Gina Cornia of Utahns Against Hunger sat down before an appropriations committee to ask for $50,000 to help Utah food pantries when she started to get text messages and news alerts.
“So we’re sort of reeling this morning,” Cornia said as she spoke to lawmakers, describing the memo put out by the White House freezing some federal funding. “People are already panicking.”
Before it was temporarily blocked by a federal judge, the Trump administration’s executive order sparked some panic on Utah’s Capitol Hill, stunning even Republican legislative leaders.
“I don’t know that it’s preferable, but we have a federal government that has a deficit that’s unmanageable. They seem to spend, spend, spend. So maybe this is a shock, a wake up call that we all need to look at. We’ll see if it produces a positive outcome or negative,” Senate President J. Stuart Adams, R-Layton, told reporters on Tuesday.
Senate Minority Leader Luz Escamilla, D-Salt Lake City, said her constituents were worried.
“The public is afraid and is panicking. I’m hearing from people in my district, are they not going to be able to get some of the programs?” she said.
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