{"id":6811,"date":"2025-03-31T11:47:07","date_gmt":"2025-03-31T15:47:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/communicator.pef.org\/?p=6811"},"modified":"2025-04-02T10:38:48","modified_gmt":"2025-04-02T14:38:48","slug":"pef-telephone-town-hall-explores-impact-of-federal-cuts-on-state-services","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communicator.pef.org\/issue\/volume-43-no-3\/pef-telephone-town-hall-explores-impact-of-federal-cuts-on-state-services\/","title":{"rendered":"PEF Telephone Town Hall explores impact of federal cuts on state services"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"TelephoneApril 3, 2025 —<\/em> PEF held a telephone town hall on March 6 for members concerned about recent cuts to federal spending and the impact on State services and jobs. In the two months of the Trump Administration, thousands of jobs have been cut across various agencies, including the Department of Education, Department of Veterans Affairs, the National Institute of Health and more.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

PEF President Wayne Spence said that he has received emails and phone calls from members who are concerned that these cuts to the federal civil service will soon hurt New Yorkers who work for the public sector.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI have been hearing about some things that may affect public sector workers in New York, or PEF members, so I wanted to try to share as much as I can,\u201d said President Spence. \u201cThere are a lot of unknowns.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Also on the call were PEF Legislative Director Patrick Lyons and AFT Director of Public Employees Jennifer Porcari. In addition to the layoffs, Lyons said that cuts to the Department of Education in the U.S. House Budget Resolution seek to cut $2 trillion from the U.S. Department and could harm New Yorkers at every level. For example, New York receives $371 million in money for student breakfasts alone and $1 billion for lunches. Services like these are administered by civil servants, often PEF members.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cNew York State receives about $1.5 billion for local education agencies that connect Title I students with programming,\u201d said Lyons. \u201cThere\u2019s another $2 billion in Pell Grants that go to students for college education. Our members administer many of these programs. Really any entity that processes federal dollars for a benefit for students, our members are going to be impacted by any cuts there.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

PEF members at the School for the Deaf and the Blind may also see cuts and reductions.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAt the School for the Deaf and the School for the Blind, PEF members are actually the teachers and the support staff,\u201d said President Spence. \u201cThose are considered Title I schools and will be impacted.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In the same way, agencies that assist children with mental health care and with managing disabilities, such as OMH, OPWDD, and the Office of Children and Family Services, also benefit from having Title I-funded programs and could be directly impacted.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Medicaid services could be on the line as well. Medicaid accounts for a large chunk of New York State\u2019s budget, about $56 billion.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the reasons SUNY Downstate is in trouble is because it\u2019s not getting a fair share of Medicaid reimbursements,\u201d said President Spence. \u201cIf Medicaid is going to get cut, that means the Department of Health, that means the SUNY Hospitals, SUNY Upstate, Stony Brook, Downstate\u2014those nurses, and potentially the nurses who work in the Office of Mental Health\u2014they are going to be impacted.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

PEF is also expecting cuts to the National Institutes of Health, which would deal a blow to public universities and research institutions where important work on things like cancer treatment and more are being done.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cNationally, what we stand to lose is about $48 billion that is injected into local economies through research. There\u2019s a reason that we lead the world in excellent scientific research,\u201d said AFT\u2019s Porcari. \u201cMuch of this is done at public universities and public institutions, like Wadsworth (in Albany) and the Roswell Cancer Center (in Buffalo).\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Wadsworth Laboratory employs many PEF members and during the height of the COVID pandemic was a leader in developing one of the first rapid COVID tests now used across the country and the world. Funding for similar research is now under threat.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Finally, PEF is forecasting that there may be cuts to the SNAP program, or Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which PEF members help administer for students across the state.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe get $500 million just to administer that program for the federal government,\u201d said Lyons. \u201cNew York got approximately $8 billion to support Medicaid last year.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This is not the first time any form of government has attempted to scale back the size of the public service workforce, especially in an attempt to privatize.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve seen this playbook before where they gut us and tell us a private company can do better,\u201d said President Spence. \u201cBut when the private company comes in, it ends up costing more money and they deliver worse services.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What is unique about this moment, said Porcari, is that despite there being protections in place to keep workers in their jobs, and of course collectively bargained union contracts, the administration seems to be ignoring most of those protections.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe administration is hoping that they will be able to do what they want and wait for us to litigate and to spend our hard-earned dues resources to get people\u2019s jobs back,\u201d said Porcari. \u201cAnd that is exactly what we\u2019re seeing.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

PEF members can still do something to fight back against the cuts. On the call, President Spence asked members to call, e-mail or write their representatives in Washington to tell them to do something about the rapid scale back of government services.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The NYS AFL-CIO has set up a system to contact representatives in Congress and ask them to STOP THE CUTS. By <\/span>filling out the fields on the right side of this form<\/span><\/a>, members will be connected with their representatives. Members can also call (507) 690-6652 and answer the prompts to be connected. The U.S. House of Representatives also has a switchboard that accomplishes the same thing. That number is (202) 224-3121.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

PEF members wishing to record a video testimonial about the work they do and why New Yorkers would be harmed by cuts to federal funding of their agencies, are encouraged to contact PEF Communications at <\/span>Communicator@pef.org<\/span><\/a>. Your testimonial will be added to <\/span>a growing video gallery of PEF voices communicating our collective message: Stop the Cuts!<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n