Kris Mayes hopes Arizonans impacted by Trump’s downsizing efforts can help lawsuits

PHOENIX — Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes heard directly from Arizonans impacted by the Trump administration’s efforts to downsize the government on Wednesday night.

She was one of four attorneys general who gathered at Central High School in Phoenix for the first of several national community impact meetings.

New Mexico’s Raúl Torrez, Oregon’s Dan Rayfield and Minnesota’s Keith Ellison joined Mayes to hear testimony from government workers, community members and others who have been impacted by Trump’s federal funding freezes and staffing cuts.

The meeting is part of a multistate effort to block the Trump administration’s government cuts in court.

“The lawsuits that we have filed aren’t about resisting change,” Mayes said during the event. “They are about ensuring that change happens the right way.”

Mayes said she’s concerned the federal efforts are negatively impacting people in Arizona and beyond. Job cuts surged by 245% in February, which was largely due to federal government layoffs, according to Reuters.

Arizonans who want to share their stories in writing are urged to contact the Arizona Attorney General’s Office. Mayes hopes these written experiences can be used in lawsuits against the Trump administration.

Veterans hurt by Trump cuts, one speaker at community impact meeting says

One of the people who spoke during the community impact meeting was Kristin Fray, a board-certified music therapist who treated veterans at the VA facility in Phoenix. She said she received an email on Feb. 24 that said she’d been terminated immediately, along with two coworkers.

“That meant that not only could veterans no longer access the services I provided, but I could not follow my own code of ethics, providing termination services to the veterans,” Fray said. “These veterans, some of whom are very fragile, were unable to have that closure, which puts them at risk for depression, anxiety or even suicidal ideation.”

Last week, 84 veterans didn’t get to go to their music or recreation therapy appointments due to federal cuts, Fray added.

Another speaker was Caryn Potter, the Arizona representative for the Southwest Energy Efficiency Project, who said funding freezes are causing crises for Arizona families.

“These funding freezes are creating barriers for advancing vital programs that help homeowners and communities adopt energy efficient technologies,” Potter said.

Funding freezes are crippling programs that help Arizonans keep their homes cool in the summer and warm in the winter, she added.

“A delay in funding has led to missed opportunities to weatherize homes, install energy-saving appliances and upgrade heating and cooling systems,” Potter said.

School leader at community impact meeting talks education cutbacks

Michael Robert, superintendent of the Osborn School District in Phoenix, said a federal grant that provided incentives for high-achieving teachers was revoked on Feb. 18.

That means the school has lost a significant amount of money that would have paid for salaries.

“I’m proud to say that Osborne’s going to honor our contract through June 30,” Robert said. “That’s a quarter million dollars that we did not have budgeted. We’ll pull it out of reserves.”

Food crisis caused by Trump admin’s cuts, one speaker says

Another speaker was Elyse Guidas, the executive director of Activate Food Arizona, which offers food solutions to urban, rural and tribal communities across Arizona.

“Administratively, several grants that we relied on and planned on for the next year have been terminated, which has caused me to not only change program plans and put critical food initiatives on hold,” Guidas said. “The food that we sell to community comes from local food hubs which aggregate from small-scale farmers throughout Arizona. In the last 12 hours, two of our direct suppliers have told me that their businesses will go under if these freezes aren’t lifted pretty eminently.”

If they close, this will have “catastrophic consequences” for around 60 family farms, she added.

“Farmers make their crop plans in alignment with the USDA funds, meaning that there’s already food in the ground that would have been paid for using the funding now frozen by the federal government,” Guidas said. “What is happening is heartless and cruel.”

KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Balin Overstolz McNair contributed to this report.

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