Rep. Sam Liccardo talks local impacts of federal cuts
Potential federal funding cuts being discussed in Washington could result in significant local ramifications on health and social services in Santa Clara County, Rep. Sam Liccardo, D-San Jose, said Monday.
Standing in front of the nonprofit Community Services Agency (CSA) in Mountain View, Liccardo laid out how recent and proposed funding cuts in the most recent continuing resolution that passed in the U.S. House of Representatives but stalled in the Senate last week, will increase health insurance costs and hurt local organizations like CSA.
“This administration has to stop making it harder for families to pay their bills,” Liccardo said. “The bottom line is, what we have seen in the most recent budget and what we are about to see is going to make it brutally difficult for families who are struggling every day to pay for their rent, pay for their groceries.”
A continuing resolution is a temporary spending bill needed when Congress and the president cannot reach an agreement on federal spending levels by the start of the fiscal year, Oct. 1. Continuing resolutions generally keep funding similar to the previous fiscal year and seek to avoid government shutdowns. Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives passed a continuing resolution last week, opposed by Democrats, that has stalled in the Senate and leaves the federal government just a few days from a shutdown. Liccardo said before he votes yes on any continuing resolution, he wants to see an extension of pandemic-era Affordable Care Act tax credits designed to help reduce the costs of health insurance. He estimated that 28,000 residents in the CA-16 district will face increased premiums of approximately 112%, the equivalent of $3,200 per family annually if the continuing resolution passes in its current form.
“The tax credits have to be passed now; they have to be extended today, because if we wait until after November or December, families will not be eligible,” Liccardo said. “I am not going to vote for a continuing resolution unless those tax credits are approved. I am also not going to vote for any deal unless we know that the president can be held to the deal.”
CSA provides food and social services to thousands of residents in Mountain View, Los Altos and Los Altos Hills and is one of the organizations that spoke Monday about the funding cuts. CSA Executive Director Tom Myers said federal funding cuts in the last few months and current proposals will hurt CSA’s ability to serve the community. While donors have temporarily stepped up to fill needs, asking them to contribute more consistently is not sustainable and cannot fill the gap.
“We are looking at 13% in our funding for food because of federal cuts. We are looking at a 32% reduction in funding from the Department of Housing and Urban Development and 7% from perhaps the most vulnerable members of our community, our seniors,” Meyers said. “Some of these funds are frozen, some of the funds, we’ve been told we are not going to get them.”
Fahd Khan, president of the Santa Clara County Medical Association, and Michael Balliet, deputy director for operations for Santa Clara County Public Health, expressed concern about how spending cuts would hurt public health funding in the county. Balliet noted local health departments have had sudden changes to grants that have interrupted important community health work around infectious disease outbreaks and hospital emergency plans. Grant terminations by the federal government have taken away previously promised federal funding to the department and require work to stop immediately and without warning. The federal cuts are also impacting approximately 9% of Santa Clara County Public Health staff.
“Because of reductions in federal funding, we unfortunately had to lay off 20 of our staff this year, and there are another 35 positions that we won’t be able to fill and have to eliminate,” Balliet said.