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Catalyst Weekly Policy Briefing Issue XII: 100 Days Later

Hello again.

April 29th marked the new administration’s first 100 days. With 142 new executive orders and over 200 lawsuits filed (many against those executive orders), here’s a look at what happened this week. (Catch up on our previous installments of this briefing here.)

 

THE FACTS

Nonprofit news organizations 
  • Last week, the president signed the Executive Order, “Ending Taxpayer Subsidization of Biased Media,” specifically targeting National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS).  
    • In San Diego and Imperial Counties, KPBS manages both television and radio outlets. While federal funding accounts for just 13% of its budget, the attack on unbiased information providers is deeply concerning. 
    • The order directs the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) to cease all direct and indirect funding to both media outlets immediately, citing that the administration believes both outlets are partisan organizations and are therefore ineligible for federal funding.  
    • CPB released a statement that they are not obligated to follow the executive order because they are not a federal agency subject to presidential authority. 
    • CPB sued the administration separately over the firing of three out of five members of their board, saying the move exceeded presidential authority and made it impossible for them to do any business. 

 

Immigration  
  • On Wednesday, a federal judge prevented migrants from being forcibly deported to any third country (a country the migrants were not from) in response to reported plans by the administration to send migrants from numerous countries to Libya. 
  • The Executive Order “Protecting American Communities from Criminal Aliens” directs the attorney general to compile a list of all the jurisdictions the administration considers to be “sanctuary cities” and to terminate as much federal funding to those cities as is legally allowed.  
    • It also directs the Department of Homeland Security to do everything in its power to ensure that undocumented immigrants are not receiving federal benefits in those cities and to prevent them from receiving in-state tuition at higher education institutions.  
    • A US District Court in California has already issued a preliminary injunction against part of the executive order. As a sanctuary state and city, funding for our region is directly impacted; more importantly, thousands of individuals in our communities could lose their livelihoods, education, access to healthcare, and more.  

 

Federal budget 
  • Last week, the administration released its 2026 discretionary spending request. The proposed discretionary spending request asks Congress to cut $163 billion across the government, a record-low funding for domestic programs. Discretionary spending makes up about 26% of the total federal budget and is determined on an annual basis by Congress through the appropriations process (as opposed to mandatory spending—parts of the budget like Social Security that are governed by provisions of law).   
    • The proposal includes $33.5 billion in cuts to Housing and Urban Development (HUD)—a reduction of 44% of its budget. The largest cut would be to the Housing Choice Voucher program (Section 8). It would also cut $532 million from homelessness funding and change the way funds are distributed by eliminating the Continuum of Care program. Veteran homelessness programs, however, would receive a $1.1 billion increase. 
    • Under the proposal, education funding would take a $12 billion cut, with the largest amount ($4.5 billion) from K–12 schools. An additional $1.6 billion would come from programs to prepare low-income students for college. The only increase to education spending is a $60 million increase for charter schools. 
    • The National Institutes of Health (NIH) would take a 37% cut, and the National Science Foundation would take a 50% cut. NASA’s research budget would also be halved, and almost all climate and ecological research would be cut. 
    • The proposal also includes plans to completely eliminate the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services. 
    • Although many plans to cut Medicaid were being considered this week, Speaker Johnson told reporters they had ruled out many of the proposed aggressive cuts, but suggested that some Medicaid cuts are still on the table. 
    • The House is still hoping to fund a $4 to 4.5 trillion tax cut by reducing spending, but has yet to settle on a means to do so. They are facing increased pressure to come to an agreement on a reconciliation bill that does not increase the deficit at all. Numerous closed-door conversations are happening on the Hill today as the House hopes to open debate on the May 13th deadline. 

 

 Other Executive Orders 
  • “Strengthening and Unleashing America’s Law Enforcement to Pursue Criminals and Protect Innocent Citizens” would increase protections for and defense of law enforcement officers for liabilities incurred in the line of duty, as well as expand and strengthen their legal protection. The order would also call for training to ensure law enforcement is “aggressively” policing all communities.
    • Under this order, military and national security assets will be increased to work with State and local law enforcement in local jurisdictions.  
  • “Establishment of the Religious Liberty Commission” creates a commission to consider aspects of religious liberty, specifically calling out conscience protections in the health care field, vaccine mandates, permitting time for voluntary prayer and religious instruction in schools, and government display of religious imagery. 

 

Higher education and public schools 
  • A judge blocked the cancellation of $1 billion in school funding to address the long-term effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. 
  • The administration cut off all new research funding for Harvard University in their ongoing battle over ideology.  
  • The administration also canceled $1 billion in K–12 student mental health grants that were being used to hire mental health professionals as part of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. 

 

Staff reductions continue 
  • The “Strengthening Probationary Periods in the Federal Service” executive order signed by the president would make it easier to dismiss federal staff during their probationary period. 
  • Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has directed the military to cut 20% of all four-star general officers. He also directed the National Guard to dismiss 20% of staff and asked for a 10% reduction of general and flag officers.  
  • Nineteen states, including California, sued the Trump administration this week over mass layoffs in the Department of Health and Human Services, saying that the agency had “no constitutional or statutory authority” to make the cuts. 
  • More than a thousand staff are also being cut at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and other intelligence branches, and the National Security Agency (NSA) has been directed to cut up to 2,000 civilian jobs. 
  • As a reminder, more than 60,000 federal employees called San Diego and Imperial Counties home before staff reductions began in January, and thousands more from federal contracts. These individuals work in veterans care, housing, security, immigration, technology, and more. 

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TAKEAWAYS: WHAT PHILANTHROPY CAN DO

  • Assess your own preparedness. While executive orders targeting the foundation and nonprofit sector have not yet appeared, take some time to be prepared for future actions that affect your giving or the nonprofits you support. Cal Nonprofits released this Be Prepared FAQ document.  
  • Ask yourself what you aren’t doing but could. “What if” is a powerful question. What if I did something that seems impossible? What if I did something just a little different? The Gates Foundation just invited us all to ask that question with the announcement that it will spend down. Read Bill Gates’ message about the decision and commentary, and ask yourself, what if?   

 

RESOURCES

 

Talk to you next week,

Megan Thomas
President & CEO
Catalyst of San Diego & Imperial Counties