Help for sexual abuse victims, keeping violence interrupters on the streets of Waukegan to reduce gun violence and continuing affordable housing efforts already underway on track are potentially at risk if President Donald Trump’s attempt to freeze allocated funding ultimately goes through.
Lake County State’s Attorney Eric Rinehart said the county experienced a 45% reduction in gun violence last year, in part because of a federal grant helping to fund his Gun Violence Prevention initiative. Dollars from Washington also help victims of crimes.
“Federal funding is one of the things that keeps our mission going,” Rinehart said. “It pays for the therapists who are part of our gun violence initiative. It’s been serving our services for crime victims going back 25 years.”
Rinehart was one of seven public officials and not-for-profit executives participating in a virtual roundtable discussion hosted by U.S. Rep. Brad Schneider, D-Highland Park, about the importance of federal grants Thursday in the wake of uncertainty after Trump’s action.
After the president issued his executive order freezing nearly all federal spending, Schneider said his phone, “started ringing with panic.” Questions came from people concerned about individuals without shelter in the cold, infrastructure projects underway, school lunches and much more.
Schneider said the allocated funding in grants and loans is $3 trillion, the equivalent of 3 million million-dollar grants. Some of the allocated money is the difference between providers of essential services “staying open or shutting down.” The order is illegal, he said.
“The Constitution vests the ‘power of the purse’ with Congress,” he said. “It is Congress that decides where to spend money, and how much to spend. The (law) requires the president to spend those funds as defined by Congress and in a timely manner.”
Though spending is the job of Congress, House Speaker Mike Johnson is doing the president’s bidding, Schneider said. Chair of the New Democrat Coalition and a member of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus, he said he is in a position to work across the aisle.
With the Republican House members — who have a three-seat majority — at a meeting in Florida, Schneider said he has not been able to talk to his GOP colleagues. He has spoken to some who are now former members. They disagree with the president’s action.
Though the funding Schneider has helped to arrange with his colleagues in Congress benefitting his district — which includes much of Lake County — are usually called “grants,” Lake County Board Chair Sandy Hart, D-Lake Bluff, looks at the money differently.
“It’s a reimbursement of the tax dollars we send to the federal government, and we only get a fraction back,” she said.
Hart said federal funding impacts all aspects of services the county provides, including vaccines, infrastructure and public works. Relief funds during the coronavirus pandemic helped people avoid eviction and educated those reluctant to get vaccinated. She is particularly concerned about the Cedar Lake Road project in Round Lake.
“We got a $19 million grant for that,” Hart said. “It will help with downtown business development. It will help with transportation and mobility of all kinds, not just cars. It will mitigate flooding. It’s been a problem for 20 years.”
Rob Anthony, the president of Libertyville-based Community Partners for Affordable Housing, said his organization is helping low-income people as well as senior citizens thanks in large part to federal grant money.
“What if we need to help someone facing eviction, and we don’t know how long the freeze will last,” Anthony said. “We give down-payment assistance. If we don’t have the money for that, someone could lose what they’ve already spent on things like home inspections.”
Wendy Ivy, the associate executive director of the Zacharias Center in Gurnee, said the loss of grant funds could result in having less counselors to help victims of sexual abuse. Laura Fry, the executive director of Live4Lali, said getting a short-term line of credit is possible, but not every organization may be able to borrow funds.
While a federal judge stayed the president’s executive order and the White House then rescinded it, Schneider said shortly after that the president’s press secretary shed doubt about what the future might hold.
“I want to be very clear that although there has been a reprieve, I am incredibly concerned that this president and administration will continue to pursue its efforts to defund so many of the local projects and organizations that support our community,” Schneider said.
