We’re Just Billionaire Cannon Fodder

The Trump administration has been firing federal employees and seeking out payment ledgers to stop funding for certain programs, which is likely illegal because Congress is supposed to do that legislatively.

But I want to tie together a few things about these impoundments and staff cuts I think are important for you all as folks who think a lot about urban issues whether that’s housing or transportation.

Recently updated research from Liscow, Norber, and Slattery find that there are two major issues driving infrastructure costs; a lack of capacity of the DOT procuring the project, and the lack of competition for infrastructure contracts. Brookings noted that the paper shows how in California, variations in resurfacing costs can be pinned to the seniority/pay grade of the engineer assigned to the project. More capacity and staff, lower costs.

This is of course just road building, but what if you extrapolate this reduced capacity to many of the agencies that are getting unceremoniously axed? FEMA is under consideration for disappearance but 80% of the HUD staffers that are responsible for post disaster recovery that FEMA doesn’t take care of are slated for dismissal as well.

Their jobs as reported by Christopher Flavelle in many cases are to make sure that recovery money that comes in one huge tranche is spent wisely, often setting up websites to curtail double payments to contractors and coordinating other grants localities can get, but usually are too overwhelmed to consider.

I’m sure there’s waste and fraud out there on the far margins but I also know many of you have had to deal with a lawyer and a maybe a shrink for federal funding contracts and their reporting requirements.

But this belies another point I made above, often local officials and even residents are just trying to get by and are overwhelmed by everything they should be considering. People don’t know for example that data centers are going to end up impacting public health to the tune of $54 billion. Someone should look at the impacts? Maybe EPA and environmental justice experts perhaps?

People are also just trying to survive while their communities are taken advantage of by corporations and planning decisions that were initially cheered but later seen as a detriment to the neighborhood.

I realize that I am not the intended audience of these cuts or their announcements. We’re just billionaire cannon fodder. But I still believe government and good regulation can work well to improve most residents quality of life. Gutting agencies is not only going to make us less efficient, it will cost us more in the long run.