The immediate threat has passed, at least for now. But concern from individuals, businesses, nonprofits and local governments has not.
- The mother of a Lauderhill mother of an 8-week-old daughter, fearful that the federal government program that provides healthy food and breastfeeding support could suddenly stop.
- The father of a 41-year-old Fort Lauderdale woman who has battled multiple cancers for decades, worried about a halt to medical research.
- The mayor of Plantation, concerned that money for police body cameras won’t come through.
They were brought together Thursday by U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Weston, to highlight the threat she said is posed by President Donald Trump’s plans to radically reduce government spending, without congressional approval.
Beneficiaries of programs she highlighted, and many, many more, were thrown into chaos this week when Trump ordered a freeze in federal grant and loan programs. He retreated on Wednesday, in the face of legal challenges and widespread outrage.
Concerns
Jeffrey Schultz said his daughter, 41, is a seven-time cancer survivor first diagnosed as a child. She has had a mastectomy, thyroid cancer, melanoma, sarcoma, metastatic breast cancer, lung cancer and recently was diagnosed with glioblastoma.
Schultz, who is not related to the congresswoman, was alarmed at the prospect that medical research funded by the National Institutes of Health was, for a time this week, jeopardized.
So was his daughter, Lainie Jones. Just home from an out-of-town cancer treatment, she was advised by doctors not to attend, so Schultz read a statement in which she credited her being alive today to cancer research.
“I have survived seven primary cancers — seven. That’s not luck, that’s science,” she said. “When I see stories about critical NIH meetings being canceled without explanation, it’s terrifying… It’s life or death for millions of us who are alive today because of research and for the millions who will hear the words you have cancer every 15 seconds. Cancer does not wait. Science can’t either.”
Shallel Satchell participates in the Women, Infants and Children nutrition program for low-income pregnant and breastfeeding women, infants and children to age 5.
Satchell’s daughter, also named Shallel Satchell, now 8 weeks old, was born prematurely. She said the program is essential.
“Please, we definitely need the help,” she said.
Plantation Mayor Nick Sortal said he was concerned that money for police body cameras wouldn’t come through. He said the cameras are something that the public, and police officers want.
Wasserman Schultz said she could have filled the building with representatives of affected agencies, business owners, nonprofits and governments “who fear this funding freeze and its impact, but they’re not here now.”
She said her staff was repeatedly told by organizations that they were afraid of retaliation. “We had multiple organizations that told us that they were too afraid to pop their heads above the water line,” she said.
Politics
Schultz is a Democrat, but said he was concerned only about his daughter, not politics.
“It is inhumane in my mind as a father … I don’t care what politics is involved, because politics should not be involved in research or in anything to do with medicine and finding cures for any diseases that are out there,” he said. “It just makes no sense to me that the current administration would even consider removing funding.”
Sortal is also a Democrat, but said he wasn’t speaking out as a partisan. Local government elected officials aren’t Democratic blue or Republican red, he said, explaining he wore a purple shirt on Thursday to emphasize that point.
Galvanizing opposition to Trump’s spending plans is, in fact, highly political. Wasserman Schultz’s news conference was one of many Democratic actions taking place throughout the country, she said afterward.
“Colleagues across the country are all doing civic events like this because we want to make sure we keep the spotlight on this Republican ripoff and that the Republicans are hell-bent on stealing funds that are federal law that were appropriated by Congress and signed into law and hurting cancer patients and new moms and homeless people and people who are at risk of suicide,” she said.
Besides highlighting people and programs she said would have been harmed by the now-paused funding freeze, Wasserman Schultz decried what she said was Trump’s motivation: freeing up money to pass on to his billionaire friends via tax cuts, a point she made repeatedly.
“This Republican rip off is far from over. Looking at the bigger picture, the billionaire tax breaks that this cruel, illegal funding freeze is designed to pave the way for, those are still on the way. They are not done,” she said.
“They focus on taking care of the wealthiest, most fortunate Americans while denying funds to new mothers with 8-week-old babies, who are going to have trouble maintaining their newborn’s nutrition, all in the name of tax cuts for billionaires.”
The result, she said, “devastates families like Jeffrey’s and Shallel’s.”
Politico reported that House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said at the House Republican retreat in Doral this week he “fully” supported Trump’s decision to freeze the grants and loans, and considered it within the president’s authority.
Wasserman Schultz, a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee, disagreed, saying the aborted attempt to stop the grant and loan money was an illegal freeze.
“The president cannot cancel appropriated funds because it doesn’t align with whatever he decides his agenda is. Congress has the power of the purse,” she said. “We don’t have a king in this country.”
Anthony Man can be reached at aman@sunsentinel.com and can be found @browardpolitics on Bluesky, Threads, Facebook and Mastodon.
Originally Published: