Potential federal cuts cast wide uncertainty across Lane County 

Due to incorrect information provided by Lane County, an earlier version of this story named the wrong facility slated to become a shelter in West Eugene. Clear Lake Elementary is the school that was set to become a shelter.

The federal government has a wide reach in Lane County, but it could well diminish by tens of millions of dollars as the Trump administration enacts cuts that could hit virtually every corner of life.

The potential impacts are more than dollar figures on a ledger. 

Programs in jeopardy offer an array of services to Lane County residents. Among them: shelters for people to flee to during natural disasters, increased transportation for school children and humanities grants that fund reading programs at local libraries.

Oregon’s congressional delegation and state leaders are scrambling to assess the damage — and respond accordingly. The picture rapidly changes, due to court actions challenging federal reductions and the Trump administration’s quick decisions, like firing probationary federal employees and freezing grants communities rely upon. 

At a Wednesday town hall in Eugene, Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield and Oregon House Speaker Julie Fahey, D-Eugene, briefed constituents about efforts to combat the cuts and the overall impact of Trump’s administration. Rayfield has followed the lead of his predecessor and fellow Democrat, Ellen Rosenblum, in repeatedly taking the Trump administration to court. 

“The Trump administration is steadily and continually taking actions that are negatively impacting communities and lives across our state and across our country,” Rayfield said. “And it is what doesn’t get enough attention in this space. It is these actions that are being done in a democracy, in the dark and without public import.”

In a statement, Democratic U.S. Rep. Val Hoyle, whose district includes Lane County, said she is very concerned. Grants on pause and in jeopardy include:

• A nearly $20 million grant for Lane County to put six disaster resilience hubs, or extreme weather shelters, in place throughout the region.
• A $5.2 million grant for Lane Transit District to start a pilot project to increase mobility in rural Bethel. The Lane Transit District’s proposed project would use an app to guide residents to transportation options, without increasing existing routes.
• A nearly $1 million grant for the Lane Regional Air Protection Agency to help Oakridge area residents safeguard against the health hazards of wildfires and smoke.

Hoyle said the picture remains unclear. 

“It is important to note that the full extent of the cuts are still unknown, because in many cases remaining staff are working overtime to keep services flowing to their fellow Oregonians,” Hoyle said in a statement to Lookout Eugene-Springfield. “I am grateful for their work and dedication. It is also difficult because in many cases program cancellations and firings are reversed in a matter of days. The bottom line is these cuts are impacting every aspect of our lives, because the chaos and confusion was the plan.”

U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, echoed that.

“It’s painfully clear this cascade of unconstitutional and damaging cuts by Donald Trump, Elon Musk and their flunkies will hurt Lane County and our entire state by slashing federal investments that help provide Oregonians with health care, housing, food, education and more,” Wyden said in a statement. “I’ll keep fighting to undo this gut-punch whether that’s in Congress, the courts or any other venue to reverse these lawless and unsustainable choices by Trump, Musk and their congressional acolytes all too willing to do their bidding.”

Lookout Eugene-Springfield learned about the following projects facing freezes or cuts: 

Extreme weather shelter funding suspended

County residents are likely to have fewer places to go during natural disasters.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) suspended a grant that would have invested $20 million in six extreme weather shelters across Lane County. Lane County and United Way were partnering on these “community resilience hubs” meant to provide resources to help people during extreme weather events, including wildfires and heatwaves.   

Lane County requested a second review of the suspension, but county officials have not heard back from the EPA. They asked their partners who would have been paid under the grant to pause work. 

Facilities set to become hubs stretch from urban to rural communities. The list includes: Florence Senior & Activity Center; Fern Ridge Service Center in Veneta; Clear Lake Elementary School in Eugene; Bob Keefer Center in Springfield; Willamette Activity Center in Oakridge; and the community center and library in Cottage Grove.

Environmental health officials in Lane County believe the grant would have helped provide safe places for people during and after disasters. 

“What we are trying to do is emergency preparedness,” said Jason Davis, a spokesperson for Lane County. “This is not a Green New Deal or related to curbing environmental impacts of climate change. This [funding] is something we actually really needed. We’re facing wildfires like we never did before.” 

Grant for Lane Transit District project paused

The $5.2 million transit grant, now on pause, does not affect existing or planned routes.

But it does affect the transit district’s plans for a pilot project that would use an app so county residents more easily connect to transportation.

The project, called mobility on demand, was to come from the Advanced Transportation Technology and Innovation (ATTAIN) Program grant. 

In October 2024, transit leaders and other community officials, including Bethel School District, praised the project as one that could help eliminate barriers to transportation for people in low-income neighborhoods.

It’s uncertain now what will come of those plans.

Funding pulled for smoke protection 

Some of the rural communities in Lane County that have been hit hardest by wildfire smoke are no longer receiving anticipated relief funding.

Under the Inflation Reduction Act, the EPA allocated $997,622 to the Lane Regional Air Protection Agency to support communities like Oakridge and Westfir.

The grant would have supported improvements for about 30 homes against smoke. Lane Regional Air Protection Agency officials hoped to help vulnerable residents, seniors and people with disabilities. 

Matt Sorensen, a spokesman for the Lane County agency, said the funding would have made homes safer and healthier during wildfire season as well as  the colder months.

“We were certainly disappointed, but at the same time, we’re going to continue to seek other grant opportunities and avenues to carry this work forward,” he said.

Oregon federal employees wait for answers

One fired federal employee is speaking out, as she awaits the outcome of litigation while on paid administrative leave.

Cristen Don was abruptly fired from her job as a planning officer for National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Northwest Science Fisheries Center in Newport. The center encompasses northern California, Oregon, Washington and Idaho. 

The center’s research delves into fisheries management, the migratory path of salmon and seafood safety. As a planning officer, Don was responsible for strategic and long-term planning, including analyzing the agency’s use of resources. A probationary employee who started in October 2024, Don was fired Feb. 27. 

She was among about 800 probationary NOAA employees nationally to lose their jobs during the Elon Musk-led cuts. 

Her situation is fluid. Don is on paid administrative leave as the Trump administration appeals a March 14 federal court ruling from Maryland that temporarily reinstated thousands of federal employees. 

Oregon’s Rayfield was among the 20 attorneys general who brought that case forward. 

As the litigation continues, Don is waiting for the case to resolve itself while she is paid. But other challenges remain. Specifically, she said her medical insurance is still canceled.

“People are scrambling to understand if, when and how is that being reinstated,” she said. “So that’s stressful for people. It’s chaotic. It feels like a waste of having people who would love to be working and care about the mission of NOAA that are on the sidelines.” 

Health insurance for fired federal workers is also a concern for Oregon’s senators.Wednesday, Oregon’s Wyden and Jeff Merkley sent a letter to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, urging the agency that handles human resources issues to address the problem, which persists even as insurance deductions continue from paychecks. 

Oregonians working at government agencies such as the Internal Revenue Service, Bureau of Land Management, and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Health System have been affected, Wyden and Merkley wrote in the letter. 

“We have heard from constituents who, during this lapse in coverage, required life-saving surgeries for serious illnesses such as cancer but were left without the health insurance necessary to afford those procedures.”

National Endowment for the Humanities cuts threaten UO 

The National Endowment for the Humanities began sending emails April 2 to state humanities councils and other grant recipients telling them their funding was ending immediately, according to the New York Times. 

The Times reported the email said the agency would be “repurposing its funding allocations in a new direction in furtherance of the president’s agenda.”

Eric Howald, assistant director of issues management at the University of Oregon, estimated the potential financial hit to the school at $600,000.

Howald said in an email to Lookout that federal programs like the National Endowment for the Humanities “have long supported student learning, faculty scholarship, cultural preservation and public access to knowledge. These programs — often modest in cost — have an outsized impact on the nation’s ability to understand itself and engage thoughtfully with the world.”

Summer literacy programs at risk  

Cutbacks to the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services program — although involving a relatively small amount of money — could have an outsized impact on Oregon public libraries, said Angela Ocaña, director of the Eugene Public Library.

In an email to Lookout, Ocaña noted that Oregon is among those states that have filed a lawsuit challenging the administration’s action to place nearly all members of the Institute of Museum and Library Services on administrative leave. 

Grants from that federal program help fund statewide and regional programs such as Oregon Battle of the Books, the Oregon School Library Information System and Library2Go. 

Ocaña said trickle-down effects triggered by the federal cuts could impact Ready 2 Read, a program to encourage early reading. Eugene receives nearly $28,000 in early literacy funding; she said many libraries fund their entire summer reading programs through Ready 2 Read money.

Ocaña said the library was looking at money from a federal program that would allow libraries to pay for mobile hotspots, but paused that exploration as federal officials make changes to the program.

She added the loss of federal dollars intended for cities and counties may mean those jurisdictions could be forced to reallocate money to help fill gaps. 

Areas such as libraries and the arts — sometimes seen by some as nonessential “extras” — may see reduced budgets, she said.