Headlines and national news don’t usually trickle down to Dakota County, but at the Feb. 4 legislative update at the General Government and Policy Committee of the Whole, the county’s federal lobbyists provided a look into the happenings in Washington D.C. and just how they might affect Dakota County. On the topic, Dakota County commissioners heard from Downs Government Affairs Principal Tom Downs and Aurora Strategic Advisors Principal Mike Erlandson, two of Dakota County’s federal lobbyists.
While Congress has been dominated by confirmation hearings for cabinet picks and appointees, President Trump’s slew of executive actions and broad posturing to slash government budgets was the main topic of conversation.
“This administration is moving really, really quickly, as fast as they can to get things moving because, of course, the midterms are right around the corner,” said Downs speaking to the various executive orders the Trump administration has unveiled in the scant weeks since coming to office. Downs spoke to the recent federal moves to downsize government and how it may impact county governments.
“Some offices are trying to do research to see how it will impact the local governments, cities, counties etc. as some of these things are pulled back […] To the degree that there’s information available as Congressional Research Service and others study the impacts of these executive orders, we’ll certainly share that with you guys,” said Erlandson.
The impact of future budget cuts at the federal level is unclear in scope, size, or department. “DOGE [Department of Government Efficiency] is charged with cutting a trillion dollars, which is pretty significant. Is it a trillion dollars in a year? Is it a trillion dollars in four years? Is it a trillion dollars in a 10-year reconciliation bill? I think that is yet to be determined,” said Erlandson.
To those cuts, Erlandson spoke to how they may be felt depending on where they land: “If you’re cutting more significantly in human services, the impact there is some people that rely on those things don’t have food, versus if you’re cutting $250 million, it’s one D1 bomber. So those are the kind of battles that are going to take place in DC,” said Erlandson.
Especially when it comes to federally funded human services, the impact to Dakota County is clear. “We have a lot of public health grants. Probably if that grant got cut, we would simply cut that program,” said Dakota County Manager Dr. Heidi Walsch.
Beyond that, the ambiguity of many of the executive actions from the Trump administration have raised concerns locally on whether or not longstanding programs will continue.
For example, the Wednesday, Jan. 29 freeze when funding for a slew of federal program was expected be cut at the end of the day, Dakota County staff compiled a “spreadsheet of all of the funding that we received from federal sources,”—some $59 million—and then began working through the list with lobbyists on what would happen to that program were federal funding to be cut, said Walsch.
“It has a big impact on the way that we operate as a county […] people trying to figure out what to keep working on, what they can work on is taking up a lot of time and energy in counties and local governments,” said Commissioner Laurie Halverson.
One program cited by Halverson as potentially endangered is federal funding for Women, Infants and Children, better known as WIC. WIC is a special supplemental nutrition program for pregnant women, new mothers, infants and young children that provides “nutrition education and counseling, nutritious foods, and referrals to health and other social services,” according to the Minnesota Department of Health.
In December, Public Health Director Coral Ripplinger and Public Health Program Supervisor for WIC Katie Galloway provided an update on the program. Both Ripplinger and Galloway cited WIC as an investment that saved money in the long run: for every “one dollar invested in WIC saves $2.48 in medical, educational, and productivity costs,” said Ripplinger.
Galloway spoke to how meeting breastfeeding recommendations nationwide could save an estimated $17.2 billion in national annual medical costs and prevent an estimated 3,340 deaths annually.
While no work stopped for the program, the sudden uncertainty surrounding its continuation shocked the county.
“Dismantling a program overnight is completely unprecedented,” said Halverson.
Just days after being announced, the federal funding freeze was blocked by a federal judge, then rescinded by the Trump administration. Despite that, budget cuts are “sort of inevitable. We are going to see some kind of cut somewhere so it will help us be proactive as we move into what was not going to be an easy budget cycle to start with,” said Walsch.
Both lobbyists were wary of advising commissioners on how much time staff should be spending on working through potential budget cuts.
“Both sides of the aisle, really, people are kind of caught off guard sometimes by the Trump administration, which I think he thinks is absolutely fine,” said Erlandson.