See below for video and a few highlights from this morning’s Joint Meeting of the Emergency Committee on the Impacts of Federal Workforce and Funding Reductions and the Appropriations Committee. Also, see here for the full presentation to members of the committee. Finally, great job as always by VAPLAN/Cindy for live tweeting this meeting and providing key takeaways. Those include:
- “TL:DR of House Emergency Committee on Federal Cuts: Virginia’s economy is screwed. Unemployment rising, job growth slowed, falling labor force participation rate (discouraged workers), and we are just beginning to feel the impacts of tariffs, on prices & small business closures.”
- “9,500 Virginians who lost their federal jobs between January and July. A ‘positive externality’ and ‘good news’ according to Youngkin.”
- “The 5 main areas where federal budget bill HR1 will affect Virginia’s costs: SNAP cuts, Medicaid cuts, premium tax credit, higher education access and affordability, federal tax policy changes. Many are not one-time but ongoing costs–so cannot replace using rainy day funds”
- “From today’s presentation at House Emgcy Committee on Federal Cuts (Joint today w House Approps): 24% of VA’s economic activity is reliant on the federal government, as an employer, a consumer, and an investor. Federal government spending is inextricably linked to VA economy.”
- “Unemployed after long career in federal public service? Lost funding for critical life-saving research? In letter to House Emergency Committee members, Youngkin calls that ‘good news’ and ‘one of many positive externalities resulting from federal decisions to reduce spending.'”
- “Del Simon: If you know there’s an accident up ahead, you don’t barrel ahead at 80mph hoping it clears before you get to it, you plan ahead and slow down. That’s what we need to be doing here, preparing for impact. And rainy day funds aren’t for a crash you KNOW is up ahead.”
- Del. Candi King “cites the number of people just in her district losing SNAP funding and replies ‘For the families facing these cuts, the sky IS falling.'”
- “A fiery Del. Luke Torian (Approps Chair) says in Joint House Emergency Committee mtg: We will NOT run to our reserve funds. We will work hard to appropriate the resources where they are needed: healthcare, education, increasing our workforce, protecting vital interests.”
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