Latest news with #federalprogram
CBS News
2 days ago
- Politics
- CBS News
Thousands of students in limbo as Trump administration seeks to shut down Job Corps centers
Emily Scott is a Job Corps student in Los Angeles who is also a caretaker for her disabled mother. She is four months away from graduating from the Job Corps program as a licensed nurse. Andrea Watts of Las Vegas was homeless before finding her way to a Job Corps center in L.A. for an opportunity to obtain her high school diploma and eventually become a pharmacy technician. Both are students who are undergoing training at Job Corps, but whose careers are in limbo as the centers were abruptly shut down last week. On May 29, the Labor Department announced a "phased pause" in operations at 99 contractor-operated Job Corps centers nationwide. These are federally-funded centers that offer career training, housing and career assistance to more than 25,000 young people ages 16 to 24. The Labor Department program was funded by Congress in 1964 and has generally received bipartisan support. However, Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer said in a news release that the program was "no longer achieving the intended outcomes that students deserve" as evidenced by "a startling number of serious incident reports and our in-depth fiscal analysis." U.S. Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer during a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing in Washington, D.C., on May 22, 2025. Annabelle Gordon/Bloomberg via Getty Images On Wednesday, U.S District Judge Andrew Carter in Manhattan temporarily blocked the Trump administration from eliminating the Job Corps program while the case plays out. The temporary restraining order was issued after Job Corps contractors sued the Trump administration Tuesday arguing the Labor Department violated federal law by shutting down the Job Corps centers, arguing the White House does not have the power to dismantle a program established and funded by Congress. A hearing is set for June 17. CBS News has reached out to the Labor Department and Job Corps for comment on the ruling. Job Corps officials told CBS News that even before the Labor Department paused operations last week, it had halted their ability to conduct background checks, effectively freezing the enrollment process. Though it was initially communicated as a pause, staff had been given dates for their last date of employment, they said. Prior to Carter's ruling, a stop in operations at all contractor-operated Job Corps centers was slated to occur by June 30. A transparency report released in April by the Labor Department found that the average graduation rate for the program was under 40%. The yearly average cost per student was $80,000 and there were over 14,000 serious incident infractions, including inappropriate sexual behavior, sexual assaults and reported drug use. The decision to pause operations aligned with President Trump's 2026 budget proposal, according to the Labor Department, and the administration's commitment to "ensure federal workforce investments deliver meaningful results for both students and taxpayers," the agency said last week when it announced the pause. According to Michelle Matthews, who helps lead the L.A. Job Corps centers, the Labor Department's findings were "unbelievable" given that students are under strict rules and are drug tested in order to qualify. "All of the numbers presented were inflated, deflated lies and their intent was clear from the start," said Matthews, adding that news of the centers' closure was communicated to students last Friday. "That was a day I will never forget," Matthews told CBS News in tears. "To see what they were going through and to know that the impact was going to be devastating." Students were required to abandon their dorms, but more than 50 students in the L.A. centers had nowhere to go. Matthews says she is part of the staff still working around the clock to find them housing. It was not immediately clear whether Wednesday's ruling will allow it to immediately reopen to students. Both Republican and Democratic lawmakers have denounced the Trump administration's move to suspend Job Corps operations, a move they say is illegal. "We funded the program through fiscal year 2025 and they are cutting these slots and shutting things down that Congress has already funded," said Democratic Rep. Jimmy Gomez of California in a phone interview with CBS News. "The money is already there, so they should use it to help these kids finish out their degrees and certifications and then we can have a debate on what the future of Job Corps looks like." Gomez added that he has personally witnessed the success of the program as his two siblings are Job Corps graduates. "The kids are in the pipeline, don't take this away from them because they don't have many opportunities as it is," Gomez said. In May, Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, sent a letter to Chavez-DeRemer requesting information on Job Corps contracts, background check processing and evaluation plans. "I strongly oppose the Department of Labor's directive to pause operations at Job Corps centers in Maine and across the country," Collins said in a statement. "Serving nearly 500 students in Maine, the Loring Job Corps Center and the Penobscot Job Corps Center have become important pillars of support for some of our most disadvantaged young adults." Scott, who has autism, was forced to drop out of college at the age of 19 to care for her disabled mother. "I watched my whole life get put on pause and our circumstances never improved," Scott said. The nursing student says she's unable to pay for her training on her own if Job Corps is effectively shut down. "My future, I don't see it, I don't see anything being different than how I started," Scott said. For Watts, leaving Job Corps would mean returning to Las Vegas — where she doesn't have a home — without achieving her initial hopes of becoming a pharmacy technician. "I wanted to set an example for my future self, and I enrolled into Job Corps thinking that I would come out with a career, with my high school diploma," Watts said. "But that was all just taken from me in a short amount of time."
Reuters
28-05-2025
- Business
- Reuters
US agrees to end use of race, gender in highway, transit contracts
May 28 (Reuters) - The Trump administration said on Wednesday it has agreed to end the U.S. Transportation Department's consideration of race or gender when awarding billions of dollars in federal highway and transit project funding set aside for disadvantaged small businesses. A judge in September in Kentucky ruled, opens new tab that a federal program enacted in 1983 that treats businesses owned by racial minorities and women as presumptively disadvantaged and eligible for such funding violated the U.S. Constitution's equal protection guarantees.
New York Times
17-05-2025
- Business
- New York Times
Waiting, Often in the Dark, for Frozen E.P.A. Funds
To keep the lights on in her residential mental health clinic outside of San Juan, Liomarie Oyola Pérez needs money. Ms. Oyola Pérez and her staff already go to extraordinary lengths during the blackouts that have become increasingly common in Puerto Rico, juggling three generators or waiting hours in line to get gas to power them. Her facility has solar panels, but she wants to add batteries that would store energy for use when the sun isn't shining. For that, she needs a loan. This year, her lender was awarded millions through a federal program that would provide low-interest loans to candidates like Ms. Oyola Pérez. But the money is frozen, part of $20 billion committed to finance climate and clean energy projects that was abruptly halted at the request of the Trump administration. Several nonprofit groups that were promised funds have sued; a court hearing is scheduled for Monday. At stake is funding for projects across the United States meant to assist people like Ms. Oyola Pérez and reduce their energy costs while also cutting the pollution that is driving climate change. They range from efforts to add geothermal energy to affordable housing in Iowa to energy efficiency upgrades for a senior housing community in Massachusetts. Nationwide, the federal program could finance enough new solar arrays to power up to 2.2 million homes by 2031, according to a recent analysis from Energy Innovation, a research organization, and the University of New Hampshire. For months, the Environmental Protection Agency has been trying to claw back the money, which had been authorized by Congress under the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act during the Biden administration. Since taking office, Lee Zeldin, the agency's administrator, has repeatedly called the money a 'green slush fund' and said it was vulnerable to waste, fraud, and abuse, though the agency has failed to produce evidence backing up those claims, despite a judge's request. On the ground in Puerto Rico, 38 credit unions are waiting for $147 million committed under the program, which is known as the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. They estimate it would support 88,000 solar, electric-vehicle and energy efficiency projects by 2030. Contrary to Mr. Zeldin's claims, these loans are vetted, supplemented by private capital and, for many recipients, are simply about keeping the lights on. When the electricity flickers off inside a mental health clinic run by Ms. Oyola Pérez, the staff follow a protocol: First, they wait two hours to see if the power comes back. Then, they fire up a gas-powered generator, then a second, then a third. If the outage persists, someone has to go wait in line for more gas, sometimes for hours. Inside the cheerful single-story building, where 22 residents include her aunt, her 106-year-old grandmother, and a shot-putter who competed in the 2023 Berlin Special Olympics, Ms. Oyola Pérez was clear about her long-term goal for avoiding blackouts. 'The plan is to stay off the grid,' she said. Leaving the island's notoriously rickety electric grid is the dream for many in Puerto Rico. Two large-scale blackouts have hit the island in the last six months, and the average resident lost power eight times last year. After Hurricane Maria in 2017, many homes were without electricity for months. Even without the threat of storms, local officials have warned that the power supply will not be sufficient to meet peak demand this summer. At the same time, Puerto Ricans have the fourth-highest electricity costs in the nation. The E.P.A. declined to comment for this article, citing a policy against discussing pending litigation. It took a six-year search for Ms. Oyola Pérez to find a loan with an affordable monthly payment to install the $75,000 panels for her solar system. After seeing an advertisement at Costco, she found a cooperativa, or a local credit union owned by community members, that could help. She installed the panels in 2023 and the savings on her electric bill now cover the full cost of her $697 monthly payments. In about 13 years, she would own the system outright. But the power outages haven't stopped. Solar Lenders Left Waiting Credicentro-Coop, one of the biggest cooperativa solar lenders in Puerto Rico, was slated to receive $5.5 million in federal funds to expand its efforts under the now-frozen grant program. 'We are a living example of the benefits of the transition to clean energy,' said Miguel Ortiz Santos, executive president of the cooperativa, as he showed off solar arrays that shade two parking lots and power 80 percent of its office and branch building. Credicentro-Coop was promised the E.P.A. funds in February through the national credit union network Inclusiv, which was awarded a total of $1.87 billion from the E.P.A. Sitting in his office, flanked by a large collection of colorful Three Kings figurines, Mr. Ortiz Santos rattled off his credit union's statistics. More than 90 percent of members live in low-income areas. Most home solar loans hover around $25,000, and a household's typical monthly payment is $260 to $280. Cooperativa lenders throughout the program plan to use the federal funds to offer green loans at rates as low as 2 or 3 percent, a significant discount on market rates. Credicentro-Coop, which worked with Ms. Oyola Pérez on her first solar loan, sends staff members to inspect each installed system. It withholds the last 10 percent of each installer's payment until the homeowner confirms that the system is working. Loan officers check applicants' solar plans against past electric utility invoices, sometimes recommending that customers buy fewer panels. The credit union's default rate on green energy loans is about half of 1 percent, which is lower than the national average commercial bank default rate across all loan categories last year. This is the kind of green lending Congress intended to support when it passed the Inflation Reduction Act. The initiative was intended to attract an influx of private investment and make financing for clean energy projects less risky for lenders and more affordable for borrowers. Frozen Funds By the time Credicentro-Coop's $5.5 million award was publicly announced, Inclusiv's funding had already been frozen, without any explanation from the E.P.A. or the bank where the money was held. Mr. Zeldin began drawing attention to the $20 billion in climate funds soon after he entered office. He linked them to a hidden-camera video taken in the final weeks of the Biden administration and produced by the right-wing group Project Veritas, which is known for trying to embarrass political opponents with covert recordings. In the video, an E.P.A. employee likened last-minute efforts to spend federal money to tossing 'gold bars' off the Titanic. Most of the money was held in accounts at Citibank when President Trump took office, and Mr. Zeldin called for its return to the federal government. Citibank froze the funds at the administration's request, prompting several nonprofit groups, including Inclusiv, to sue. Despite investigations by the Department of Justice, the F.B.I. and the E.P.A.'s acting inspector general, no evidence of waste or fraud has materialized to substantiate Mr. Zeldin's concerns. The E.P.A. has also argued that it can cancel the grants because the agency's priorities have changed. Mr. Zeldin has criticized 'extreme lack of qualifications' among the nonprofit groups, arguing that they are unprepared to distribute the funds. But some cooperativas, including Credicentro-Coop, have been financing solar systems for Puerto Rican homeowners and small businesses for the last 10 years. With the funding he was promised, Mr. Ortiz Santos estimates he could finance solar power for 500 households, offering low interest loans. A 6.95 percent rate might come down to 3.95 percent, for example, reducing monthly payments. 'The lower the payment, the more people qualify,' he said. On the southern coast of the island in the beach town of Salinas, Wanda Ríos Colorado, the president of a neighborhood association, was sitting at a local cooperativa, SaliCoop, counting the days until hurricane season and wondering if she could get solar systems installed for 50 residents on a waiting list before the storms. She pulled out her phone to show a picture of flooding in her own home after Hurricane Fiona in 2022. The water crept up the legs of her sofa. Over the years, Ms. Ríos Colorado's neighborhood had been promised financial aid for solar power from various government agencies, but some grants had been canceled by the Trump administration and others had failed to materialize. Her hopes now rested on an affordable loan. 'We cannot stop,' she said, 'and the only choice we have right now is the green bank.'
