Well, off we go

‘I Didn’t Vote for This’: A Revolt Against DOGE Cuts, Deep in Trump Country​

essentialsaltes said:

‘I Didn’t Vote for This’: A Revolt Against DOGE Cuts, Deep in Trump Country​

“This” is the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) deep cuts earlier this year to federal public lands agencies’ funding and to the staff at those agencies who administer that funding and steward public lands and wildlife.

Hunting season had yet to open when we spoke, but Zink was already hearing from fellow hunters who had to cut their own way into trails to hunting camps after Forest Service trail crews were laid off en masse. He worries about wildlife management with agency scientists also terminated.

Starting in February, an estimated 5,200 people have been terminated from the agencies that manage the 640 million acres of federal public lands in the U.S.

In addition to the employees and their families who’ve been impacted, those staffing cuts are also affecting the ways of life and livelihoods that are major economic drivers out here for almost everyone else, too. Ranchers and farmers use public lands for agriculture; outfitters and guides take guests into them; hunters access them regularly to put food in the family freezer; and forestry, timber and sawmill workers fulfill contracts on them for wildfire mitigation and lumber.

Republicans’ attacks on public lands seem to only be ramping up. In his 2026 budget, Trump proposed cutting a program called WaterSMART, which is administered through the Bureau of Reclamation and has historically provided millions for rural communities in Montana to address water security in a region where it is often scarce.

One of the other major sectors in rural Montana reeling from the cuts is forestry: a big umbrella that includes wildfire mitigation specialists, sawmill workers and other timber workers. I spoke to a forester in western Montana who owns a forestry business and employs a hand crew that does wildfire mitigation, thinning projects, service work on timber sales and tree planting. He was granted anonymity due to concerns for his business if he appeared in an article about politics.

When the cuts came down, they hit him hard. “Fifty percent of my income comes from federal dollars,” he said, ... And it wasn’t just him losing out on income; he couldn’t pay his employees, either.

In March, Trump signed an executive order to increase logging on public lands. But DOGE cut many of the agency employees needed to administer the timber sales for logging, and for thinning and fire mitigation. If there’s no one to administer the sales, then private forestry contractors like the forester I spoke to can’t execute those projects. In addition, the U.S. no longer has the infrastructure to process the increased timber mandated by the executive order, and the government doesn’t appear to be investing in resurrecting it.

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essentialsaltes said:

Reuters: This construction project was on time and on budget. Then came ICE.​

Rawstory version

"The contractor world is full of Republicans," explained [construction company CEO] Harrison in an interview with Reuters. "I'm not anti-ICE. We're supportive of what the president is trying to do. But the reality of it is our industry has to have the Hispanic immigrant-based workers in it."

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“Construction can’t continue”: South Texas builders say ICE arrests have upended industry​

South Texas homebuilders say ICE arrests have slowed work

More than 380 people attended an impromptu meeting that industry leaders in the Rio Grande Valley hosted to draw attention to the chilling effect ICE arrests have had on construction.

www.texastribune.org

essentialsaltes said:

“Construction can’t continue”: South Texas builders say ICE arrests have upended industry​

More than 300 people attended an impromptu meeting that industry leaders in the Rio Grande Valley hosted to draw attention to the chilling effect ICE arrests have had on construction.

Without enough workers, construction has slowed, sending a ripple effect throughout the economy. Economists suggest that this will drive housing costs up — even as Texas officials focus on bringing such costs down.

When the day of the meeting arrived, more than 380 people filled the room at the Brookhaven Event Center in Pharr. It was packed with people who worked in nearly every facet of construction and development, including concrete, lumber, real estate, and lending. A handful of elected officials also attended.

During the roughly hour and a half that they met, those industry representatives took turns to discuss the hits their businesses had taken because workers were too frightened that ICE would show up at construction sites. They also warned of how the larger Rio Grande Valley economy would suffer if the ICE arrests didn’t stop.

Isaac Smith, a co-owner of Matt’s Building Materials, said his family’s stores were struggling to get lumber out the door.

Smith said his sales had seen a rate of decline in the double digits since the ICE operations began. He’s also seen an increase in late payments from customers with a credit line from the store.

For the January meeting, [Guerrero] has invited more elected officials at all levels of government. He hopes these ongoing public gatherings will bring greater awareness to their plight.

“People maybe don’t understand the magnitude of what’s happening,” Guererro said. “But that’s where we have to come together as human beings, and we need to be a little cognizant about the real situation that we’re facing.”

South Texas homebuilders say ICE arrests have slowed work

More than 380 people attended an impromptu meeting that industry leaders in the Rio Grande Valley hosted to draw attention to the chilling effect ICE arrests have had on construction.

www.texastribune.org

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Valletta said:

Now the stores that obey the law and don't hire illegals will be able to compete.

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