Latest news with #Milfoil
Boston Globe
19-07-2025
- Business
- Boston Globe
New Hampshire is being left out of lawsuits blocking Trump actions. The Supreme Court might accelerate that trend.
Advertisement For Manchester School District, the largest public school district in New Hampshire, the indefinite funding pause is blowing a more than $3 million hole in the budget for next year. That could jeopardize an enrichment and college-accessibility program for underserved students, support for the district's sizable English learner population, professional development, and more, according to Superintendent Jennifer Chmiel. On Friday, the administration told lawmakers it would release funds related to after-school programs, but other program funding remains in limbo and the funds haven't yet arrived. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Chmiel said the district is considering mounting its own legal challenges in the state's absence, but that would further strain the budget. 'The pinch just keeps getting tighter and tighter,' Chmiel said. 'So our board is going to have to look at it and decide, do we want to take on a lawsuit or preserve a student resource? These are really tough decisions, and it's really hard to look at that map and see all the other states light up and we're blank. All around us, they're participating.' Advertisement Republican Governor Kelly Ayotte's administration In late March, the Trump administration The cuts hit four main areas, Susan Stearns, executive director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness New Hampshire, said the chaos of the cuts and constant concern about what could be coming next from the federal government has made the work her group and others do to provide behavioral health support challenging. Advertisement 'I think for all the states that haven't joined some of these lawsuits, it's probably going to lead to some challenging decisions,' Stearns said. 'I would love to say the dust has settled and things are going to be smooth sailing from here on, but I would not feel comfortable saying that.' She emphasized her group and its peers would nevertheless keep serving New Hampshire and reiterated that the 988 suicide and crisis hot line remains operational for anyone who needs it. In April, the Trump administration But Lakes Region Conservation Corps, operated by the Squam Lakes Association in Holderness, N.H., and other local conservation partners, was not spared since New Hampshire didn't join the suit. remains uncertain. The organization had 15 full-time and 12 part-time service members who have provided environmental education to 3,000 people, maintained over 100 acres of trails, and been heavily involved in removing invasive plant species like Milfoil from the lake to maintain it as an outdoor attraction. Squam Lakes Association has been able to tap into its reserves to maintain its current corps, but the long-term stability and scope of the program are still in doubt, its executive director, EB James, said in an interview earlier this month. Advertisement He said Ayotte had told the group she was seeking to work with Washington to get the program back, but watching nearby AmeriCorps programs in Vermont win back funding through litigation was bittersweet. 'At some levels it was heartening to see it was going back for them,' James said. 'At our level, we were very unhappy to not be included in that, and the bar to participate in that was very low.' The court's June ruling, which was a side decision of a broader suit to block President Trump from abolishing birthright citizenship, potentially left open some avenues for groups seeking to block federal policies. That included filing class-action litigation and challenging policies under federal procedural laws. But those are more complicated lawsuits, and legal scholars believe state attorney general cases could be one of the fastest ways for opponents of Trump's actions to get quick protections in court. Republicans are generally loath to cross Trump, and even when they object to his actions, they've tried to lobby for reversals behind the scenes rather than sue. Some legal observers doubt that even with narrower judicial rulings, that would change. 'Will they feel it? Yes,' said James E. Tierney, a former Democratic attorney general from Maine and director of Harvard's attorney general clinic. 'Do I think a Republican AG will therefore jump in and join? I think the answer is no.' In New Hampshire, the state attorney general is nominated by the governor. Ayotte has yet to put forth a nominee, Advertisement An ally of Ayotte's acknowledged the new legal landscape could squeeze the state but defended her approach. 'It's going to put more pressure on appointed and elected attorneys general and governors to look hard on what cases to bring,' said Steve Duprey, a former Republican national committeeman and close friend of Ayotte. 'I think prudent ones are picking their shots and on the first instance, trying to work with the administration. ... I have no doubt whatsoever that if the administration was doing something she couldn't resolve that she thinks hurts New Hampshire, that she'll stand up for New Hampshire.' Tal Kopan can be reached at
Boston Globe
17-07-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
Months after widespread cuts, some AmeriCorps programs receive sudden notice of reinstatement
Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up A request for comment to the AmeriCorps press office was not returned. Much of the national program office staff was also put on indefinite leave in April. The Office of Management and Budget also did not respond to a request for comment on the reversal or future funding. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Advertisement Though court orders previously had already mandated that some programs be restored, those rulings were limited to the group of Democratic-led states and coalition of third-party organizations, including the employee union, that sued. The notifications that came this week extended the possibility of restored funding to programs in Republican-led states that had not joined the litigation. Advertisement It is unclear how the reinstatement, which applies to programs already funded under the fiscal year 2024 federal budget, will proceed. Some programs were able to tap other funding to extend the service members and their projects until the end of their contracts. Others had to make layoffs and shutter activities that could be difficult to reverse. Not all terminated programs had received the reinstatement notice by Thursday. And AmeriCorps organizations and commissions had already been warning that the Trump administration was withholding approved funding for the next fiscal year, as well, imperiling their ability to continue projects into the next term. But one program that did receive word they could reopen their funding was the Lakes Region Conservation Corps, operated by the Squam Lakes Association in Holderness, N.H., and other local conservation partners. The organization had 15 full-time and 12 part-time service members that have provided environmental education to 3,000 people, maintained over 100 acres of trails and has been heavily involved in removing invasive species like Milfoil from the lake to maintain it as an outdoor attraction. In April, they received their notice of termination and then watched as regional peers came back online without them in June after the court granted Democratic states' request to have funding restored. Until now, the Squam Lakes Association had been able to tap into its reserves to maintain its current corps, but the long-term stability of the program and its reach was in doubt, its executive director EB James said in an interview earlier this month. He warned that cuts would affect not just the service-members and his organization, but the health of the lake, regional ecosystem, and entire local economy built on tourism and desirable property. They had not yet received clarity on if they would get their funding under the fiscal year 2025 budget, which in normal years would be resolved by now. Advertisement 'Like everyone, it's thrown us into disarray,' James said earlier this month. 'This was a small program that had a really really large impact, but even though it was small, it meant a lot to us and it meant a lot to our constituents.' The April cuts spurred by the then-Elon Musk led Department of Government Efficiency shut down numerous AmeriCorps programs, immediately ending the small stipends of service members who worked in classrooms, workforce development, and health resources. The terminations did not seem to follow any pattern, and some of the programs who had been cut were then awarded funding for next year. Some The New Hampshire state AmeriCorps office, Volunteer NH, declined to comment about the possibility of restored funding. But executive director Gretchen Stallings said the situation for programs in the state was still tenuous given the confusion about future funding. 'Right now, we're still navigating a lot of uncertainty around FY25 and FY26 funding. While two NH programs were selected for competitive AmeriCorps grants, none of the funds have been released yet—not for those programs, and not for the operational support we rely on to run AmeriCorps effectively in the state," Stallings said in a statement. 'That delay is having a real impact. Programs are having to make tough decisions—scaling back, pausing operations, or bracing for shutdowns—while we wait for clarity." Advertisement Tal Kopan can be reached at
