It wasn’t a new virus that prompted Gov. Ned Lamont to stage a familiar press conference Thursday to brief residents about threats to the state’s wellbeing. It was Donald Trump and his Republican allies’ efforts to withhold more than $300 million in aid for Connecticut.
Connecticut residents who followed news of the COVID-19 pandemic grew accustomed to seeing the governor and members of his administration seated in the state Capitol’s Old Appropriations room to provide frequent updates on infections, hospitalization, and deaths caused by the virus.
“We’re not going to relive those days, but there is another period we’re going through right now with a lot of unpredictability and uncertainty,” Lamont said, “and I just wanted to try on a semi-regular basis to give you an update on where I think we are.”
This time, it was deep cuts enacted by Donald Trump’s administration that prompted the governor to assemble Emergency Services and Public Protection Commissioner Ronnell Higgins, Emergency Management division leader Brenda Bergeron and Energy and Environmental Protection Commissioner Katie Dykes for a late afternoon briefing.
The Connecticut funding that’s been cut, frozen, or otherwise jeopardized by Washington Republicans includes $175 million for public health programs. Other cuts will impact public safety, including the state’s ability to respond to natural disasters like storms and wildfires.
“What I would tell you now, is that, based on what we’re seeing from the Department of Homeland Security, no [Federal Emergency Management Agency] grant is 100% safe,” Bergeron said.
Officials pointed to the Trump administration cancelation of previously awarded funding under the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program.
The cut will directly impact a project in Bridgeport, which relies on $47 million in FEMA funding to protect an electrical substation that came perilously close to flooding when Hurricane Sandy struck the east coast in 2012.
The Bridgeport project was not the only resiliency initiative now in jeopardy, Dykes said.
“The list goes on,” she said. “About 90 million total in projects that are shovel-ready, ready to go forward and help protect our communities right here in Connecticut from these costly [weather] events that may be canceled.”
Other cuts have included millions in funding bound for Connecticut schools, as well as grants that have been reduced, paused, or eliminated altogether by the Trump administration and unelected billionaire Elon Musk.
Connecticut Democrats have condemned these cuts and backed litigation by Attorney General William Tong and a coalition of attorneys general across the country, who have sued the administration in an effort to preserve critical funding.
Connecticut Republicans, meanwhile, have remained largely quiet about the ongoing series of cuts impacting Connecticut families. That changed last week, when at least one Republican legislator resorted to spreading a conspiracy theory arguing that no funding had been cut.
“That’s right, Connecticut has not received a single cut from the federal government to the state budget,” Rep. Seth Bronko, R-Naugutuck, incorrectly claimed in a one-minute video posted to his Facebook profile.
Unfortunately for Connecticut, Bronko was mistaken. The Trump administration has taken unilateral action to reduce funding to states while Congressional Republicans have adopted a budget resolution that calls for $880 billion in reduced funding, most of which is expected to come from Medicaid, according to Politico.
During Thursday’s press conference, Lamont was asked whether he would tap the state’s Rainy Day Fund in order to offset some of the cuts from the Republican administration. Lamont worried Connecticut may need to save the money for a recession, which is now widely expected as a result of Trump’s economic policies.
“Maybe we could do a little bit more to make sure that we can mitigate some of these cuts, but I’m also being very clear,” the governor said. “There’s no way I can make up all these federal cuts.”
