Spending package cuts grants to cities to help with influx of migrants

The second and final set of six spending bills that were made public early Thursday morning by congressional negotiators would increase funding to help parents pay for child care, but would also end internet subsidies and reduce grant funding to help local governments shelter and feed asylum-seekers.

The $1.2 trillion spending package, which the House and Senate must pass on Friday to avert a government shutdown, would effectively end Congress’ nearly six-month-long impasse.

In addition to failing to fund the Affordable Connectivity Program, which provides a $30-a-month subsidy to low-income households for internet access, congressional leaders also agreed to cut funding for the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Shelter and Services Program by $150 million, from $800 million to $650 million. Local governments had hoped to receive $1.4 billion in funding, as many cities like Chicago, Denver and New York continue to struggle to shelter and support the millions of migrants that have been bused up from the Texas border.

The cuts to several programs significant to state and local governments have brought condemnation from local officials.

Mesa, Arizona, Mayor John Giles, acknowledged the package includes funding to increase border security. But it would not go far enough to stem the influx of migrants as the border security bill that the House refuses to approve would. Giles, who is chairman of the U.S. Conference of Mayors’ immigration task force, added that he's "very concerned” about the funding decrease.

“It's absolutely going to create a hardship for our city,” he said. “It's going to really put the squeeze on.”

The National Association of Counties criticized the cut to grants to help asylum-seekers as well. “Counties depend on resources from the Shelter and Services Program to address the immediate needs of our residents,” said Mark Ritacco, the group’s chief government affairs officer in a statement to Route Fifty. “A $150 million cut to the program will directly impact our ability to deliver services, requiring that we divert resources from other programs or make difficult decisions that could result in poorer outcomes for all."

Funding for another FEMA program to help places of worship like synagogues and mosques shore up their physical security has been cut as well. The Nonprofit Security Program will receive $274 million, which is only a 10% cut. But as hate crimes based on religion are surging, advocacy groups like the Anti-Defamation League had asked for more money.

“It is unacceptable that as threats to our communities increase, Congress is decreasing potentially lifesaving funding,” said Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, in a statement to Route Fifty. “With an unprecedented spike in antisemitism and threats to Jewish institutions in the wake of the Oct. 7 massacre in Israel, it's disheartening to see Congress fail to even maintain the status quo.”

Congress, as part of the deal reached last year to prevent a default on the nation’s debt, adhered to an agreement to keep overall spending at essentially the same level as last year. As a result, increases in funding for some programs meant cuts for others.

House Republicans, for instance, celebrated that the proposal would increase funding for defense and border security. The bills increase the government’s capacity to detain about 8,000 more people at the nation’s border, as well as the number of border patrol agents.

“House Republicans made a commitment to strategically increase defense spending, make targeted cuts to overfunded nondefense programs and pull back wasteful spending from previous years. I am proud to say that we have delivered on that promise,” said Rep. Kay Granger of Texas, the top Republican on the House Appropriations Committee.

Democrats, meanwhile, celebrated an increase in Child Care and Development Block Grant funding, which allows states to lower the cost of child care for families. Its budget will see a $725 million increase to $8.7 billion. The Head Start program would receive a $275 million increase to $12.3 billion.

“This package will give families some extra breathing room—and help continue America’s historic economic recovery,” said Sen. Patty Murray of Washington state, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee. “I am proud to have secured $1 billion more to lower families’ child care costs and help them find pre-K—a critical investment to help tackle the child care crisis that is holding families and our economy back.”

Despite the cuts to some programs, Murray noted that Democrats “defeated outlandish cuts that would have been a gut punch for American families and our economy.”

“This significant increase signals the priority placed on child care,” said Patricia Cole, senior director of federal policy for the child care advocacy group, Zero to Three.

But the funding would not stabilize the nation’s child care system, Cole warned, which has been teetering ever since the nearly $40 billion in child care subsidies approved under the American Rescue Plan Act expired at the end of September. “It isn’t enough to address the ongoing challenges child care is facing,” she said. “We need $16 billion in emergency funds to help programs pay staff and keep costs down for parents.” 

To date, more than a quarter of providers have had to cut salaries, according to a national survey by the National Association for the Education of Young Children. A similar share also reported serving fewer children. Since the subsidies ran out, advocates warned that as many as 70,000 programs could ultimately close, affecting more than 3 million children.

Passing the spending package will end a months-long partisan standoff that has kept Congress from agreeing on spending for the current fiscal year that began on Oct. 1. Associations representing states and local governments have repeatedly urged House and Senate leaders to reach an agreement instead of continuing to cause uncertainty by bringing the nation to the verge of a government shutdown again and again.

The House is expected to vote on the bills on Friday. The Senate will then “race to pass this package before government funding runs out” at midnight Saturday morning, said Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. 

The Federal Communications Commission, which runs the Affordable Connectivity Program, had no comment on Thursday. But it has said that the Affordable Connectivity Program will run out of funding at the end of April unless Congress acts. Continuing to provide the assistance has been a top priority for local governments concerned by FCC estimates that more than 17 million households will lose access to the internet or face disruptions in their service should the program end.

The cuts to grants to help shelter and support asylum-seekers will no doubt be met with frustration. Mayors were already exasperated when they met last month at the mayors’ annual conference in Washington, D.C.

A spokesperson for New York City Mayor Eric Adams told Route Fifty in January the city has spent $3.1 billion between April 2022 and last November and has opened 216 sites to shelter migrants. The city expects to spend another $12 billion over the next three years unless the federal government addresses the issue.

While being reduced, the funding for protecting places of worship through the Nonprofit Security Program would be the second most in its history, said Robert Goldberg, who led the Jewish Federations of North America’s advocacy efforts to create the program in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. However, he also noted that the decision not to increase funding for the program comes a day after Robert Wells, the FBI’s assistant director for counterterrorism, warned the House Committee on Homeland Security that “we are currently in a heightened terrorism threat environment. Since the Hamas attack against Israel, we’ve seen almost every major terrorist organization in the world, including al Qaeda, AQAP [al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula] and ISIS, call for terrorist attacks against the United States.”