How do you plan with the federal government in chaos?
By Rob Smith / ecoRI News staff
Lawmakers and advocates from different policy groups sip on
coffee from Dunkin’ Donuts, munch on pastries and cookies, and discuss the
current legislative session.
But Tuesday’s coffee hour, hosted by the Environment Council of Rhode Island, a
coalition of the state’s leading environmental groups, was more serious than
usual. The night before, on Jan. 27, the Trump administration froze all federal
spending, after the federal Office of Management and Budget (OMB)
placed countless federal programs under review.
The order sent Rhode Island government into panic mode;
most, if not all agencies or government entities, receive some kind of federal
funding.
It’s possible the state’s environmental entities, such as
the Department of Environmental Management and the Coastal Resources Management
Council, could be financially handicapped. Big chunks of each agency’s budget,
about $60 million (25%) of DEM and $3.1 million (30%) of CRMC’s budgets, could
be frozen or inaccessible.
“We cannot stop,” House Speaker Joe Shekarchi, D-Warwick, said in remarks at the coffee hour, just hours before the then-deadline of 5 p.m. on the freeze. “There’s a new administration in Washington, and that has a direct impact on the work we do in Rhode Island, and nationwide.”
Statewide, federal funds make up around 37% of the state’s
nearly $14 billion budget, according to the latest data available from the
state Office of Management and Budget. Most of that goes to Medicaid, with
significant portions going toward the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program
and highway infrastructure.
The exact scope of the freeze, if it continues, on the
agencies is unclear. DEM regularly is awarded federal money for different
projects; ranging from resiliency projects, to policy hires, to removing a
barge from the Providence River. CRMC, on the other hand, receives formula
funding for its program as part of the federal National
Coastal Zone Management Program.
DEM director Terry Gray told ecoRI News on Tuesday it was
too early to tell what the exact impact on his department would be.
A list shared by Rep. Seth Magaziner, D-R.I., which focused
on impacts to Department of Homeland Security programs, included federal funds
for dam safety, hazard mitigation, and firefighting grants, each of which has
some impact on an existing DEM program.
Meanwhile, Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha
announced that Rhode Island, along with 21 other states and the District of
Columbia, would be suing the Trump administration over the federal freeze,
calling it “unconstitutional.”
“It is astonishing that President Trump, through an agency
most Americans have never heard of, would take an action so unlawful and would
impact so many Americans in so many ways,” Neronha said during a Jan. 28 press
conference announcing the lawsuit.
A memorandum released by the OMB on Wednesday afternoon
purported to rescind the earlier memo laying out the federal freeze.
The chaos rolling downhill from the federal level is likely
to make the job of Rhode Island’s environmental advocates much harder. Even
prior to the OMB memo released on Monday, lawmakers were entering this session
with a budget deficit of some $200 million.
Gov. Dan McKee’s budget proposal, released last month,
presented a balanced spending-and-tax plan for policymakers to chew over for
next fiscal year, but they will not have a freehand to spend on environmental
priorities like in recent years.
In normal times, the ECRI coffee hour is used to soft-launch
some of its emerging priorities. None of the policy areas the organization
listed Tuesday are final, but many of them had corresponding bills the previous
year supported by ECRI.
ECRI’s priorities are broken down into three key areas:
environmental justice: climate mitigation; and land, water, and coastal
protections.
Environmental justice. It’s highly likely the
environmental coalition backs much of the returning environmental justice
legislation from last year. Chief among the bills will be another one aimed at
letting permitting entities in Rhode Island, such as DEM, consider the cumulative
impacts to communities when reviewing polluting projects.
The coalition said it may also support bills this session
that promote urban tree canopies, reduce energy cost burdens for low-income
communities, and prioritize environmental education and workforce development
in “lower-resourced” communities.
Climate mitigation. The big returning bill from this
section will be the one that addresses reducing greenhouse gas building
emissions and promotes heating electrification. Last year a proposed energy
benchmarking program failed to gain traction, with lawmakers instead passing a
joint resolution asking state environmental officials to study how to implement
such a program.
ECRI has also suggested it will support funding for public
transit and other alternative means of transportation that reduce emissions.
Land and water protections. ECRI hinted it would
support legislation that promoted “collaborative land use planning around
housing and conservation.” A similar bill to bring back the Housing and
Conservation Trust, a program that funds projects that promote affordable
housing and preserve open space, was promoted by the council last year. The
bill ultimately went nowhere in the Legislature.
Other items in the category include supporting the “bottle
bill” — i.e., the creation of a bottle deposit system to reduce the amount of
plastic — reducing the use of pesticides, and promoting climate resilience in
coastal areas.
ECRI expects to announce its final priorities for the
legislative session some time around Earth Day in April.