” width=”224″ height=”168″ align=”right” hspace=”10″ alt=”Axolotl Lakes southwest of Ennis, Montana, in the foothills of the Gravelly Range” title=”Axolotl Lakes southwest of Ennis, Montana, in the foothills of the Gravelly Range” />As organizers prepare for the biennial Rally for Public Lands, the conservation world faces down a changing climate, an administration determined to dismantle environmental protections, and its own internal contradictions.

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A push by Congressional Republicans to slash federal funding for Medicaid could have “dire consequences” for the more than 1.2 million rural North Carolinians who depend on the program.

That was the key takeaway from a report released in January by the Center for Children and Families at the Georgetown University McCourt School of Public Policy. Rural communities, the researchers wrote, are likely to bear the brunt of the cuts being contemplated in Washington because they make up a disproportionately large share of the state’s Medicaid enrollment.

A little over 39 percent of all Medicaid beneficiaries in North Carolina live in rural counties, according to an NC Health News analysis of the latest enrollment data from the state Department of Health and Human Services. A county is considered rural if it has fewer than 250 residents for every square mile of land. 

Suburban counties, which are more densely populated, account for nearly 29 percent of the state’s beneficiaries. Urban counties with large cities make up about 32 percent. 

Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives are weighing various options to reduce federal spending on Medicaid in an effort to offset the cost of President Donald Trump’s plan to extend trillions of dollars in expiring tax cuts. But experts say all of the proposals floated so far would most adversely affect the same rural communities that carried Trump to victory in North Carolina. 

Trump was the overwhelming favorite among rural voters in the 2024 presidential election, defeating former Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris in 66 of the state’s 78 rural counties. However, NC Health News found that some of those Trump-supporting counties have more residents enrolled in Medicaid than residents who voted, underscoring the program’s importance to rural populations.

In rural Robeson County, for example, Trump was the top vote-getter among the 47,094 residents who cast ballots. Nearly 66,800 people in Robeson — or roughly 57 percent of the county’s population — are covered by Medicaid. 

The election happened less than a year after North Carolina became the 40th state to expand access to Medicaid in December 2023. Under expansion, the maximum allowed household income for eligibility increased to 138 percent of the federal poverty level, or just under $36,000 annually for a family of three. 

More than 600,000 newly eligible residents have joined the rolls since expansion took effect, swelling the state’s total enrollment to 3 million. NC DHHS has said the majority of people who gained coverage through expansion live in rural counties. Eight out of 10 of the new enrollees are adults with jobs, the statistics show.

“Medicaid is important in every state,” Leonardo Cuello, a research professor at Georgetown, told an audience of North Carolina-based health advocates during a recent webinar. “But man, is it really extra important in states with lots of rural areas.”

Children at risk

While Medicaid is most commonly associated with low-income adults, Erica Palmer Smith, executive director of the advocacy group NC Child, said the program is “vitally important” to children in the state. 

“We have so many children who are dependent on the services provided through Medicaid for things as simple as their regular well checks,” she said in an interview with NC Health News. “But also when those children have a medical emergency or when they have a medical need, they don’t have another means for coverage than through our Medicaid program.”

That’s especially true for children in rural areas. Georgetown estimated that 237,800 children in rural North Carolina counties were covered by Medicaid in 2023, which translates to about 30 percent of all children living in rural areas based on population projections by the N.C. Department of Commerce.

“So many families across North Carolina are dependent on Medicaid for their children’s coverage, and so there is a lot of, I think, concern by a lot of those families around what could happen,” Smith said. “We don’t know what’s going to happen, but there is definitely a lot of concern because this is so important to those kids and their families.”

Medicaid begins benefiting many children before they’re even born. 

Cuello said about 38 percent of North Carolina’s births are covered by Medicaid. The state, he added, pays less than a third of the $10,000 cost to deliver a baby from a mother enrolled in the program. 

“With Medicaid, North Carolina can pay for more than three births with $10,000, so you’re getting three for the price of one,” he said. “Imagine if Medicaid goes away and you still have the same number of births to pay for.” 

Hospitals in jeopardy

Cuts to Medicaid could also mean pregnant women in rural counties have fewer places to give birth.

Mark Holmes, director of the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research at UNC Chapel Hill, said the program is a major source of funding for the state’s rural hospitals, many of which are struggling financially. 

“Without Medicaid, many of these people on Medicaid would be uninsured,” Holmes said in an interview with NC Health News. “Medicaid decreases the uncompensated costs that hospitals are covering. We might call this ‘charity care’ in a more layperson kind of language, but the notion is that if you are sick and you go to the emergency room, they’re going to take care of you. And if you have Medicaid, then hospitals are getting money for it.”

Twelve rural hospitals in North Carolina have either shut down or stopped providing inpatient care since 2005, according to data from the Sheps Center. At least 10 other hospitals in rural parts of the state are at risk of going under. 

If they do, residents will be forced to travel farther for essential services. That would exacerbate existing barriers to care for Medicaid beneficiaries in rural counties, who Holmes said “tend to be less able to transport to other locations.”

“They’re more likely to stay and get their care locally, whereas someone who lives in a rural area but has a job an hour away in an urban setting might get their health care there,” he said. “Someone who lives in a rural area who’s on Medicaid may be more likely to get their care locally, and rural hospitals fill that important role for those local populations.”

Cuello said that rural hospitals “rely on Medicaid payments to literally keep the lights on.”

“If you slash Medicaid funding for North Carolina, some of these hospitals that depend on Medicaid reimbursement are going to close, and that has health impacts for people in rural areas who have nowhere else to go,” he said, adding that hospital closures often have a ripple effect on local economies. 

Previous research by Holmes has found that rural hospital closures are associated with a per capita income loss of between $703 and $1,300, along with an uptick in local unemployment rates.

“These hospitals are big employers and the economic engines of some of these rural counties,” Cuello said.

Broader concerns 

Reduced federal funding for Medicaid could have other ramifications for rural areas. 

Cuello noted that the program is the nation’s largest payer for substance use disorder treatment. It allows people in rural counties that have been ravaged by the opioid epidemic to access addiction and recovery services that would otherwise be unavailable to them. 

The North Carolina Office of the Chief Medical Examiner reports that in the previous year, rates of opioid overdose fell by about 27 percent in 2024, the year after expansion went into effect. 

Medicaid also pays for more than 60 percent of the state’s nursing home stays. That coverage is particularly important for rural populations, which skew older than those of urban and suburban counties.

“Medicare does not, repeat, does not pay for nursing homes,” Cuello said, referring to the similarly named program for older adults and people with disabilities. “It is actually Medicaid that pays for ongoing nursing home needs for seniors and similar placements for people with disabilities.”

Health care isn’t the only thing at stake. North Carolina receives about $14 billion a year from the federal government to run Medicaid, freeing up state dollars for other priorities like education. 

Cuello said less than $9 billion of the state’s General Fund is earmarked for Medicaid, while the state pays more than $20 billion on K-12 schools. But that calculus could change if the feds decide to scale back spending on Medicaid.

“All of those federal dollars that are coming in for Medicaid are allowing the state to spend twice as much of its state dollars on education as it does on Medicaid,” he said. “If you take away the federal Medicaid dollars? Yes, that hurts health care, but also education and other state priorities — because how does the state sustain its high spend on education if it loses its biggest source of federal revenue?”

Speaking out

Amber Mosher grew up in a rural North Carolina town about 20 minutes from the nearest hospital. 

Her parents, who worked in construction and retail, couldn’t afford health insurance. They relied on Medicaid to pay for Mosher’s health needs. 

“It is how I got my vaccinations,” she said. “It’s how I was able to see a doctor when I was sick.”

Now the vice president of health policy at Washington-based communications firm GMMB, Mosher said it is important for Medicaid beneficiaries to share their own experiences with federal lawmakers. 

“Sometimes folks can get lost in the sauce when you talk about data and statistics,” she said. “But when you pair that with stories about real people, real health care providers and real small town business owners, it really helps folks understand the real-life impacts of something like cutting federal Medicaid dollars.”

Mosher said GMMB is working with Georgetown to “help folks tell the story of North Carolina and how Medicaid supports your rural communities.” NC Child is also soliciting testimonials from families who have benefited from the program. 

The organizations hope that members of the state’s delegation in Washington can be persuaded to remove Medicaid from the chopping block if enough of their constituents speak up. 

“Everyone in North Carolina has friends, family, neighbors or coworkers who are being supported by Medicaid right now, whether they know it or not,” Cuello said, adding that people “might not stand for cuts to Medicaid if they understood what Medicaid is doing.”

The post Rural North Carolina counties would suffer most from Medicaid cuts appeared first on North Carolina Health News.

The need to explore the effects of federal budget cuts on Virginians crystallized for House of Delegates Speaker Don Scott when a neighbor saw him outside of his house in early February, stopped him and asked, “What are you doing to protect us?”

His neighbor is an employee at the Department of Veterans Affairs. She became alarmed by new directives that had been handed down to employees since Jan. 20, when President Donald Trump took office, Scott said. 

“She said, ‘Y’all need to look into it now,’” he said during an interview Wednesday. 

Three days after the conversation with his neighbor, Scott, a Democrat from Portsmouth, called for the formation of a bipartisan emergency committee to study the potential effects of federal workforce and funding reductions on Virginia. On Thursday, the Department of Veterans Affairs announced the dismissal of more than 1,000 employees.

Trump has issued a flurry of executive orders since he was sworn in. He also formed the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, which is led by Elon Musk, an unelected billionaire and advisor to the president who has not been confirmed by the U.S. Senate. 

Since its formation, DOGE has begun work to dismantle federal agencies, including USAID and the U.S. Department of Education — potentially with more in its sights. The Trump administration has also announced potential funding cuts to the National Institutes of Health and an effort to freeze all federal grants, which sent health care providers reeling. 

The possible statewide effect of federal funding cuts

“It’s fresh, to everyone, what’s happening at the federal level, and so I think it’s prudent of the speaker to look forward and prepare, but beyond that it’s kind of a guessing game right now to what’s truly going to happen,” Del. Tony Wilt, R-Rockingham County, said. Wilt was one of 12 lawmakers tapped to serve on the emergency committee. “We really don’t know what we’re going to be facing as a state.”

Virginia is home to about 144,483 federal workers, according to a December report by the Congressional Research Service, and cuts to the workforce could have a wide reach beyond the northern part of the state. 

Rural school systems get a large portion of their funding from the state, and the biggest source of state funding is the income tax. The region in Virginia that generates the most income tax is Northern Virginia, accounting for about 40% of the state’s revenue. That means state-funded projects, from schools to roads to prisons, owe a large portion of their funding to the economic health of Northern Virginia. 

The emergency committee established by Scott on Feb. 4 is tasked with assessing the potential economic and budgetary consequences of federal cutbacks and providing policy recommendations to mitigate negative effects on Virginia’s families, economy and state budget.

“Right now, they’re taking a sledgehammer to everything. They’re not coming in a precise way, in a thoughtful way,” Scott said. “This committee is set up to really take a look at the facts, the hard data, the sobering boring facts, and let’s see if what we believe our thesis is, is true.”

That thesis, currently, is that when the federal government cuts federal jobs, or funding for health care, transportation projects, public education, agriculture and conservation projects, it hurts Virginia, Scott said. 

“I don’t want to be in a position where we are panicking,” he said. 

Virginia also ranks as the top state in the nation for federal contract awards, totaling $106 billion in 2023, according to data from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. 

The federal workforce reductions, which include a deferred resignation program aimed at cutting federal employment by up to 10%, and the mass termination of federal office leases could have significant repercussions for the state’s economy, particularly in Northern Virginia and the Hampton Roads region, Scott’s office said in a statement. 

The U.S. Office of Management and Budget also issued a recent pause on the disbursement of federal funding, which could create funding gaps for essential services. Impacts could be felt in everything from infrastructure projects to social programs, Scott’s office said. 

“When you go out to Southwest, they’re going to be the ones hurting,” Scott said. “Some of the poorest communities that rely on these services, that we all pay taxes in to make sure that we take care of our most vulnerable communities, they’re in Southwest and Southside. … They’re going to get left further behind.”

The committee’s charge

“This is about ensuring that Virginia remains prepared and resilient in the face of federal policy shifts,” Del. David Bulova, D-Fairfax County, who is slated to chair the emergency committee, said in a statement. 

“Our state budget must remain structurally sound, and we must take steps to protect our communities from sudden economic disruptions. The committee’s work will be critical in identifying ways to mitigate the effects of federal cuts while continuing to support Virginia families and businesses,” he continued. 

The 12-member committee will be tasked with:

• Collecting and analyzing data on the potential scope of workforce and funding cuts;
• Assessing the likely economic and budgetary impacts on Virginia;
• Engaging with stakeholders, including state agencies, businesses and nonprofits, to understand their concerns and gather mitigation strategies; and
• Providing policy recommendations for the 2026 General Assembly session to address the challenges posed by these federal reductions.

“We work together, we collaborate and we look at what needs to be done in the commonwealth and we try to come up with good policy ideas and decisions,” Del. Ellen Campbell, R-Rockbridge County, said regarding the bipartisan work before the committee. 

Campbell has worked on a number of bipartisan special committees, including the Rural Healthcare Committee that was established in 2024, the Behavioral Health Commission and the Early Childhood Education Commission. She noted that the charge of the emergency committee, as it stands before its first organizational meeting, which will need to take place before May 1, is pretty “broad brush.”

Members of the committee plan to travel across the commonwealth, not just to Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads but to the Southwest and Southside regions of the state. It is expected to produce a final report with findings and recommendations by Dec. 15. 

Scott noted that there could be some good to come of the federal shakeup, but he said that guardrails need to be in place. From a state budgetary standpoint, lawmakers need to be responsible and prepare for federal funding cuts, he said.

“We have to be ready because our constitution requires a balanced budget, so we have to see what the feds are going to do,” he said. “We may have to come back for a special [session] and shave a lot of stuff out of our budget.”

The post Federal cuts could affect all of Virginia — a new committee hopes to determine how appeared first on Cardinal News.

West Virginia could lose out on millions of dollars earmarked to help state regulators clean up abandoned natural gas wells as a result of an executive order halting federal funding that President Donald Trump signed on the day of his inauguration.

Regulators previously estimated they’d receive more than $200 million in federal funding to help clean up the thousands of orphaned wells scattered throughout the state. However, West Virginia could lose out on nearly $90 million of those funds.

The cleanup of abandoned wells has been a growing liability for the state as operators have walked away from their nonproducing wells, leaving them unplugged. If the operator of an abandoned well is unknown or files for bankruptcy, it becomes “orphaned,” and the cleanup falls to state regulators. West Virginia regulators previously estimated it costs about $124,000 to clean up an orphaned well. 

Currently, regulators are responsible for cleaning up more than 6,000 orphaned wells in West Virginia. However, that number is considered to be greatly underestimated as there are tens of thousands more that aren’t documented. 

Unplugged, nonproducing wells can pose significant health and environmental threats, including contaminating groundwater and emitting methane and other air pollutants.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimated that the unplugged, non-producing oil and gas wells emitted 275,000 metric tons of methane in 2020; equivalent to emissions of more than 1.7 million gasoline-powered vehicles driven for one year. 

The 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law allocated $4.7 billion to states, tribes, and the Federal Bureau of Land Management to help clean up orphaned wells as an effort to address some of the damage left by the oil and gas industry. The money that was awarded was set to be distributed in installments, but Trump’s executive order halted those.

So far, West Virginia’s Department of Environmental Protection has received $56.1 million, according to DEP spokesperson Terry Fletcher. The agency expects to receive at least another $88.8 million, but that could change given the “fluidity of this situation,” added Fletcher. The state could get additional money if they spend the initial funding well.   

Hours after he was sworn into office, Trump signed an executive order that immediately halted federal spending appropriated by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Under the signed order, no funds from the legislation can be disbursed until White House officials determine whether the funding aligns with the executive order and administration’s policy.

The executive order also halted spending from the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, which included billions of dollars for investments in clean energy and climate change mitigation. 

The federal funding has played a key role in helping West Virginia officials clean up orphaned wells faster than in previous years. The initial $25 million grant awarded to the state by the federal government in 2023 helped plug 202 orphaned wells — about 10 times the number of wells state regulators cleaned up with state funds in fiscal year 2023.  

The White House budget office issued a memo the week after Trump’s inauguration halting federal grants and loans. The action was temporarily blocked by federal judges. Though the memo was later rescinded by the White House, courts later determined that the Trump administration had kept funds frozen in violation of those federal orders. 

Many DEP programs rely on federal grants for funding, including one that cleans up abandoned coal mines and another that provides money for water and sewer programs.

While these programs can continue as normal during short funding pauses, Fletcher said, “Longer interruptions could be more problematic.” 

Trump’s halt on federal spending could cost West Virginia millions to clean up hazardous orphaned gas wells appeared first on Mountain State Spotlight, West Virginia’s civic newsroom.

The 5.0 magnitude earthquake is tied for the sixth strongest in state history. Scientists have warned for years that increased fracking in West Texas is causing higher earthquake activity.

In response to news this week that Montana’s largest land manager is laying off 360 Montana-based federal employees, a spokesperson for the U.S. Forest Service said Friday the agency is “confident that talented individuals” impacted by the staffing reduction will have “many opportunities to contribute to our economy and society in countless ways outside of government.”

The spokesperson, who asked to not be identified, went on to say that Brooke Rollins, who heads up the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees the Forest Service, “fully supports President Trump’s directive to optimize government operations, eliminate inefficiencies, and strengthen USDA’s ability to better serve American farmers, ranchers, loggers and the agriculture community.”

“We have a solemn responsibility to be good stewards of Americans’ hard-earned taxpayer dollars and to ensure that every dollar is being spent as effectively as possible to serve the people, not the bureaucracy,” the statement continued.

Montana Conservation Voters Executive Director Whitney Tawney wrote in an email Friday to Montana Free Press that the cuts threaten Montana’s economy, recreational opportunities and communities. 

“Indiscriminately cutting jobs for hardworking Montanans who manage our public lands is the opposite of common sense. These cuts will make our public lands less healthy, more likely to burn and less accessible,” she wrote. “Montana’s Congressional delegation must call President Trump now and tell him this is unacceptable. These decisions should be made locally, not by D.C. political hacks who know nothing of Montana’s public lands.”

The Forest Service spokesperson did not respond to Montana Free Press’ follow-up questions regarding severance pay for the affected employees or changes national forest users can anticipate in response to the workforce reduction.

According to a Thursday evening story by POLITICO, the Forest Service anticipated firing about 3,400 federal employees across “every level of the agency” as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to reduce the federal workforce. Wildland firefighters, law enforcement officers and other employees with a public safety nexus were exempted from the firing initiative. 

The workers that have been impacted are still within their probationary period, meaning they’ve been employed by the agency for less than two years, and perform a variety of roles ranging from road and trail maintenance to timber production and watershed restoration.

Hilary Eisen, a Bozeman-based policy director with the Winter Wildlands Alliance, said the layoffs will be felt by “everybody who visits or works on these public lands.”

The Forest Service administers tens of millions of acres of land across Montana. In addition to reviewing and authorizing timber sales and livestock grazing leases, the Forest Service plays an important role in the state’s multi-billion dollar outdoor recreation economy and conducts research on a variety of subjects ranging from how wildfires spread to the impact of “hot drought” on forests and promising forestry-oriented approaches to increase water yields.

“The people who lost their jobs maintain trails, discover and extinguish abandoned campfires before they become wildfires, clean outhouses, control weeds, process permits, and much, much more,” Eisen wrote in an email to MTFP. “Arbitrary cuts to the federal workforce is not a path towards efficiency or meaningful budget reductions, but it will harm communities all across Montana and the nation.”

The National Federation of Federal Employees, a union that represents Forest Service workers, has joined a coalition of unions in a lawsuit to halt the Trump administration’s efforts to reduce the federal workforce. In the lawsuit, the unions argue Trump’s efforts are undermining the role of Congress to establish funding for federal agencies. This, they say, is a violation of the separation of powers. 

In response to what it described as the “illegal gutting of the federal workforce,” the union on Thursday issued a press release urging the judicial branch’s intervention. 

“Federal workers are your friends and neighbors who have dedicated their careers to serving our country. We cannot let the President disrupt their lives and dismantle critical services relied upon by the American people,” NFFE National President Randy Erwin wrote. “If this Administration and Elon Musk truly wanted to make our government more efficient, they would have taken the time to understand that these actions will only lead to chaos and poor service for the American people.”

The layoff notices arrived via email the day after the deadline for the “Fork in the Road” offer for federal employees to resign and continue receiving paychecks through September, according to POLITICO.

MTFP requests for comment from the NFFE were not returned by press time Friday. On its website, the Forest Service-specific arm of the union is advising employees who received termination letters to contact a union representative and consider an appeal of the termination. 

The post USFS: ‘Talented individuals’ laid off from agency will find ‘countless’ opportunities’ outside of government appeared first on Montana Free Press.

UPDATED: This story has been updated to include new developments and reactions to the layoffs.

Jourdan Bennett-Begaye
ICT

WASHINGTON — A coalition of tribal organizations issued a sharp response to the ongoing layoffs of thousands of federal employees across Indian Country, expressing “grave concerns” about the “catastrophic” impact to Indian health services, education, law enforcement, fire suppression and other programs delivering services to tribal nations, citizens and communities.

The letter, delivered Friday as the layoff notices were arriving in employee emails, urges the Office of Personnel Management alongside agency heads and the Department of Government Efficiency to provide exemptions for workers providing tribal services that are obligated under treaty and trust obligations.

The cutbacks could have “unintended life or death consequences” for tribal citizens who rely on the services, according to the letter, a copy of which was obtained by ICT.

“Thus far, we have only seen limited exemptions for Federal employees serving Indian Country which do not go far enough to protect essential workers, services, and funds Tribal Nations rely on,” according to the letter.

“When paired with the pauses on Federal funding that affected services Tribal Nations provide to their communities, the loss of Federal employees providing direct services to Tribal communities would be catastrophic,” the letter stated.

The letter was addressed to OPM Acting Director Charles Ezell and signed by 16 tribal organizations and the Navajo Nation.

The layoff notices were going out Friday to probationary federal workers who had been hired within the last year or two and were not yet covered under the civil service regulations that protect other federal workers.

The cuts are expected to cause deep cuts to the Indian Health Service, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Bureau of Indian Education, the Department of the Interior, the Department of Justice and any tribal offices within federal agencies.

“Tribes who receive direct service will be hit the hardest,” one official told ICT. Programs that fall under so-called 638 contracts or compacts will not be affected in this wave of layoffs, according to the official.

Layoffs were initially expected to include 2,200 IHS workers, of whom 1,400 provided direct patient care, including more than 90 physicians, 350 nurses, at least 25 nurse practitioners, nearly 20 dentists, 43 dental assistants, more than 85 pharmacists, 45 lab technicians, 25 hospital social workers, 45 lab technicians, nearly 130 medical assistants, as well as paramedics, dieticians, behavioral health workers, hospital food service workers, nursing assistants and more than 15 service area chief executives or their deputies.

But the White House issued an exemption Friday afternoon for certain IHS workers that reduced the total layoffs to more than 950, officials told ICT. Details were not immediately available on whether or how many doctors, nurses and other direct-care workers would be affected.

IHS had a call Friday afternoon where federal workers were crying on the call. Laid off employees will receive a notice from OPM late Friday afternoon. “Every tribe will want out of direct service arena,” an official told ICT. 

Nonetheless, the impact would be severe, officials said.

“Such a drastic reduction in force would lead to the immediate cancellation of medical services and procedures,” the coalition letter states. “There are 214 Tribal Nations that receive some of all of their care directly from IHS, and losing probationary providers and staff would mean a loss of health and ultimately mortality. Indian Country cannot afford emergency rooms and clinics being forced to shut down or significantly downsize, eliminating critical access to care.”

Federal employees, civil service and United States Public Health Services Commissioned Officers make up the approximately 15,000 employees at IHS, according to the agency’s website.

The letter notes that IHS has some standing exemptions “but they are too limited to ensure the agency can effectively meet direct care services,” given its 30 percent existing vacancy rate. At any time, IHS has 14 to 18 percent of probationary staff.

In past years IHS has been exempt from staff reductions, freezes, and other personnel action, especially during government shutdowns.

“The Department of Veterans Affairs has provided broad exemptions, and the same should be provided for IHS,” states the letter.

The layoffs are also expected to hit about 2,600 workers at the Department of the Interior, 118 BIA workers, two positions in the Office of Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs and about half the Office of Tribal Justice at the Department of Justice.

The BIE is expected to lose one-third of its administrative workforce, with about 40 employees expected to lose their jobs, sources told ICT Friday.

The deputy bureau director for BIE school operations oversees more than 120 employees who are responsible for the BIE budget, grants management, finance, safety management, facilities and environmental-related issues for BIE-funded schools and two tribal colleges, Haskell Indian Nations University in Kansas and Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute in New Mexico, according to the BIE website. Of the entire BIE-operated school system, there are about 5,000 administrators, teachers and personnel.

Haskell is expected to lose 24 percent of its staff and could face loss of accreditation, a source told ICT. The workers were told they must be gone by 2 p.m. Eastern on Friday.

Alex Red Corn, who is the associate vice chancellor for Sovereign Partnerships and Indigenous Initiatives at the University of Kansas, works directly with Haskell on shared education programs between the two institutions. The universities signed a renewed agreement in November 2024.

“For those that don’t know, Haskell Indian Nations University has increased enrollments over the last few years and has reinstated some stability with corresponding growth in faculty/staff,” the Osage citizen wrote on Facebook. “Now, many of these new staff are facing layoffs upwards of 20-30 percent of their entire operational staff. Meanwhile, Haskell is still responsible for the education of the same number of students.” 

In addition, employees at the Office of Justice Services housed in the Department of the Interior, social workers, firefighters and police could be impacted, officials said. The Office of Justice Services provides safety to Native communities and upholds tribal sovereignty.

Related: Abrupt federal layoffs expected to hit tribal programs

The cutbacks would “severely impact” critical services, the letter states.

“For example, wildfires across the western United States have led Tribal Nations to request additional staffing for Wildland Fire Management,” according to the letter. “These essential employees, who protect rural communities from fire devastation, would be lost under the current workforce reduction plans. Public safety, law enforcement, social services and emergency response programs would also be compromised.”

Detention and correction programs for 19 tribes in 11 states will also be affected, sources said.

The letter was approved during an emergency meeting by the coalition Friday morning that came after news broke late Thursday about the directive for widespread layoffs from the Trump administration.

“Tribes who receive direct service will be hit the hardest,” one official told ICT. Programs that fall under 638 contracts or compacts will not be affected in this wave of layoffs, according to the official.

The letter said federal jobs and funding are obligations the United States has acknowledged through its trust and treaty obligations, the letter said.

“Tribal Nations’ exercise of our sovereignty and the United States’ delivery on its trust and treaty obligations must not became collateral damage in the Administration’s implementation of its priorities,” the letter concludes.

“We look forward to this Administration ensuring that Tribal communities do not bear the brunt of broader federal policy changes. We stand ready to meet with you and others within the Trump Administration to discuss this urgent matter further.”

A.C. Locklear II, the National Indian Health Board’s interim chief executive officer, told attendees at the National Congress of American Indians Executive Council Winter Session on Wednesday, Feb. 12, that disruption to services can have a devastating impact on American Indians and Alaska Natives, especially when hiring is already a problem in rural and urban tribal communities.

“All those individuals within the Indian health … system are critical, especially right now, because everyone plays a critical part,” he said. “It can have catastrophic results that we saw in the shutdown in 2019.”

Response came quickly from U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a Republican from Alaska. She spoke on the Senate floor Friday afternoon, highlighting her letter to the Office of Management and Budget and “to make clear to those that are part of the incoming administration … that when we are speaking about Indian Tribes and Tribal Programs and the federal funding that they receive, they do not fall into the category, if you will, of diversity, equity, and inclusion.”

She said there has been “a fair amount of confusion… and uncertainty,” causing “undue stress and anxiety” about the executive orders.

“When we are speaking about Indian tribes and tribal programs and the federal funding they receive, they do not fall into the category, if you will, of diversity, equity and inclusion,” she said.

Last week, the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs elected Murkowski as chair of the committee, a position she’s held before. 

U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Luján, a Democrat from New Mexico, sent a letter to President Donald Trump late Friday signed by nine other senators asking the administration to halt the layoffs of IHS staff.

“Tribal Nations have a legal and political relationship with the United States, and the federal government has a fundamental obligation to fulfill its treaty and trust responsibilities to Tribal Nations – an obligation that includes providing services such as health care to Native communities,” the letter states.

“Abruptly terminating any IHS employees undermines this responsibility, and we urge you to halt the mass firing of any essential health care workers at IHS to preserve the Federal obligations to Tribes. “

The letter said cutting healthcare services will lead to worse outcomes for patients and ultimate cost the federal government more money.

“The federal government is already failing to meet its trust and treaty obligations to Tribal Nations, and further reductions in IHS’ workforce will severely impact the health and wellbeing of [American Indians/Alaska Natives] across the country,” it states. “Therefore, we strongly urge you to stop these firings and retain IHS probationary staff.”

The letter was signed by eight other Democratic senators: Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Ruben Gallego and Mark Kelly of Arizona, Alex Padilla of California, Ron Wyden of Oregon, Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, and Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada. U.S. Sen. Tina Smith of Minnesota, a member of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, also signed the letter.

Tribal leaders, organizations, and Native people can get updates and resources on The Coalition Group website.

In addition to the Navajo Nation, 16 organizations signed the letter: Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians, American Indian Higher Education Consortium, California Tribal Chairpersons Association, Great Lakes Inter-Tribal Council, Great Plains Tribal Chairmans Association, Midwest Alliance of Sovereign Tribes, National American Indian Court Judges Association, National Association of Tribal Historic Preservation Officers, National Congress of American Indians, National Council of Urban Indian Health, National Indian Child Welfare Association, National Indian Education Association, National Indian Health Board, National Indigenous, Women’s Resource Center, Self-Governance Communication & Education Tribal Consortium, and United South and Eastern Tribes Sovereignty Protection Fund.

ICT’s Kevin Abourezk contributed to this report. 

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Moments after the U.S. presidential election was called for Donald Trump last November, Ellie Picard knew that she had to act.

As a transgender woman and co-founder of The Beautiful Idea, a queer bookstore and market located on the Downtown Mall, Picard wanted to prepare for the slew of anti-LGBTQ+ changes that Trump promised during his campaign. His proposals included “keeping men out of women’s sports,” banning taxpayer funding for sex-change surgeries and stopping taxpayer-funded schools from promoting gender transition.

“It’s time to start planning in earnest for how we provide for all of our community’s needs,” said Picard. “Especially for trans folks, we’re going to be the target of some nonsense.” 

Trump’s return to power prompted Picard and other members of Charlottesville’s LGBTQ+ community to mobilize. Blake Walker, a transgender woman who serves on the board of the Charlottesville Gender Expansive Network, was among them.

“In the immediate wake of the election, I felt compelled to sidestep the pit of despair and channel my frustration into something productive,” Walker said in an email to Charlottesville Tomorrow. 

Soon after the election, Walker contacted Picard and The Beautiful Idea’s other owners – Joan Covatch, Senlin Means and Dylan West – about creating a space that would be a safe haven for the LGBTQ+ community. The idea appealed to Picard, who, when opening The Beautiful Idea in 2023, had imagined such a space.

Within three months of discussing what the facility could look like and gathering feedback from potential patrons, Picard, Walker and others leased a building at 801 West Main St. Formerly a Kicks Unlimited sneaker store, the space is now the Rivanna Area Queer Center, a community and social space intended for LGBTQ+ people in Charlottesville and surrounding areas.

With construction of the center and its plans for opening still underway, some of the reasons behind its creation have dominated national and local news. 

On his first day of office, Jan. 20, President Trump signed an executive order declaring that the federal government will only recognize two sexes: male and female. On Feb. 5, Trump signed an executive order barring transgender women and girls from participating in female sports in federally-funded schools and universities, according to the White House. 

Meanwhile, the Virginia General Assembly has seen its own set of anti-LGBTQ+ bills during this year’s session. Ten bills targeting transgender youth and individuals have all failed on the General Assembly floor, many of which involved banning minors from receiving gender-affirming medical procedures, prohibiting transgender girls from playing in sports, and allowing healthcare officials to deny care to patrons who are transitioning, according to the Trans Legislation Tracker, a research organization that tracks bills involving transgender and gender-expansive individuals. 

In Charlottesville, UVA Health said Jan. 31 that it would pause any kind of gender-affirming care for individuals under 19 years of age following an executive order from President Trump and guidance from Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares. Miyares warned UVA Health that they would be at risk of losing critical funding, such as money from Medicare and Medicaid programs. On Feb. 13, a federal judge temporarily blocked Trump’s executive order, and UVA Health resumed care that was previously paused.

Fighting such legislation and policies remains at the center of why Picard, Walker and other queer people in the area decided to create the Rivanna Area Queer Center.

“Folks need a beacon of hope in the midst of all that noise,” said Walker. “Something to remind them that they are safe, loved and worth protecting.” 

Similar spaces in other localities are committed to offering support to the queer community as the nation debates legislation that could harm such people. 

Rev. Lacette Cross is executive director of Diversity Richmond, a bustling facility located near Interstate 95 that describes itself as “the hub for the LGBTQ+ community of Greater Richmond connecting people, partners and programs through our work as a catalyst, a voice, a place and a resource.”

Rev. Cross explained that establishing spaces such as the Rivanna Area Queer Center in Charlottesville is a reminder to people outside of the LGBTQ+ community — supportive or not — that queer people are not going anywhere.

“These spaces are so critically important in times like these, because they are a reminder that we exist, and that nobody can legislate our existence,” said Cross. “We’re here, and we’re a part of this city, this town, this country.”

In addition to Diversity Richmond, the Queer Center’s founders modeled the site after similar businesses in the state, such as the Shenandoah LGBTQ Center in Staunton, Lavender Lodge in Lynchburg and the Roanoke Diversity Center in Roanoke, said Picard. 

The Rivanna Area Queer Center founders want the site to be more than a place for people to hang out. Picard said the center plans to provide an apparel closet for people — such as those who are in the early stages of transitioning — to obtain free clothing. Inside the space, there will be three separate rooms, which Picard envisions having mental health providers and other LGBTQ+ groups use for queer-centered work. 

Fewer venues exist locally for queer communities 

The Rivanna Area Queer Center will not be the first dedicated space for the LGBTQ+ community in the city. However, such spaces have struggled to stay open over the last decade. 

Umma’s, a popular Japanese-Korean-American fusion restaurant that was considered to be a safe haven for queer people in the city, closed last September as the owners were set to move from Charlottesville.

The city also was once home to Impulse, a membership-based queer social club located on Emmett Street where Super Amanecer currently sits. Impulse  closed in 2020 after being in operation for seven years, according to a News Leader report. 

In 2017, the Charlottesville Board of Architectural Review approved the demolition of Escafé, a restaurant that was frequented by queer people in the area, and the restaurant came down in 2018. Club 216, another gay club in the city, shut down in 2016. 

Despite the closures, other businesses, such as Firefly Restaurant and Game Room, have opened their doors for LGBTQ+ patrons and events. In addition, Out and About and Queerish Cville often serve as venues for events hosted by local residents or former queer establishments. 

As the Rivanna Area Queer Center’s founders prepare for its opening within the next two months, they are seeking input for community members who plan to make use of the facility. Bailey Pleasant, a 25-year-old transgender man, looks forward to having an established setting to meet other queer people rather than meeting them by happenstance. 

“I think there is a lot of value in finding other people that are like you and being able to be as true to yourself as you’re capable within that kind of company,” said Pleasant. 

Take Action

The Rivanna Area Queer Center, a community space for LGBTQ+ individuals in Charlottesville,  is developing a dedicated space for queer people in Charlottesville. The center will host a visioning session at 801 W. Main St. on Sunday, Feb. 16 at 4 p.m. If you are interested in contributing to the center, or giving insight on what you would like to see, you can submit a Google form on the center’s LinkTree.

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