOJ asked that Hankison be sentenced to just 1 day in jail. And in Philadelphia, a former police officer who shot and killed a motorist during a traffic stop was sentenced on Thursday and then immediately granted parole. A judge sentenced Mark Dial to 9 1/2 months in jail for voluntary manslaughter in the fatal shooting of 27-year-old Eddie Irizarry — but then granted him parole because he had already been jailed for 10 months following his arrest in 2023. The city's district attorney and the victim's family condemned the sentence. President Trump vowed to sue the Wall Street Journal and its owner on Thursday after the newspaper published a 2003 birthday letter to accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein bearing Trump's name and a drawing of a naked woman. 'I told Rupert Murdoch it was a Scam, that he shouldn't print this Fake Story,' Trump wrote on his social media site. 'But he did, and now I'm going to sue his ass off, and that of his third rate newspaper.' Trump also posted on Truth Social that he had ordered Attorney General Pam Bondi 'to produce any and all pertinent Grand Jury testimony' about the Epstein investigation. It's unclear if this order will placate many of his MAGA supporters who are upset that his administration didn't release all of the Epstein files, as he had promised. Instead, the DOJ issued a memo that said Epstein had not been murdered in prison and did not leave a client list. Late-night talk show host Stephen Colbert will soon be off the air. On Thursday, he announced that CBS was canceling 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert' next year, citing financial pressures. 'The Late Show' is typically the highest-rated show in late-night. The network's decision comes just two weeks after Paramount, the parent company of CBS, paid $16 million to settle a lawsuit lodged by President Trump against CBS News. Colbert, who is one of the staunchest critics of Trump on television, condemned the Paramount settlement on air, likening it to a 'big fat bribe.' 'The Late Show' franchise has been a cornerstone of the CBS lineup for more than 30 years. GET '5 THINGS' IN YOUR INBOX If your day doesn't start until you're up to speed on the latest headlines, then let us introduce you to your new favorite morning fix. Sign up here for the '5 Things' newsletter. Two groups of passengers will now have the opportunity to enjoy an expedited process through security at the airport. The phrase 'leave no stone unturned' has taken on new meaning for paleontologists at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. Prepare to pay more to watch live sports and 'Love Island USA.' The lyrics the musicians posted on social media seem to suggest that anything is possible. The Scottish singer has been taking care of his mental health since having a 'breakdown of sorts' at the Glastonbury Festival in 2023. Famed skydiver and BASE jumper Felix Baumgartner dies at 56Baumgartner achieved international recognition in 2012 when he performed a jump from 24 miles above the Earth, higher than anyone before him. He died on Thursday in a paragliding accident. If President Trump's 30% tariffs are enacted against the European Union and Mexico, which products are expected to increase in price?A. Fruits and vegetablesB. Toys and gamesC. Coffee beansD. Fresh-cut flowers Take me to the quiz! 51That's how many months two men were each sentenced to serve in prison for cutting down a landmark sycamore in northern England. The frequently photographed tree, which had stood sentinel on Hadrian's Wall for more than 200 years, also appeared in the 1991 movie 'Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.' 'Israel deeply regrets that a stray ammunition hit Gaza's Holy Family Church. Every innocent life lost is a tragedy.' —Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office, in a statement after the only Catholic church in Gaza was attacked on Thursday. Three people died and several others, including the parish priest, were injured. 🌤️ Check your local forecast to see what you can expect. Disney says this new animatronic is its most lifelike one yet. See for yourself. Today's edition of 5 Things AM was edited and produced by CNN's Andrew Torgan.
CNN
18-07-2025
- Politics
- CNN
5 things to know for July 18: DOGE cuts, Emil Bove, Police violence, Trump and Epstein, Stephen Colbert
The Trump administration has ended the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline's specialized service for LGBTQ+ youth. Previously, people who called 988 for help could 'press 3' to reach counselors specifically trained to respond to the needs of this community. Since it launched in 2022, the specialized service has received nearly 1.5 million calls. Here's what else you need to know to get up to speed and on with your day. House Republicans approved a package of $9 billion in spending cuts overnight, handing a win to President Donald Trump. Roughly $8 billion will be pulled from US Agency for International Development (USAID) programs and another $1.1 billion will be withdrawn from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which helps fund NPR and PBS. The measure will now head to the president's desk to be signed into law. A study published recently in The Lancet estimated that the USAID funding cuts could result in more than 14 million additional deaths by 2030. As for public broadcasting, Trump and many Republicans have long accused PBS and NPR of being 'biased,' but public media officials said critics distort what actually airs. Although the funding will start to dry up in the fall, some stations are already laying off staff, preparing to cut programs and searching for 'new funding models.' Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee voted on Thursday to advance the nomination of Emil Bove, President Trump's former personal attorney, to a federal judgeship. The decision came over the loud protests of Democrats who walked out of the committee proceedings. Bove's nomination has been contentious. Earlier this week, more than 75 former federal and state judges called on the panel to reject Bove, saying his 'egregious record of mistreating law enforcement officers, abusing power, and disregarding the law itself disqualifies him for this position.' In June, a whistleblower letter from a terminated DOJ employee alleged that Bove and other top officials intended to ignore court orders and mislead federal judges. Bove rebuffed such claims during his confirmation hearing. The former police officer who was found guilty of violating the civil rights of Breonna Taylor — when she was shot and killed in her Louisville, Kentucky home during a botched 'no-knock' raid in 2020 — will face sentencing on Monday. Although Brett Hankison wasn't the officer who killed Taylor, he did fire blindly through her window. In a court filing Wednesday, the DOJ asked that Hankison be sentenced to just 1 day in jail. And in Philadelphia, a former police officer who shot and killed a motorist during a traffic stop was sentenced on Thursday and then immediately granted parole. A judge sentenced Mark Dial to 9 1/2 months in jail for voluntary manslaughter in the fatal shooting of 27-year-old Eddie Irizarry — but then granted him parole because he had already been jailed for 10 months following his arrest in 2023. The city's district attorney and the victim's family condemned the sentence. President Trump vowed to sue the Wall Street Journal and its owner on Thursday after the newspaper published a 2003 birthday letter to accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein bearing Trump's name and a drawing of a naked woman. 'I told Rupert Murdoch it was a Scam, that he shouldn't print this Fake Story,' Trump wrote on his social media site. 'But he did, and now I'm going to sue his ass off, and that of his third rate newspaper.' Trump also posted on Truth Social that he had ordered Attorney General Pam Bondi 'to produce any and all pertinent Grand Jury testimony' about the Epstein investigation. It's unclear if this order will placate many of his MAGA supporters who are upset that his administration didn't release all of the Epstein files, as he had promised. Instead, the DOJ issued a memo that said Epstein had not been murdered in prison and did not leave a client list. Late-night talk show host Stephen Colbert will soon be off the air. On Thursday, he announced that CBS was canceling 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert' next year, citing financial pressures. 'The Late Show' is typically the highest-rated show in late-night. The network's decision comes just two weeks after Paramount, the parent company of CBS, paid $16 million to settle a lawsuit lodged by President Trump against CBS News. Colbert, who is one of the staunchest critics of Trump on television, condemned the Paramount settlement on air, likening it to a 'big fat bribe.' 'The Late Show' franchise has been a cornerstone of the CBS lineup for more than 30 years. GET '5 THINGS' IN YOUR INBOX If your day doesn't start until you're up to speed on the latest headlines, then let us introduce you to your new favorite morning fix. Sign up here for the '5 Things' newsletter. Two groups of passengers will now have the opportunity to enjoy an expedited process through security at the airport. The phrase 'leave no stone unturned' has taken on new meaning for paleontologists at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. Prepare to pay more to watch live sports and 'Love Island USA.' The lyrics the musicians posted on social media seem to suggest that anything is possible. The Scottish singer has been taking care of his mental health since having a 'breakdown of sorts' at the Glastonbury Festival in 2023. Famed skydiver and BASE jumper Felix Baumgartner dies at 56Baumgartner achieved international recognition in 2012 when he performed a jump from 24 miles above the Earth, higher than anyone before him. He died on Thursday in a paragliding accident. If President Trump's 30% tariffs are enacted against the European Union and Mexico, which products are expected to increase in price?A. Fruits and vegetablesB. Toys and gamesC. Coffee beansD. Fresh-cut flowers Take me to the quiz! 51That's how many months two men were each sentenced to serve in prison for cutting down a landmark sycamore in northern England. The frequently photographed tree, which had stood sentinel on Hadrian's Wall for more than 200 years, also appeared in the 1991 movie 'Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.' 'Israel deeply regrets that a stray ammunition hit Gaza's Holy Family Church. Every innocent life lost is a tragedy.' —Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office, in a statement after the only Catholic church in Gaza was attacked on Thursday. Three people died and several others, including the parish priest, were injured. 🌤️ Check your local forecast to see what you can expect. Disney says this new animatronic is its most lifelike one yet. See for yourself. Today's edition of 5 Things AM was edited and produced by CNN's Andrew Torgan.
CBS News
18-07-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
Public radio stations in Colorado prepare to lose millions of dollars in federal funding
Some radio stations in Colorado might go under after the U.S. Senate passed a bill that cuts more than $1 billion in funding to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The nonprofit funds NPR, PBS and 1,500 radio and television stations across the country. Colorado Public Radio says it would lose $1.4 million -- about 5% of its funding. It says there are a dozen small public radio stations in mountain and rural communities that could go off the air due to the cuts. Those stations not only provide local news and programming, but emergency alerts in cases of major storms, flooding and wildfires. "If you're a hiker, if you're an outdoorsman, if you're a hunter, if you're a skier, or if you just live in a rural community and you rely on this infrastructure to keep yourself safe, all of this is at risk now," said Colorado Democrat Jason Crow, who opposed the bill. Ashley Krest, the general Manager at KVNF in Paonia, says her station has 10,000 listeners across 10,000 square miles on the Western Slope. She says some of them live in areas where there is no internet service. The radio station, she says, is a lifeline in emergencies like the South Rim Fire "So for them to be able to know that our at 90.9 or 89.1 is one that is going to deliver those special beeps that always come out and say, 'OK, we're now going to be evacuating off the south rim of the Black Canyon. These are the specific roads, and those are the folks that need to be paying attention and act now. Pack you go bag,'" Krest said. "I think that there's certain amount of trust that we've garnered from our listeners. We've been around for 46 years." Krest says KVNF receives 20% of its funding from the CPB. Gerald Rodriguez, general manager of KRZA in Alamosa, says his station receives nearly half of its funding from the organization. KRZA covers the entire San Luis Valley and Northern New Mexico. Rodriguez says the station not only provides emergency alerts for its own listeners but for two other radio stations. Rodriguez says he maintains the transmitter -- located on San Antonio Mountain -- himself to save money. "The terrain up there is pretty rough, especially in the winter time," Rodriguez said. "You can't get up there with an SUV, a snowmobile, anything. So I've had to literally hike up there three, four hours with a backpack in the cold snow in snowshoes to get up to the mountain and then fix our transmitter." Rodriguez and Krest say they will look for grants and fundraise, but cuts are likely. In addition to public broadcasting, the bill also cuts about $8 billion in foreign aid. All of Colorado's Republican members of U.S. Congress voted for the measure. "If NPR and PBS are as popular and important as they claim they are, they'll be able to run just fine without being subsidized by the federal government," Colorado Republican Lauren Boebert said in a statement shared with CBS Colorado. "This package is a good first step towards balancing our budget and cutting the wasteful spending from USAID that President Trump and I victoriously campaigned on eliminating." The bill passed the House and Senate, but the Senate made changes to it, including preserving funding for tribal radio stations, so the House will need to repass it.
Fast Company
07-07-2025
- Politics
- Fast Company
America's historic preservation funding takes a major hit under Trump
President Donald Trump 's proposed fiscal year 2026 discretionary budget is called a 'skinny budget' because it's short on line-by-line details. But historic preservation efforts in the U.S. did get a mention—and they might as well be skinned to the bone. Trump has proposed to slash funding for the federal Historic Preservation Fund to only $11 million, which is $158 million less than the fund's previous reauthorization in 2024. The presidential discretionary budget, however, always heads to Congress for appropriation. And Congress always makes changes. That said, the Trump administration hasn't even released the $188 million that Congress appropriated for the fund for the 2025 fiscal year, essentially impounding the funding stream that Congress created in 1976 for historic preservation activities across the nation. I'm a scholar of historic preservation who's worked to secure historic designations for buildings and entire neighborhoods. I've worked on projects that range from making distressed neighborhoods in St. Louis eligible for historic tax credits to surveying Cold War-era hangars and buildings on seven U.S. Air Force bases. I've seen the ways in which the Historic Preservation Fund helps local communities maintain and rehabilitate their rich architectural history, sparing it from deterioration, the wrecking ball, or the pressures of the private market. A rare, deficit-neutral funding model Most Americans probably don't realize that the task of historic preservation largely falls to individual states and Native American tribes. The National Historic Preservation Act that President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law in 1966 requires states and tribes to handle everything from identifying potential historic sites to reviewing the impact of interstate highway projects on archaeological sites and historic buildings. States and tribes are also responsible for reviewing nominations of sites in the National Register of Historic Places, the nation's official list of properties deemed worthy of preservation. However, many states and tribes didn't have the capacity to adequately tackle the mandates of the 1966 act. So the Historic Preservation Fund was formed a decade later to alleviate these costs by funneling federal resources into these efforts. The fund is actually the product of a conservative, limited-government approach. Created during Gerald Ford's administration, it has a revenue-neutral model, meaning that no tax dollars pay for the program. Instead, it's funded by private lease royalties from the Outer Continental Shelf oil and gas reserves. Most of these reserves are located in federal waters in the Gulf of Mexico and off the coast of Alaska. Private companies that receive a permit to extract from them must agree to a lease with the federal government. Royalties from their oil and gas sales accrue in federally controlled accounts under the terms of these leases. The Office of Natural Resources Revenue then directs 1.5% of the total royalties to the Historic Preservation Fund. Congress must continually reauthorize the amount of funding reserved for the Historic Preservation Fund, or it goes unfunded. Despite bipartisan support, the fund has been threatened in the past. President Ronald Reagan attempted to do exactly what Trump is doing now by making no request for funding at all in his 1983 budget. Yet the fund has nonetheless been reauthorized six times since its inception, with terms ranging from five to 10 years. The program is a crucial source of funding, particularly in small towns and rural America, where privately raised cultural heritage funds are harder to come by. It provides grants for the preservation of buildings and geographical areas that hold historical, cultural, or spiritual significance in underrepresented communities. And it's even involved in projects tied to the nation's 250th birthday in 2026, such as the rehabilitation of the home in New Jersey where George Washington was stationed during the winter of 1778–79 and the restoration of Rhode Island's Old State House. Filling financial gaps I've witnessed the fund's impact firsthand in small communities across the nation. Edwardsville, Illinois, a suburb of St. Louis, is home to the Leclaire Historic District. In the 1970s, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places. The national designation recognized the historic significance of the district, protecting it against any adverse impacts from federal infrastructure funding. It also made tax credits available to the town. Edwardsville then designated Leclaire a local historic district so that it could legally protect the indelible architectural features of its homes, from original decorative details to the layouts of front porches. Despite the designation, however, there was no clear inventory of the hundreds of houses in the district. A few paid staffers and a volunteer citizen commission not only had to review proposed renovations and demolitions, but they also had to figure out which buildings even contributed to Leclaire's significance and which ones did not—and thus did not need to be tied up in red tape. Edwardsville was able to secure a grant through the Illinois State Historic Preservation Office thanks to a funding match enabled by money disbursed to Illinois via the Historic Preservation Fund. In 2013, my team created an updated inventory of the historic district, making it easier for the local commission to determine which houses should be reviewed carefully and which ones don't need to be reviewed at all. Oil money better than no money The historic preservation field, not surprisingly, has come out strongly against Trump's proposal to defund the Historic Preservation Fund. Nonetheless, there have been debates within the field over the fund's dependence on the fossil fuel industry, which was the trade-off that preservationists made decades ago when they crafted the funding model. In the 1970s, amid the national energy crisis, conservation of existing buildings was seen as a worthy ecological goal, since demolition and new construction required fossil fuels. To preservationists, diverting federal carbon royalties seemed like a power play. But with the effects of climate change becoming impossible to ignore, some preservationists are starting to more openly critique both the ethics and the wisdom of tapping into a pool of money created through the profits of the oil and gas industry. I've recently wondered myself if continued depletion of fossil fuels means that preservationists won't be able to count on the Historic Preservation Fund as a long-term source of funding. That said, you'd be hard-pressed to find a preservationist who thinks that destroying the Historic Preservation Fund would be a good first step in shaping a more visionary policy. For now, Trump's administration has only sown chaos in the field of historic preservation. Already, Ohio has laid off one-third of the staffers in its State Historic Preservation Office due to the impoundment of federal funds. More state preservation offices may follow suit. The National Council of State Historic Preservation Officers predicts that states soon could be unable to perform their federally mandated duties. learning the hard way just what the Historic Preservation Fund does.
Fast Company
11-05-2025
- Business
- Fast Company
Trump abruptly stopped paying farmers to feed in-need Californians—so they fought back
Every year brings its own unique challenges for California farmers: water shortages, fires, finding laborers to do the work, bureaucrats in Sacramento adding new requirements and fees, and more. But the second term of President Donald Trump has made this year very different. As part of deep cuts across much of the government, Trump's administration chopped $1 billion from the U.S. Department of Agriculture almost without warning. This led to widespread financial pain that affected already struggling farmers and left hungry patrons of food banks in many parts of the country desperate for other sources of healthy food. On February 28, California officials warned farmers who had grown food for schools and food banks that there was funding only for work done up to January 19, despite the fact that farmers had submitted invoices for work and harvests past that date. California farmers quickly organized a phone call and email campaign over the span of seven days in early March to demand the attention of elected representatives and answers from federal officials. By March 7, their efforts were successful: They would receive pay for the fall and for harvests for the rest of this year. But their success was overshadowed by news that the program would stop at the end of 2025. For Bryce Loewen, a farmer who co-owns Blossom Bluff Orchards in Fresno County, the first freeze in funding meant that the USDA failed to hand over more than $30,000 that it owed the business for growing food to help feed Californians who could not afford it. There isn't really a good time to get stiffed for your work. But during winter, the slowest season on the farm, there's downtime, and California farmers like Loewen recently used that lull to fight to regain the money farmers were owed and help feed some of their most vulnerable neighbors. 'A farmer's instinct is to fix things,' Loewen said. 'And that's what we did.' Loewen's farm is in the small town of Parlier, California, which has a declining population of less than 15,000. On March 1, Loewen called federal officials to try to change their minds about the funding cut. Farming is a business of slim margins, and Loewen was trying to keep his farm from falling into debt, he said. Loewen was just one of many farmers in California and around the country who called and emailed officials that day. They asked why they hadn't been paid, and they described the economic benefit of the USDA funds to small farms and public health services and to agencies that feed people in their own communities who are struggling. Loewen left messages and wrote emails to Rep. Jim Costa (D-Fresno); Brooke Rollins, the secretary of agriculture; and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York. Other farmers also contacted Rollins, their local representatives, and congressional and Senate leadership on both sides of the political aisle. The impromptu campaign was somewhat successful. Six days later, the USDA agreed to pay farmers for their fall harvest and contracts for 2025, but not beyond. The USDA did not respond to calls and emails from Capital & Main about why the cuts were made or why they were restored. Neither the USDA nor Rollins have publicly acknowledged hearing from farmers about the cuts. In securing payments for slightly more than nine additional months, the farmers' relative success might offer lessons for other groups targeted by government cuts as they seek to claw back some resources for crucial programs. California may be world-famous for its beaches, Hollywood, and Big Tech, but many people don't realize that the state's vast Central Valley supplies a quarter of all food to the United States. In the Golden State, agriculture is the backbone of many local economies, from the state's southern frontier with Mexico all the way to its northern border with Oregon. This is especially true in the state's agricultural heartland. Yet many residents who live in what dust-bowl musician Woody Guthrie once referred to as the ' Pastures of Plenty ' cannot afford the fresh, locally grown food that surrounds them in the region's villages and towns. The Healthy Fresno County Community Dashboard, which publishes local health information, reported that 16% of the county's 1 million residents in 2022 were considered 'food insecure.' Those rates were higher for the county's Black and Hispanic residents in comparison to their white peers. Since 2006, the USDA has used the term 'food insecurity' to describe the status that leads to weakness, illness, and harm to families who lack stable access to food. It disproportionately affects lower-income groups in the state. Food insecurity includes the inability to afford a balanced diet, fear that a home's food supply won't last, or having to eat less because one can't afford to buy more food. An insecure food supply causes physical pangs of hunger in adults, as well as stress and depression, particularly in mothers. Limited food intake affects brain development in children, prompting stress among preschoolers and affecting a student's ability to learn basic subjects such as math and writing. In California, 9 of 20 adults with low incomes reported 'limited, uncertain, or inconsistent' access to food in 2023, according to a California Health Interview Survey. Loewen's farm helps feed some struggling Californians with the help of money through a $400 million federal program called the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program. The California Department of Social Services distributes the funds across the state through a program called Farms Together. Farmers weren't the only ones to feel the pain of the USDA cuts between late February and March 11, said Paul Towers, executive director of Community Alliance With Family Farmers. His organization helps distribute food from small farms to food banks and school districts. During a two-week period, food banks didn't receive any such food, which left people who rely on that food aid to scramble for something to eat. 'That's two weeks of lost income' for farmers, Towers said. 'And two weeks of no food.' Nationwide, 18 million Americans were food insecure in 2023, according to the USDA. Most of those people live in rural counties such as Fresno County, according to Feeding America, a national network of food banks and pantries. By March 10, news of the cuts was spreading. The online agriculture and food policy news outlet Agri-Pulse warned in a headline: 'Trump administration canceling local food initiatives.' On March 11, Fox News highlighted the cuts to farmers—who voted disproportionately in favor of Trump during his presidential campaigns—in a live interview with Rollins. 'America's Newsroom' anchor Bill Hemmer asked Rollins to justify the $1 billion cuts in food security aid to schools and food banks. Rollins offered conflicting responses. The cuts were to pandemic-era food programs and were aimed at new and nonessential programs, she said. Rollins said the program's cost had grown but didn't offer any evidence to back that up. The initial iteration of the local food purchasing assistance, the Farmers to Families Food Box Program, was a multibillion dollar pandemic food aid project started during Trump's first term. But Rollins didn't share that detail. Speaking of other cuts made the day before the interview, she added that authorities had canceled 'more contracts on food justice for trans people in New York and San Francisco; obviously that's different than the food programs in the schools, but it is really important.' The local food purchase agreement didn't, and still doesn't, favor food aid or food justice to trans people. It pays for farmers to grow food that goes to food banks and school districts. Rollins didn't acknowledge that the cuts were overzealous or the harm that they might cause. 'As we have always said, if we are making mistakes, we will own those mistakes, and we will reconfigure. But right now, from what we are viewing, [the local food purchase assistance] program was nonessential. … It was a new program, and it was an effort by the Left to continue spending taxpayer dollars that [was] not necessary,' Rollins told Fox News. On March 11, the Community Alliance With Family Farmers posted on its blog: 'The reinstatement of Farms Together is a victory worth celebrating. Through collective action, the voices of farmers and allies were heard, but the fight isn't over. Farms Together IS restored—though only temporarily.' 'Our intent,' Towers said, 'was to make sure Secretary Rollins heard directly from farmers that they were harmed by the cuts to these programs.'
