Republished from the April 11 Lake Champlain Chamber Advocacy Update
by Austin Davis, Lake Champlain Chamber
Last week, Congressional Republicans narrowly approved the compromise budget resolution the Senate passed the previous week, which is yet another step closer to using the reconciliation process to cut upwards of $1.5 trillion from the federal budget.
The GOP lost only two House Republican votes despite about a dozen others having threatened to oppose it because the cuts didn’t go deep enough.
Back here in Vermont: The tally for how much the state is losing grows daily with impacts to essential services.
Potential Pain Points: The Vermont House Appropriations Committee got more granular on the one-third of the state’s budget that comes from federal funding, which is a source of vulnerability and concern. Major areas of federal support include:
- Over $1.5 billion for Medicaid,
- Roughly $354 million in Education funding, and
- Nearly $500 million in Transportation funds at a time when financial constraints mean the state will repair half as many roads this year.
The state is starting to draw the ire of the Trump Administration and that was seen in two distinct ways this week.
- Climate Superfund – An executive order this week calling on the U.S. Attorney General to identify ways to halt the enforcement of laws, such as the climate superfunds, that he said have threatened “American energy dominance.” Read more about that here.
- Education curriculum – A directive from the Trump administration would instruct school districts to certify that they are not engaging in “illegal DEI.” Noncompliance could put millions of federal dollars under threat. Read more here.