News You Can Use: the struggle with TrumpWorld continues (sigh) -- what else is new?

It's Bastille Day, and in Maryland, state government and its agencies – and people, especially in solidarity mode – fight back against cuts and assaults from TrumpWorld. There are cuts in education already being felt, future cuts in SNAP and Medicaid to brace for and a loss of support for homeless K-12 students even as Maryland’s number grows. Our local states have to hang their heads as the Chesapeake Bay clean-up program lags, but other states are hitting the mark, Maine with new ways to cancel regular-debit subscriptions (while the FTC is bottled up in court) and Oregon with measures to use microgrid technology to make power supply more resilient. So states’ independence has a place. Meanwhile Congress is working on taking back money it already appropriated. Can the states figure out a way to keep revenue at home to replace canceled federal support? That might be next, and it sounds uneasily like 1861, eh? Allons, enfants de la patrie...

HERE IN MARYLAND

States Sue Over Education Funding Withheld: Maryland is one of two dozen states and D.C suing the Trump administration over $6.8 billion in education funding it has withheld a few weeks before the start of the next school year. The money pays for free or low-cost after-school programs, as well as teacher training and help for children learning English. NYT and see COMMENTARY, below

Summaries from Maryland Reporter

As Number Of Homeless Students Rises, Federal Financial Aid Is Cut: The number of homeless students in Maryland has risen by 24% over six years thanks to soaring rents and improved identification of students facing housing instability, according to Maryland education data and education officials. At the same time, federal funding for homeless services will decrease by 11% following federal cuts at the U.S. Department of Education. Baltimore Sun

Governor Offers State Workers $20k Plus $300 Per Year Of Service To Quit: Maryland Gov. Wes Moore’s administration is offering state workers a lump sum of $20,000, plus $300 for each year they’ve worked, as an incentive to resign. Baltimore Banner.

Judge Scolds Trump Admin On Lack Of Info On Plans For Abrego Garcia: A federal judge in Maryland scolded the Trump administration on Friday for its “utter refusal” to detail its deportation plans for Kilmar Abrego Garcia, including where the government plans to send him and whether he’ll get a chance to fight his expulsion before he’s whisked away. Associated Press.

Grim Future For Food Benefits With Snap Cuts: It won’t happen immediately but advocates and state officials are predicting that changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program in the budget reconciliation bill signed last week will deliver “a devastating blow” to many of the 680,000 Marylanders who get SNAP benefits. Maryland Matters. [See also Tracy Kidder, National section]

Senate Votes To Fund Greenbelt FBI Headquarters: The Senate Appropriations Committee voted on Thursday to preserve $1.4 billion in funds for use at the Greenbelt site for the new FBI headquarters, disrupting President Donald Trump’s administration’s plans to use the funds to move the headquarters to downtown Washington, D.C. Baltimore Sun.

>>The Trump administration’s plan to relocate the Federal Bureau of Investigation headquarters to the Ronald Reagan building in the District of Columbia, and not a previously selected location in suburban Maryland, hit a roadblock Thursday. Maryland Matters.

Interest Revived For Student Loan Borrowers In Save Program: About 13.5% of Maryland residents carry student debt, a fairly typical number among states, according to the Education Data Initiative. But the average debt carried by those residents was second-highest in the nation, trailing only the District of Columbia. Maryland Matters.

Maryland Mandates Detention For Teens Who Offend While Monitored: The acting secretary of Maryland’s Department of Juvenile Services announced a mandatory detention policy for teens arrested for serious crimes while wearing ankle monitors, satisfying a request from law enforcement. Baltimore Banner.

Bay Jurisdictions Reassess Cleanup Plan: For Maryland and states across the Chesapeake Bay watershed, the start of 2025 came with familiar disappointment. The group of seven jurisdictions working to clean up the Chesapeake Bay fell short of a much-anticipated deadline to curb pollution and rebuild ecosystems in the nation’s largest estuary. Now, watershed states and federal officials are back to soul searching. By the end of the year, they aim to revamp goals and develop a new Chesapeake Bay cleanup plan, the fifth agreement between bay states since restoration work began in 1983. Baltimore Banner.

State Tourism Groups to Get $4.66m In Grants: Maryland nonprofits and “heritage tourism organizations” are set to receive $4.66 million in grant funds, Gov. Wes Moore announced Friday. Funding comes through the Maryland Heritage Areas Authority’s Heritage Program, which supports “the development of heritage-related, place-based projects across Maryland that promote economic growth through tourism and community enhancement,” according to a press release. Baltimore Sun.

June Heat Wave Sent Hundreds To Maryland ERs, Caused Seven Heat-Related Deaths In Single Week: With more very hot weather on the way, the State Health Department advises people to be aware of the warning signs of heat-related illnesses. Baltimore Brew

COMMENTARY: Trump Admin Threatens Maryland Education Reform: More than $6.2 billion in federal education funds — approved under the FY2025 budget and scheduled for release on July 1 — remains frozen. The Trump administration insists this is part of an “ongoing review,” but to the parents, teachers and students staring down the first day of school without the support they were promised, it looks more like sabotage. The longer these funds remain impounded, the deeper the damage — not just to school budgets, but to the futures of children across the country. And while the crisis is national, the impact in Maryland is particularly acute. Maryland Reporter.

THE OTHER 49

New Maine law makes it easier to cancel subscriptions Mainers will find it easier to cancel subscriptions under a new state law — even as federal rules face roadblocks. The Federal Trade Commission last year finalized new click-to-cancel rules. But this week the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals blocked rollout, citing a procedural issue. Under the state legislation, businesses have to provide clear information about renewals, and consumers have to consent to renewals and charges. | Maine Public via Stateline

Oregon passes measures for microgrids and resilience: Oregon lawmakers have passed two bills that experts say will make communities more resilient as the state’s grid faces rising electricity demand, more frequent extreme weather events and repeated public safety power shutoffs to mitigate wildfire risk. They establish “a first-in-the nation strategy to create a regulatory framework for building microgrids,” smaller-scale power networks that can operate independently from the main grid, Portland-based nonprofit Sustainable Northwest said June 27. Utility Dive

NJ: New Jersey governor signs measure expanding free pre-K, kindergarten | New Jersey Monitor via Stateline

GLOBAL, NATIONAL AND THE FEDS

NOTE: Our regular correspondent Megan E, federal affairs director for People’s Action, has no report this week because she’s on Capitol Hill with a Homes Guarantee campaign delegation.

On Capitol Hill the Senate is on for another vote-a-rama this week focused on appointments but, crucially, on the administration’s recission package, clawing back money Congress already approved for things Trump hates. Roll Call reports “…the meat of the Senate’s week is work on a package of spending rescissions proposed by Trump that could kick off with a motion to discharge the measure from committee as soon as Tuesday. The $9.4 billion package of rollbacks to public broadcasting and foreign aid programs passed the House by the narrowest of margins, 214-212. But among the concerns in the Senate, even among some Republicans, has been the potential effect on rural broadcasters. In a post on Truth Social last week, Trump emphasized his interest in maintaining the public broadcasting rescissions, warning there could be political ramifications for Senate Republicans who oppose them. ‘It is very important that all Republicans adhere to my Recissions Bill and, in particular, DEFUND THE CORPORATION FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING (PBS and NPR), which is worse than CNN & MSDNC [MSNBC] put together.’ ” Note that the recissions have to get a vote by Friday or they are void, as POLITICO Playbook reminds us.

UnitedHealth’s Campaign to Quiet Critics – The company has invoked the murder of an executive last year to complain about coverage in news outlets, on streaming services and on social media. In recent months, UnitedHealth has targeted traditional journalists and news outlets, a prominent investor, a Texas doctor and activists who complained about a UnitedHealth subsidiary. UnitedHealth joins a growing group of companies and wealthy individuals, including President Trump, who are using legal threats and lawsuits to deter or penalize criticism. NYT

Social Housing Opportunities: Bloomberg reports a hidden benefit In the OBBB’s 900-plus pages: “The revamp of three tax-based community development programs is expected to boost construction of new apartment buildings and renovation of older ones. Housing analysts saying they could spark the building of as many as 1.2 million more affordable units over the next 10 years than they would have without the changes. It increases the size of tax credits awarded under the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit. It also decreases the share of money states and municipalities have to kick in for an affordable housing development. Those changes should make it easier for local governments and developers to do more deals at once.

White House preps for legal fight over firings — despite court victory: A Supreme Court ruling last week means planned reductions in force of federal workers can continue, but unions and other groups will battle the administration at each step. WaPo

Can the Dems Get It Together on that Strange Critter Called the Internet? Only 16% of Democratic lawmakers in DC post videos even occasionally on their campaign accounts, the firm found, and only 4% are posting there more than once a week. That lack of communication effectively cedes the internet to the opposition,” scolds a memo sent out this week from a pro-Dem ad agency. Semafor

MEANWHILE New Democratic Group Says Answer to the Party’s Woes Lies With the States: The founders of the initiative, the States Forum, say they hope to extend successful Democratic policies across states and even to the national level. “The states, [Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro] said, are “the most important, consequential counterbalance to Donald Trump’s lawlessness and Donald Trump’s overreach.” The governor’s remarks were delivered at the kickoff for the States Forum, a new initiative designed to help expand and entrench Democratic state legislative successes across the country at a time when the national party, locked out of power in Washington, remains adrift. The States Forum is part ideas journal, part convention gathering and part network of state legislators and policy thinkers, who are focused on state-level initiatives that could be translated to additional states and even the national stage. NYT

Trust? What Was That? Remind Me… Tracy Kidder op-ed in the NYT (“A New Era of Hunger Has Begun”) says “Mr. Trump’s [OBBB] law, signed on Independence Day, is the latest and largest of all the cyclical attempts to reduce the size and cost of America’s so-called safety net — to winnow the various social programs established by President Lyndon Johnson’s “Great Society” program. Among other things, the law begins to dismember the federal program once known as food stamps, now known… as SNAP. The program distributes money for food — an average of $187 a month per person. About 42 million Americans rely on it.” Pew Research reports Americans’ trust that government will “do the right thing most of the time” was highest in 1964 at the beginning of Johnson’s Great Society surge, at 77 percent. Now it’s 22 percent.

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