Good morning.
The Select Committee on Federal Administration and Policy Changes Committee will come to order.
It is 9.32 a.m., May 16th, 2025. I'm Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rink, Chair of the Committee.
Will the Committee Clerk please call the roll?
Councilmember Hollingsworth?
Here.
Councilmember Kettle?
Here.
Councilmember Saka?
Here.
Council member Strauss.
Present.
Council member Solomon.
Here.
Chair Rink.
Present.
Chair, there are six members present.
Thank you, clerk, and let the record reflect that council members Nelson, Moore, and Rivera are excused for today.
If there is no objection, the agenda will be adopted.
Hearing no objection, the agenda is adopted.
Welcome everyone to the May meeting of the Select Committee on Federal Administration and Policy Change.
While I wish this committee was not needed, I am excited to still speak with you all this morning.
And to our presenters, thank you for joining Council today for these critical discussions.
We once again appreciate your time, attention, and continued conversation and expertise during these incredibly uncertain times.
To our community, we see and hear you We are here to have your backs.
I'm here to have your back to the best of my ability while I'm on this dais, especially as each day feels harder for so many across our city.
These are not normal times, and I think anyone in our leadership position has a duty to keep saying this.
And on today's agenda, we will have a briefing from the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs to give an update on where the city of Seattle and the region are after a exhausting first 100 days of the second Trump administration.
I know I'm struggling to keep up with all of the back and forth changes and constantly changing information, which is an intentional tactic of this administration to confuse, exhaust, and demoralize the American public.
And I am so thankful to the OIR team who are going to help give us an idea of where we are currently.
This will be followed by a discussion and a vote on the welcoming city resolution briefed during the April committee meeting to support our local immigrant communities in the wake of the Trump administration's disturbing and cruel mass deportation agenda.
As mentioned in our previous two meetings on this matter, we are in emergency.
This has been stated in committee previously, but we are seeing an increased need from community members and organizations as federal funds are slashed from an administration that wants to traumatize the American public.
And this includes legal services for unaccompanied minors of parents who have been detained or are facing deportation proceedings.
And these are some of Seattle's most vulnerable kids.
I know I'm not the only one whose heart breaks at the thought of a four-year-old appearing before a judge to defend themselves in an immigration court.
We know we may not be able to make up every financial gap, but we must do our best to do right by them, which is one of the things that this resolution can do.
And simply put, colleagues, the solutions to our challenges have never been simple, and they grow more complex each day.
But that's why we signed up for this job to fix hard problems and meet this moment.
And it will take all of us, every member of this body and every leader in this community, every resident of our neighborhoods to work together to carve a path forward to protect our residents and create a future we all want to live in.
And this committee is just part of that work.
So thank you to everyone who is participating or listening in today.
And with that, we will now open up the hybrid public comment.
Public comments should relate to items on today's agenda or within purview of this committee.
Clerk, how many speakers are signed up for today?
Currently, we have one remote speaker.
Thank you.
Each speaker will have two minutes and we will start with our one remote speaker.
Clerk, can you please read the public comment instructions?
The public comment period will be moderated in the following manner.
The public comment period is up to 60 minutes.
Speakers will be called in the order in which they are registered.
Speakers will alternate between in-person sets and remote speakers until the comment period has ended.
Speakers will hear a chime when 10 seconds are left of their time.
Speakers mics will be muted if they do not end their comment period with their comments within the allotted time to allow us to call on the next speaker.
The public comment period is now open and we will begin with the first speaker on the list.
And the first speaker is David Haynes.
All right, thank you, David Haynes.
I think you all need to go seek mental health assistance with your Trump derangement syndrome because you're not being truly forthright, diligent, and honest in your efforts to create better policies to help improve our community that would justify to the federal government that Seattle finally got it right and that they still have to invest in assisting with public safety, which you all are some of the worst at, and housing crisis and the homeless crisis.
Yet you all refuse to improve policies, still doubling down on the same racist, woke, bottom-of-the-barrel policy priorities that exacerbate public safety, the homeless crisis, and the housing crisis, where the Office of Housing is tainted in racist, untrustworthy leaders who look like they have a serious drinking problem because their racist agenda bothers the conscience, knowing how wrong they are.
Yet Seattle continues moving forward over the cliff, still power-tripping your selfish wants at taxpayers' expense, while council treasonously is self-dealing with conflicts of interest that don't have the best interest of the community at heart, backstabbing a multitude of younger generations' futures and working class, denied a better choice in home.
While some on council seem to care more for criminals than innocents, Because you all base judgment on skin color, not content of character, further misjudging, proving you all at City Hall, including your mean-spirited communist staff, don't have the best interest of community at heart and are not trustworthy with other people's money.
You're always race-baiting and scaring people, still running interference for and exempting evil people.
Repeat offending criminals from jail who get prioritized for housing and services first before innocent White House citizens that are subhuman mistreated and racially discriminated against.
While evil criminals, whether they're illegal aliens or U.S. citizens, are conducting an uncivil war on community.
While you racially play the hate white people to button push a bunch of strong miseducation perverted voting blocs who ignorantly pervert biology and misconstrue what a criminal is. proving certain progressives have twisted ideas between what.
There are no additional registered speakers.
We will now proceed to our items of business.
Right.
We will move to our first item of business.
Will the clerk please read item one into the record.
Item one, update on potential federal administration impacts to the city of Seattle for briefing and discussion.
Thank you, and we are joined today by our OIR staff.
When you get settled in, if you can take a moment to introduce yourself by stating your full name and to the microphone for the record, thank you.
Perfect, yeah, working, awesome.
Yeah, I think we're good to go.
Oh, okay.
And then I think, yep.
Awesome.
Well, good morning, council members, and thank you, Chair Ring, for having us today.
As mentioned, my name is Anne Maher, and I'm a federal affairs director here at our Office of Intergovernmental Relations, and I'm joined with our federal lobbyist, Leslie Pullner, today, who's tuning in from D.C.
Leslie, can you hear us all right?
I can.
Can you hear me as well?
Yes.
Good morning or afternoon there.
Thank you.
Well, great.
I will hop right in.
We're going to kick it off with highlighting what we've seen since inauguration, discuss some of the ins and outs of what's happening in Congress right now, including budget reconciliation, and then I'll talk a little bit about some of the ongoing issues we're tracking in coordination with our departments and we'll we will try to keep the presentation um somewhat short to leave enough time for q a uh leslie do you want to kick us off with the first 100 days here will do um well it's great to be with you here today and i wish i was coming under better circumstances um
To state the obvious, it has been a really challenging time here in Washington, particularly with the first 100 days.
As you well know, President Trump has signed over 100 executive orders since beginning his second term.
Just a couple of the highlights.
Obviously, there are far too many to note at this point, but just a couple to highlight for us.
You know, there's the unleashing American energy executive order that required a comprehensive review of grant programs and awards made under President Biden's administration.
And federal departments used that executive order as an opportunity to rescind unobligated grant dollars and to change the terms and substance of some existing grant awards, particularly those that were focused around environmental justice and equity, which of course have been a central theme for the Biden administration.
And then, of course, again, on sanctuary cities, one of the first executive orders that President Trump signed was the executive order directing the attorney general to undertake, quote unquote, any lawful actions to ensure that so-called sanctuary jurisdictions do not receive access to federal funds.
Shortly after its release, the order was subject to a nationwide injunction as the courts are continuing to determine its legality.
We saw a follow up executive order On April 28th, President Trump directed the Attorney General to publish a list of jurisdictions that obstruct the enforcement of federal immigration laws, and the order also requires federal departments to investigate federal resources that can be restricted for sanctuary jurisdictions.
We'll note that on May 9th, a federal judge ruled that the Trump administration's efforts to withhold funding for 16 quote unquote sanctuary jurisdictions is likely unconstitutional.
And the judge indicated that if Trump's latest order was used to target funds unrelated to sanctuary policies, that their suspension would very likely violate the Constitution.
We are also expecting the administration to come out with its list of again so called sanctuary city jurisdictions.
At the before the end of May on so we're watching carefully for that, let me turn it over now to any to talk through fyi 26 appropriations any.
Thank you.
So yes, as mentioned, we're in the heart of fiscal year 2026 appropriation.
So earlier this month, the president did release his skinny budget.
So this did have some high level concerns, including cutting CBDG home, LIHEAP.
With the release of this budget, the cabinet secretaries do begin appearing before Congress.
That has started happening throughout the week.
I will say we do take the president's budget with a grain of salt.
A lot of legislators have largely dismissed a lot of these concerns and so we will see as they're debating currently and over the next few months a lot of varying opinions even across Republicans and so this could even complicate the path to a final funding bill.
And as you probably remember, we've talked about before in the past fiscal year, 25 also had complications.
And some of that was including our earmarks, which is sort of more technically titled our community project funding on the house side and congressionally directed spending requests on the Senate side.
So just wanted to touch on some of the projects that Seattle submitted this cycle.
Unfortunately, the 25 earmarks were removed amongst appropriations last year.
So that means our projects did not receive those funding.
So largely these projects are the ones we submitted last cycle, but just wanted to touch on them so you're aware.
We submitted through SDOT, third ab revitalization.
So that's around 3.75 million.
Another big priority for the city is the post overdose response team expansion.
That's been a big priority of the mayors.
So in partnership with SFD, we submitted that request again.
That one is also priority for the delegation.
And so there was a decent amount of interest again this year.
Similarly, on the Seattle waterfront side, we submitted a proposal for three million for the Elliott Bay seawall, and that is the second phase of improvements along that seawall.
Along with that, the Lake City Community Center and affordable housing redevelopment, so a partnership to renovate the community center and add some affordable housing, a really exciting project for Office of Housing, and it's remained a big priority, and so we wanted to ensure that that funding does come through.
The last one we did resubmit was the Columbia City Branch Seismic Retrofit, and that's around $5 million, and that is through the Seattle Public Library and Congressman Smith.
Again, wanted to see that one.
We did submit two additional projects just due to interest from our delegation along with the mayor's office and council.
Fort Lawton redevelopment has come through as a priority and so we're working through that currently with our delegation.
They've sent some follow-up questions and we'll be tracking where we land with Fort Lawton.
So I'll pause there on appropriations and I think we can dive into some of the ins and outs of budget reconciliation here and I will pass it back to Leslie.
Great.
Thanks, Annie.
So just as you'll recall, budget reconciliation is a legislative process that allows Congress to pass certain spending bills with a simple majority in the Senate and the House.
And budget reconciliation has been used in the past.
It's been used by Democrats and Republicans.
It was used to pass, for example, the Inflation Reduction Act.
during the Biden administration, and of course Republicans are trying to use it now to reauthorize the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. They're also using it to raise the debt ceiling and then of course to provide additional funding for immigration and border security.
It has taken up the majority of Congress's bandwidth over the past several weeks.
And so this week, Ways and Means, Agriculture, and Energy and Commerce committees all did their markups, and they were marking up some of the most controversial pieces of the bill, which I'll talk about in just a moment.
But moving on to the next slide.
So just going through some of the highlights or lowlights, I should say, but I'll just note that the house education and workforce would significantly change the Pell Grant Program, requiring students to take at least 15 credits per semester rather than the current 12, making it more challenging for students who are attending part-time to access Pell.
On the House Homeland Security bill, there is significant funding allocated for border security and for additional border personnel.
I'll also note, however, that the House Homeland Security bill does include $625 million going to the 11 FIFA host committees for security needs for FIFA as well.
So next slide.
Moving on, House Financial Services rescinded unobligated funds for the Green and Resilient Retrofit Program.
House Judiciary is providing additional funding also for immigration enforcement, $45 billion for ICE detention, $14 billion for ICE transportation.
The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee introduced a new $250 fee for electric vehicles and $100 fee for hybrid vehicles.
You also saw unobligated funding rescinded for the DOT Neighborhood Access and Equity Grant Program.
Next slide.
And then, as I mentioned, just this week, we had markups of Ways and Means, agriculture, and energy and commerce.
On the Ways and Means side, I'll note that there had been real concern that we were going to see either the elimination or reduction of the tax-exempt status of interest on municipal bonds.
Ways and Means ended up not touching the tax-exempt status of municipal bonds.
We also saw, just in the good news category, an expansion of the low-income housing tax credit program included as part of the Ways and Means markup.
We're also seeing the renewal of the Opportunity Zone program as well.
I'll also note that they are making the expiring tax brackets for the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act permanent.
There is obviously a lot of controversy, as you've probably seen in the news, around the state and local tax salt deductions.
controversial for a number of folks like California.
And that continues actually to be a sticking point that they are trying to navigate through.
They are also making the expiring child tax credit permanent and temporarily increasing the maximum credit to $2,500.
And then they are also repealing the majority of the clean energy tax credits that were created through the Inflation and Reduction Act.
The Energy and Commerce Committee has made significant changes to the Medicaid program.
And in fact, the changes that they are making would be the largest cuts to the Medicaid program in history by billions of dollars.
And they are instituting increased work requirements.
increased reporting requirements, imposing a new mandatory federal minimum out-of-pocket cost on Medicaid enrollees, and a number of other changes.
In addition, they've been rescinding a number of unobligated Inflation Reduction Act funding, including funding for the EPA Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, as well as all of the tax credits from IRA direct pay.
And then finally, the House Agriculture Committee is also making very, very significant changes with increased work requirements as well.
It's considered the largest SNAP cut in history.
They're also attempting to shift a number of the SNAP costs to states and significantly changing benefit adjustments under the Thrifty Food Plan, which would enable SNAP, it would enable the value of SNAP to be eroded over time.
I'll note that just, actually just a few moments ago, the House Budget Committee, which is sort of the last stop before the package goes to the floor was unable to pass the bill out of committee.
There are significant changes from some of the fiscal hawks that they are not cutting enough.
Some of them want Medicaid work requirements to start earlier.
I think they're slated to start for 2029. They want them to start in 2027. I think most of these will, I think there will be significant pressure from the White House on these members.
And so I do think that they will get something passed.
It may be a slightly slower track.
The goal has been to have this bill on the House floor before Memorial Day.
And so I think leadership remains very, very committed to that timeframe.
I'll note, however, that this bill will then go to the Senate and several senators have already indicated deep discomfort with the changes that are being made to Medicaid and by I mean, senators on both sides of the aisle, as well as the changes that are being made to the SNAP program.
So we're not through it yet.
This bill still has a very long road to go, but obviously lots coming our way.
So I'll go to the next slide.
Yeah, so on that front, there's a lot of things, important issues circling at the moment right now.
And that's not to overwhelm you, but we did just wanna put these things on your radar.
And I did just wanna touch on some of the issues that OIR has been tracking in coordination with our departments over the course of the last few months.
and just upcoming important items as well.
So on the transportation front, the surface transportation reauthorization is coming up in 2026. So SDOT has been working with our delegation on sending feedback and program priorities to the delegation.
So we will continue to have a pulse on surface transportation heading into 2026. Obviously, housing and homelessness remains a huge priority.
As Leslie mentioned, home and CDBG are huge priorities for the city, along with PRO.
Although the president did include zeroing that out in his budget, it's really unlikely that...
legislators land there.
And we have been working with OH on tracking their pro-grant dollars.
And right now it's looking at least like 2025s are gonna remain safe.
Another really important program for City Light is the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which we short term as LIHEAP.
As mentioned on Council Member Moore's committee a few weeks ago, we were concerned about LIHEAP, but it does look like currently that funding is still in place, but we will continue advocating for that as it remains a priority to our constituents to receive that assistance.
I won't elaborate too much more on SNAP, but as mentioned, huge cuts to SNAP, and we've been in coordination with HSD and OSE on those dollars, and we will see where Republicans land there On the grant front, OEM and Emergency Management do receive a BRIC grant, Building Resilience Infrastructure and Communities grant, and that money was rescinded, and so we are tracking those grants as well.
And then also just upcoming some more reauthorization.
So workforce innovation opportunity, WIOA, OED is tracking those changes in coordination with US Conference of Mayors and also the EPA clean and drinking water programs.
And I think here we'll leave it for questions.
I know there's some items we didn't touch on, but again, there's quite a few things circling and of course are happy to follow up in separate conversations in a little more detail.
And Leslie, is there anything you wanted to add before we open it up to the council members?
I don't think so.
I think we covered it.
Awesome.
Thank you both for bringing forward this information today.
Colleagues, what kind of questions do you have for today's presenters?
Council Member Hollingsworth?
Thank you, Chair Rank.
I was looking for my hand.
I don't have any particular questions, just thank you all for the update.
This is like super helpful to have the breakdown of what's going on, where we started at.
We know that a lot of stuff is coming out of DC and it's hard to keep track of all of the things that are said and then what's actually happening.
and then what is the impact of that.
And usually a lot of the impact of that is something is said and then there's a lot of emotions that are around that because that is still an impact and we have to recognize that as well and what is to come.
So I just wanted to thank you all for highlighting that.
The one thing I'll be watching is the food cuts and what that does to our community, the impact.
And I've already heard from folks around the community about that impact and how that is trickling down, whether it's through our school system or through the SNAP benefits or you know, the different accesses for our meal programs and the food providers in Seattle.
So that's one of the things that I'll be carefully looking at.
So thank you.
Yeah.
Thank you, council member.
Colleagues, any additional questions before I chime in with a couple myself?
Thank you.
And building on the point that Councilmember Hollingsworth made, I mean, I want to note the point that you made.
This is considered the largest cut to snap in our history.
What does that mean in terms of people?
I understand we have a dollar figure, but has any analysis been done about how many people we're talking about that could be affected by the proposed cut?
Yeah, I think the SNAP cuts will be far reaching, unfortunately.
And I think another factor to consider is on top of just SNAP, there's other benefits that are being cut.
And so on top of losing potential dollars for your housing and food and utilities, you're gonna be affected in a lot of different ways.
I don't know the number off the top of my head.
And Leslie, I don't know if we have specific details on that.
but I do imagine that our community will be feeling it quite significantly.
And of course these changes will be rolled out over time.
You know, not everything will happen tomorrow, but SNAP is one of the ones that will be coming quicker than most.
I'll just note a couple additional pieces on that.
So they're talking about cutting about $290 billion from the program.
It's basically a 30% cut.
So as Annie noted, it's dramatic and it will be significant.
The only piece I want to note here is that It does not seem at this moment that Republicans in the Senate are necessarily on board with all of these changes.
And so, again, we're monitoring this very, very closely, but there could be significant changes to this as well.
So we're not at the finish line yet.
Understood.
Thank you, Leslie.
And I see a hand from Councilmember Kettle.
Thank you, Chair Rank.
First, thank you for the presentation.
I really appreciate it.
And I apologize for not being there.
A sick child here at our house.
You know, my question, you know, I look at this, obviously, I'm looking at things a lot of times with the public safety eye.
And so I worry about what's happening with FEMA and different pieces like that.
It's of great concern.
And obviously I'm concerned about the various pieces, like when they talk about Medicaid and and how that impacts, you know, our city.
But one of the things that I'm wondering about is and we can raise the alarm and we need to raise the alarm.
We need to push back and all the above.
But at the same time, you know, we are a West Coast Blue City and.
I wonder, and so this is an OIR question more broadly, are we reaching out to our colleagues in an Association of Washington Cities way and from a Washington Cities ways, which has cities both in the Puget Sound, but also on the other side of the mountains.
on the east side that highlight these things you know I think of Danny what Danny Westing Seattle Times has been hitting this point about how representative Newhouse's district I mean it's going to be the one that gets hurt if Medicaid gets hit and I think it would be more powerful if we had a purple blue and red cities counties represented to highlight those pieces because at the end of the day As we know, blue states contribute more to the federal government than they take.
Red states contribute less than they take.
And so all these massive cuts and so forth are going to have major impacts on red states and red counties.
And I think if we were to highlight that and work collaboratively with our colleagues in cities and even all jurisdictions in red county, Washington, to highlight these things because it really has an impact directly on them.
And, you know, at the end of the day, those folks in those counties, you know, they want to raise their children, you know, so it's the school pieces or they have elderly people who are, you know, relying on elder care.
They're relying themselves on Medicaid and all the like.
And at the end of the day, you know, they've been, basically sold, can I say a bill of goods?
And what's gonna happen is quite the opposite of what they expected.
And I think if we were to highlight work with those communities, those jurisdictions to highlight these pieces and to highlight in a way that Danny West needs talking about with respect to representative Newhouse's district on the other side of the mountains, that that could be more powerful and really kind of highlight to our Republican colleagues on the other side of the mountains, but particularly in Congress, that, you know, yes, reform is needed.
Yeah, we can do something like reinventing government the way President Clinton and Vice President Gore did back in the day.
But what's going on now is in itself waste, fraud, and abuse.
And people are going to get hurt for the most part.
There's going to be us in here in Seattle, but really it's going to be those individuals in Red County, Red State of America.
And so that's my question for OIR.
you know, what are we doing in terms of potentially reaching across the mountains and looking for opportunities to collaborate?
Yeah.
Thank you, council member.
Um, so OIR is doing a lot of that work currently behind the scenes.
Um, we are in communication with a lot of our partnering cities, um, also in the county across the state, along with, um, the legislators on the other side of the state.
So we are doing outreach to specifically Representative Newhouse actually just given his position on the Agriculture Committee.
So we have been working through that.
And we do have a lot of our departments working in their national associations and organizations.
And so departments like City Light and SPU are working across the state and even nationally and a lot of that outreach is bipartisan and so they have been connecting with their counterparts and specifically targeting some of the Republican leadership especially.
We of course are very grateful for our delegation support but part of that comes with being in the minority is a little less of that power.
And so a lot of our work has been strategic in terms of working through our national organizations, but happy to discuss some strategy more on how we can further elevate some of that work.
Excellent.
Thank you.
I appreciate that response.
Thank you for that question, Councilmember Kettle.
Councilmember Strauss?
Thank you, Chair, and thank you, Councilmember Kettle, for that question.
I know that Association of Washington Cities has signed on to letters as well as some advocacy regarding exactly what you were just talking about.
Thank you for this presentation, as the budget chair, keeping my budget hat on here.
The most important things to me that you've already laid out, I don't need to go through and rehash it, are about the grants and the congressionally directed funding, as well as the economy, because the economy doing well will give us good forecasts, will give us...
a better situation with our revenue collection.
And so the ask here today is if you can make sure to keep me up to date and Jesse in my office just as, you know, in real time, how are things going?
Going well?
Going bad?
Are our efforts being successful or not?
Generally here, what do I need to be looking for?
What do we need to be looking for in regards to that congressionally directed funding, the grants, or the general economy from the actions within Congress or the White House?
Yeah, I think what would be really important is tracking the pass-through dollars that are coming from the federal government.
I know that CBO has been doing a lot of work on that, and so they've actually been working with our departments to ensure that they know which grants are at risk.
We are trying to track the formula funding to the best of our ability and see how that trickles down, but I do think given where the state is and their budget.
And as these cuts do come through, especially as we are misaligned with the administration, that those conversations are gonna need to be had in terms of how we're filling in.
But I think specifically on the housing front and the food front will be two areas that I see as priority.
Leslie, do you wanna add there?
Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, a couple of things.
We're at kind of a really interesting inflection point right now.
I think you're seeing a couple of things, right?
We're all waiting on the impact of tariffs and what that will have for the general economy.
And of course, it's, you know, it changes day by day.
It seems like according to the president's mood.
the other piece i'll just note is that you know one of the things we're paying a lot of attention to right now is surface transportation reauthorization um because of course that was the vehicle for the bipartisan infrastructure law which provided such a huge infusion of competitive grant funding and of course the city was very successful in getting some of those dollars and so laying the groundwork now so that those grant programs can live on in the future is an area that we're also very, very focused on.
There's a lot of, you know, though it may feel like not a lot will get done this year, there's actually a lot of groundwork that's being laid on this front.
And so that's just another area that we're paying a lot of attention to.
And I would just add council member, another thing that we've been working on is on the legal front.
So in partnership with the mayor's office and the city attorney's office, ensuring we're doing all we can to protect our dollars as well.
And I think as you've seen, there's been lawsuits that the city's joined along with the county and neighboring jurisdictions.
And so that's another means of protecting our funding as well.
Thank you.
That's very helpful.
A bit to Leslie's point about the volatility of the market and the economy and all of the changes.
Colleagues, I'll just bring us back to the last forecast, the revenue forecast meeting where we adopted a pessimistic outlook, and that was at right in the eye of the storm of a lot of the tariff, the initial wave of tariff changes and the tariff war going on.
One month later, the economy is in a more stable, although the volatility indexes are still very high, we're in a more stable position.
And I wonder aloud if we had run the forecast today, if it would be different than if it had been a month ago.
But the most important thing is that we've got two more later this year.
Hopefully we'll have a less volatile and more stable economy at that time.
Thank you, Annie.
Thank you, Leslie.
Back to you, Chair.
Thank you, Council Member Strauss.
I know I'll be very curious to see what our August forecast indicates for us.
Council Member Saga.
Thank you, Chair Rank.
And I want to start off by thanking everyone for joining us today and sharing your insights.
Very, very helpful.
I'll tell you, from my perspective, as chair of our city's transportation committee, I'm particularly interested in the impacts on transportation.
And Chair Rank and I look forward to welcoming the department, our department, Seattle Department of Transportation, amongst others, at a later date.
In any event, I know on the transportation front in county, a partner local government here has recently sued the administration over its recent mandates and edicts to eliminate DEI program services, climate initiatives, among other required eliminating in order to obtain federal funds for transit.
And so which is deeply disturbing.
I think King County government has been widely reported relies on about $400 million in federal funding to supplement its budget and colleagues as we know Seattle purchases extra service directly from King County Metro and they operate some of our own transit lines uh including monorail others and the streetcars so and all these things fit together there's dependencies if king county as we know for it relies on 400 million of federal funds in order to provide the service levels that it provides today what happens if some of those are at risk food for thought, just something for all of us to consider because they are dependencies and and reliances on these these critically needed dollars as we consider the scope of these challenges holistically, certainly in the transportation context.
So in any event, more more questions and answers at this point, but just something for all of us, I think, to track and monitor because this is this is important.
Thank you, Councilmember Saka, and looking forward to your partnership as we shape up a future meeting focused specifically on transportation and these important projects ahead of us.
Colleagues, any additional questions before I wrap up and leave these folks to engage with and follow along Congress more today?
If not, I'll close with one final question pertaining to LIHEAP.
You all noted that it looks like the funding is currently in place in LIHEAP, but my working understanding has been there have been mass layoffs of the program that administers LIHEAP.
So it's my understanding, again, so while the funding may be in place, the administrators that can get dollars out the door are no longer there.
wondering about your working understanding of if there's still enough remaining staff to still get the funding out the door, and how prevalent are we seeing this as an approach?
Yes, I do believe there has been an injunction to restore the federal employees.
I'm not sure that it will be the ones that have already been fired.
Leslie, do you wanna add anything on LIHEAP?
I don't know the latest update just because it's been a lot of changes here.
It has.
It's something I think we can circle back on though.
It does, you know, our understanding is that things seem to be slowly resuming, but we are happy to circle back on that.
Thank you so much.
And apologies if I was not clear.
I think I'm just trying to have a working understanding across the board with all of these different programs while dollars maybe remain in a program if we don't have the federal workforce to help get dollars out the door to programs.
I think that's just an important dynamic to understand and so would love to continue that conversation as you all come to better understand that kind of dynamic uh as the time goes on of course well thank you chair rank and thank you council members thank you for your time and we will now now move on to our second item of business will the clerk please item two read item two into the record
Item two, welcoming city resolution for briefing, discussion, and vote.
Thank you.
And so at this time, I'm going to invite some of our panelists up to the table.
And before we begin with our presenters and to give them a moment to settle in, I want to thank my colleagues, particularly council members Kettle and Strauss and their staff who have been engaging with me and my team on developing and negotiating this legislation, especially as we get a full understanding of the city's current budget situation.
We understand the incredible stress that city finances are in, which have only gotten worse since this legislation was originally first drafted.
However, we are proud to present this resolution, which reflects this budget reality and aims to minimize harm and adverse impacts to our community.
And I wanna emphasize that protecting marginalized communities, ensuring that we support anti-displacement investments and strategies, and staying within the bounds of Washington state law on immigration is vital to the work we do on this dais.
Additionally, this legislation states that the City Attorney's Office will continue to comply with the Court Open to All Act, and that Council requests that the City Attorney's Office further develop specialized capacity and subject expertise in immigration law and procedures.
Council requests also that the City Attorney's Office establish a team that monitors federal action that can target immigrant and refugee communities.
And council commits to balancing the city's budget and minimizing adverse impacts to harm to city agencies that support this work, namely the work of the Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs and the Office of Labor Standards.
And with that, welcome to our presenters today.
Please introduce yourself by stating your full name and organization into the microphone for the record.
Thank you.
Good morning, Jessica Castellanos, Managing Director of Kine's Seattle office.
And I'm Tim Warden-Hertz, directing attorney at the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project.
Hi, I'm Cindy Leo, Vice President of U.S.
State and Local Policy at Kids in Need of Defense.
Can you pull the microphone closer and do that one more time?
Right.
No, we couldn't hear you.
Oh, you want me to say that one more time?
Yeah, I'm even still having trouble.
I'm Cindy Leo from Kids in Need of Defense.
Is that microphone working or not?
I don't think so.
Hi, I'm Cindy Liu from Kids in Need of Defense.
Thank you, and as we get started, I wanna thank Jessica and Cindy for your work with Kids in Need of Defense.
It is disheartening that the work of kind will be ending this month, and I wanna thank you for your service for the organization and for being here today.
Thank you so much.
I have some prepared statements and updates if that's possible.
That would be fantastic to share with the committee, thank you.
Good morning and thank you so much for the invitation to speak to you all again today.
I very much appreciate it.
As I mentioned, my name is Jessica Castianos and I'm the managing director of Kids in Need of Defense's Seattle office.
So I'm going to provide some updates and affirm the importance of passing this resolution and how it will support the urgent needs of unaccompanied immigrant children in Seattle.
Again, as a recap, unaccompanied children migrate and enter the United States federal custody because they are alone under the age of 18 and without a legal guardian or parent at the time of entry into the United States.
Most unaccompanied children are released into the community here in Seattle to adult caregivers, while their immigration removal, or also known as deportation cases, are penned for several years.
These are not just children at the border.
They are children who live in Seattle.
They go to school here.
They have friends here.
They are part of our Seattle community.
They are rooted in our community.
Unaccompanied children have been at the forefront of attacks by the federal government.
As I mentioned last time, the first thing the federal government did was issue a near total termination of the unaccompanied children's program's legal services, impacting over 26,000 unaccompanied children across the country.
And that includes many children here in Seattle and across Washington state.
kind Seattle office, despite being one of the original models that has served unaccompanied children since approximately 2004, in the wake of the loss of this main source of funding has laid off most of its staff.
This is intentional.
Data shows that immigration judges are almost 100 times more likely to grant legal relief for unaccompanied children with legal counsel than those without.
But without an attorney by their side, children must go to court alone and fight against a trained government attorney.
This is unconscionable.
In the last few weeks with only a few staff left by my side, I have been triaging, filing, and making dozens of appearances in court.
Although we have been working closely with the Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs, NERP, and other partners, even with all hands on deck, we need more support at this crucial time.
Since I last addressed this committee in early April, litigation has provided a brief reprieve to buy us a little time until September of this year.
However, the only certainty is that federal funding will remain an extremely uncertain, unstable, and unreliable way to maintain legal services.
Aside from the unaccompanied children we have already identified in Seattle who require legal counsel, we have been told that more than 1,800 children have pending cases before the Seattle Immigration Court down the street, and the majority of them are unrepresented.
They are forced to make appearances alone in court if they are able to get there with no legal counsel.
More attacks from the federal government focusing on unaccompanied children are still happening.
First, they are now weaponizing information gathered on unaccompanied children for immigration authorities to conduct so-called wellness checks, in which there have also been arrests of parents and children.
In April, we saw immigration agents conduct these checks at two elementary schools in Los Angeles, where we also have an office.
We have also received confirmation of immigration enforcement outside of our Seattle public schools and other formerly protected areas.
Having an attorney by their side is more important than ever.
While we cannot control what the federal government will do, we will likely see rapid changes in laws and policies designed to undermine children's rights and protections.
Taking action on legal cases at this very moment is critical to preserving the rights of unaccompanied children.
Most of our clients are eligible for immigration relief because they were abused, abandoned, neglected, or trafficked for labor or sex or both.
They have undergone horrendous things.
We cannot, at this moment, abandon the very children who are seeking safety and security from us.
Please consider passing this resolution to demonstrate our values as a welcoming city.
As experts working with children and youth, we know that continuity is key.
If we do not continue legal services smoothly, children and youth will lose trust and contact with trusted adults and be vulnerable to dangerous situations such as exploitation and human trafficking.
My colleagues and I have witnessed firsthand the range of responses from clients receiving news of our office closure.
Clients' defenses come up right away.
We are just another string of adults who have disappointed them, who have abandoned them.
They distance themselves.
Some cry.
Others send emojis with people crying.
Others rush to our office for a final farewell.
We cannot let them be scared into the shadows subjected to repeated harms and missed their chance in obtaining lifelong stability through permanent legal status.
I want to share briefly a bit about one of our clients who is currently funded by the city of Seattle.
Her name is Teresa.
She's 17 years old and she has a pending asylum application and a U visa application based on sexual assault she experienced in her home country.
She has made significant inroads in her legal case, including currently having work authorization and deferred action from removal.
One of our social workers also supported Teresa with things she needs to continue her high school education while raising her two-year-old child, such as obtaining child support, getting a library card, among many other basic necessities.
When Teresa's attorney shared the news about Kind's office closure, Teresa expressed feeling sad about losing the support of her legal and social services team at Kind, and anxiety over finding and affording a new attorney.
Teresa is one of the 55 cases that we're in the process of transferring to NERP because they are receiving City of Seattle funding.
Hearing that her case will be transferred to NERP for continued pro bono legal representation brought Teresa a deep sense of relief.
Now she can continue to focus on caring for her young child and pursuing her education.
She is one of the 55 children we have not had to actually withdraw from because of City of Seattle funding.
This committee today can ensure with its vote and send a clear message that it values and cares for children and youth like Teresa and her toddler.
They deserve protection.
They deserve to thrive.
The most impactful thing that Seattle can do right now is to pass this resolution, including the minimum of $300,000 in emergency funding to support immigrant children and youth.
Without this immediate emergency funding, children in Seattle will be losing their increasingly shortened window and opportunity for safety and protection in the span of the next few months.
Thank you.
Thanks.
Thank you for that, Jessica.
I just want to build a little bit on that as to sort of why this is so important right now.
As you heard, there are hundreds and hundreds of unaccompanied kids who are going in front of the Seattle Immigration Court by themselves.
Our organization also lost that funding, over $2 million in funding, and we're doing our best to try to continue the work and sort of cobble together what we can to keep representing our clients and then to try to do what we can to take on clients who've lost representation.
And we talked last time about, and I think there was some skepticism about sort of walking through the budget process through a resolution and sort of that this would be, sort of is not the normal process for a budget.
And I think these are not normal times.
This is a moment where having additional certainty about the city's commitment to abandon abused and neglected children and making sure that the city is ready to stand with them is so important.
And so, you know, I know that this is, you know, a process and a hard budget times, hopefully, as Council Member Strauss suggested, maybe, Predictions will improve, but this is a moment where these are kids who desperately need this support.
And I would strongly urge that the city step up and show its values and support this resolution.
Thanks.
I don't have too many other comments besides what my colleagues have said other than, I mean, this is really an attempt to other people in our community and to tear our community apart.
They are starting with immigrants and immigrant children because they're most the easiest target and the vulnerable targets.
But it's really just the beginning point of an erosion of our civil rights as a whole.
And they start here and they won't end there.
So that's why the hard stop also and the pushback needs to start in the beginning now.
I think that moment in time to stand together strongly as a community, to not let them tear us apart from one another and to turn on one another.
And we thank you for your time today.
Thank you to all of you for your remarks today, for your work with my office on this resolution before us.
And I think it likely goes without saying that what we're seeing happening in this moment is, there's no other way to describe it than just cruelty.
And with that, colleagues, I am eager to hear if there are any questions folks have, comments, or things to add.
I'm happy to answer questions about the resolution before us.
And Council Member Strauss.
Thanks, colleagues.
I seem to always be the next one to talk.
Hope everyone's had their coffee this morning.
With that, I just want to thank you for all the work that you do.
It's important work on behalf of the residents of the United States of America.
And you create a safety net where others don't.
And this federal funding that has dried up from you is we need to do our best to help you out.
Also, thank you for mentioning my budget context.
The other bad, I'm just going to pile on with some more bad news.
I'm sorry.
The other bad news is the last time President Trump was in the White House, the city of Seattle was in an economic boom.
We were year six or seven of about 10 to 12 years of being the fastest growing city in the nation.
So that was the sales tax from construction.
That was the additional property tax that we were receiving year over year.
As I came into City Hall today, I noticed only four cranes.
Two of them have been paused for several years.
And in 2016, 17, and 18, we had more cranes than New York City.
And so just beyond that additional budget context, it is...
that I shared about the forecast a few minutes ago, the underlying budget situation is not in the same place as it was in 2016, 17, and 18, which is tough.
Something that you said also is that we have to be ready to be there for the first people that are under attack.
That's absolutely correct.
I would just, colleagues, I would have trouble signing on to this resolution today if not for that fact.
We have to show that we're here and ready, but I also caution us that without the future revenue forecasts, making budget decisions through resolution and not through budget bills.
And early on, we have to make sure that our own city is able to serve because we are also the last line of democracy, our civil and our ability to provide services for our residents and to function as a democracy here at the city of Seattle.
I have no question that we will continue this work.
We will continue to make sure democracy burns bright here in the city of Seattle and for our residents.
And I just want to, as the budget chair, unfortunately, I'm put in that tough situation.
And my north star here is to ensure that as more troubles come down the road, that our democracy will flourish here in the city of Seattle and that we will be here as every line of defense for every resident.
A little off topic.
Sorry, Chair.
But just really, I want to thank you for all your work.
We're going to do as much as possible.
I just also have to share that other bad news too.
Thank you.
Thank you, Councilmember Strauss, and I understand we don't have central staff at the table today, so I'll speak to you a little bit from a fact basis, you know, one of the core differences between the resolution this committee was briefed on and what's before you today.
One of those being the original version of the resolution included council having a stated commitment to the 300,000 that was named in the resolution.
This version rather has us committing to having a discussion come budget related to the 300,000.
And so I just want to make that distinction for the public.
We understand we don't want to move on budget in a resolution process out of a budget cycle, but wanted to find that line between balancing the need to keep this conversation going, to support in our budget deliberations, so we have that clarity come time, and also not wanting to legislate on budget via resolution.
So tried to find that line here in what's before us today.
I see Council Member Kettle has a hand.
Thank you, Chair Ring.
my hand now before i forget it i just wanted to um well two things one thank the panel um for your work and coming here today and representing i appreciate it and yeah it's important in terms of legal representation and you know the rule of law and the like and um as i know from personal experience You marry a civil rights attorney, particularly one who fights for those who can't necessarily fight for themselves.
I appreciate what you're doing in terms of providing representation to those, particularly to children or young adults and the circumstances that they find themselves in.
And it's interesting, and I do say this to my wife on a periodic basis.
I say thank you for fighting for truth and justice in the American way.
And so I was thinking as I sat here that I should thank you too for fighting for truth, justice in the American way.
And so thank you.
For Chair Rink, and it's a little difficult not being there on the dais, but related to the welcoming city resolution, Obviously, when I read it, I had some concerns.
Noted there was a lot of recitals, a lot of recitals.
But yes, I had some concerns, particularly related to the city attorney and some of those pieces.
But the team has been working, my team's been working with city attorneys and others on this, including your staff.
So thank you for that coordination.
And I think the resolution as it reads now is much better on that front.
And to the point that you just made, I noticed the other edits and changes that were done.
I think that is also makes the resolution much better, as you noted, budget and put the other pieces as well.
So thank you for taking in that input that came not just from my office, but from other offices as well, because it's important because this is this is This is an important resolution because we're we're stating, you know, our position, and I think it's important to stand up.
I was just recently I've had conversations with Representative Smith and I just listened to him yesterday.
And it's important for jurisdictions such as ours to to make a statement.
And I think this resolution does, particularly as it reads now.
So again, thank you for that.
That's all.
Thank you.
Thank you, Councilmember Kettle.
Colleagues, any additional questions on the resolution or questions for today's presenters?
Sure.
Councilmember Strauss.
I'm going to end this with a little bit happier news, which is that it does seem that our Constitution is standing strong.
Your work while troubled right now continues on.
We will do this together.
We will stay strong together.
I note that tomorrow is sitting to my Norwegian Constitution Day.
Norway's Constitution is the second oldest in the world, only behind ours.
And so tomorrow, we're going to be celebrating democracy.
So I want to start that celebration earlier, because as Councilmember Kettle mentioned, you are our defenders of democracy.
Keep up the good work.
We're right behind you.
Thank you so much.
May I add a comment before we?
I did want to reiterate that Section 8 of the revised resolution does, I do appreciate that this is a special sort of outside of the bounds process in relation to the budget.
It is drafting and consideration of an amendment.
And so just to get us to that next step, I think that that would be very important and just something to note for folks thinking about this as they consider their vote.
And then the other piece is just reiterating that the real impact here and the reason for this special ask is We've already identified over 50 children who are not currently funded by the city, who could be funded, who could continue legal representation.
It is extremely impactful.
And so even getting to the next step of consideration of that 300,000 is incredibly critical at this moment.
So thank you so much for your time and consideration.
If I may follow up on a point you raised during your opening remarks, you stated that there are 1,800 children with pending cases at the courthouse down the street.
That's correct.
That's the latest number that I was able to access from the immigration court.
That was as of July of last year.
I'm assuming that number has not decreased.
And it's over 1,800 children, the majority of whom are unrepresented.
It's a startling number.
And do we know how many of these cases of unaccompanied children have resulted in the deportation of these kiddos since the second Trump administration has taken office, particularly here in Seattle metro area?
I don't have that number on me, but we can circle back and provide some data on that for you.
We're happy to do that.
Thank you.
Colleagues, I know we've spent a lot of the discussion this morning talking about unaccompanied minors, but I want to take a moment to champion a little bit of the other components of this legislation as they broadly relate to our immigrant and refugee community and tell us a small story about an afternoon that Councilmember Solomon and I had at the Ethiopian Community Center.
a couple weeks ago.
This resolution includes a lot of language relating to the city maintaining its work, and I think it's important to note that Seattle has been a leader in so many ways in standing by our immigrant and refugee community over the years.
We have a lot of city departments that have specific programs and outreach, and in that vein, also creating expanded language access.
So much of the content within the resolution has us have a written commitment to maintaining that work from the Office of Labor Standards to the Office of Economic Development to the Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs that we're going to keep up our language access programs, our outreach programs to immigrant-owned businesses, and connection to social services, paired with the additional language related to the city attorney's office.
And I bring that up because, again, while much of this morning we've had a focus on the dire situation facing unaccompanied minors, we also know that there are folks across the board, adults who are also at risk.
And so I know I joined Councilmember Salomon.
We happened to be going to the Ethiopian community of Seattle's monthly lunch.
which is fabulous by the way and I would encourage anybody to drop by and join for delicious food and great conversation.
And we just so happened to get pulled into a surprise panel as a number of the folks there wanted to hear directly from us.
And we were lucky that we happened to have someone in the community to serve as an interpreter for that conversation.
And there were a number of questions that came up and a lot of them had to do with immigration.
and questions about, well, Seattle's a sanctuary city.
What does that really mean?
Because I know someone who's currently detained.
That conversation was only made possible because someone in the audience served as a happenstance interpreter to help us have that conversation and have Council Member Solomon and I deliver answers about what is the work the city is doing, what is within our power, and what's not within our power at this time, and deliver that message about opportunities for Know Your Rights trainings, and just get very clear on what can the city and what is outside of the city's control.
And so I wanted to share that brief story to say there are many across our city that are concerned and could use the signal and the reaffirmation that City of Seattle is going to uphold this work and we are going to stand up.
And so I ask for your support on today's resolution so we can meet this moment.
And with that, I move that the committee recommend adoption of resolution 32168. Is there a second?
Second.
It is moved and seconded to recommend adoption of the resolution.
Are there any final comments?
All right, will the committee clerk please call the roll on the committee recommendation to adopt the resolution?
Council member Hollingsworth?
Yes.
Council member Kettle?
Aye.
Council member Strauss?
Yes.
Council member Solomon?
Yes.
Chair Rink?
Yes.
Chair, there are five in favor.
Incredible.
Thank you, colleagues, for your support.
Thank you to our panelists for your work, and we're looking forward to continuing to work alongside you in championing our immigrant and refugee community.
Thank you.
Thank you so much for your time.
Thank you.
Thank you.
I didn't read the right thing.
Sorry.
The motion carries and the committee recommendation that the resolution will be adopted will be sent to the May 27th full city council meeting.
Thank you colleagues.
And we have reached the end of today's agenda.
Is there anything folks have to share for the good of the order?
Sure.
Council member Kettle.
Um, chair.
I just wanted to add one thing and, um, It's interesting.
We talked with the lawyers.
We just mentioned the legal piece.
And we can come from that angle.
And my background is more of an internationalist.
You know, some international affairs around the world, been exposed to different lands, cultures, peoples, languages.
And that drives a lot about where I come from, which ends up being in the same place as others who may come from a legal perspective and the like.
And I just wanted to take the opportunity today because I read something that I think is really germane to this.
And it came from a speech by Conan O'Brien.
who, like me, married a local girl.
I think we shared the same wedding photographer, by the way.
And, you know, he's a good Irish Catholic boy, grew up on the East Coast.
So we have some things in common.
But one area that we definitely, based on his speech and and my background and my position, there's overlap in his speech when he received the Mark Twain Award recently, back in March.
And it's just come out now, but it was in March.
And I just wanted to read a little bit of his speech.
He said his thank yous.
And then he said he couldn't really believe he was receiving the Mark Twain Award and receive it from David Letterman, for example.
But then he goes, one cannot invoke Twain without understanding who he was and what he stood for.
Now, don't be distracted by the white suit and the cigar and the riverboat.
Twain is alive, vibrant, and vitally relevant today.
Yes, he is America's greatest humorist, but also enduring power springs from his core principles, principles that shaped his comedy and made him one of our greatest Americans.
First and foremost, Twain hated bullies.
He populated his work with abusers such as Huck Finn's alcoholic father, Tom Drisco and Pudlin Wilson, and he made his readers passionately hate those characters.
He punched up, not down, and he deeply, deeply emphasized with the weak.
Twain was allergic to hypocrisy, and he loathed racism.
Twain wrote, there are many humorous things in the world.
Among them, the white man's notion that he is less savage than the other savages.
David A. Twain emphasized with the powerless in America former slaves struggling under reconstruction immigrant Chinese laborers in California and European Jews fleeing anti Semitism.
David A. Twain's remedy for ignorance about the world around us was to travel at a time when travel was very long and very difficult.
Twain circled the globe, and he wrote, travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.
And many of our people need it sorely on these accounts.
Twain was suspicious of populism, jingoism, imperialism, and money-obsessed mania of the Gilded Age, and any expression of mindless American mind or self-importance.
Above all, Twain was a patriot.
in the best sense of the word.
He loved America, but knew it was deeply flawed.
Twain wrote, patriotism is supporting your country all the time, all of the time, and your government when it deserves it.
I think that's an important speech, at least part of the speech that's worth reflecting on, particularly in our work here on the Seattle City Council.
And I just thought it appropriate to end today's meeting with it.
So thank you for the indulgence, Chair, and colleagues.
Thank you for sharing those words, Councilmember Kettle.
It's a good note to end on.
So thank you, colleagues, for your words, for your commitment, and let's continue this work together.
And with that, we're hearing no further business to come before the committee.
We are adjourned.
It is 1047 a.m.
Thank you.