Agriculture
The Trump administration cut funding that allowed food banks and school districts to buy produce from local farmers who rely on their purchases.
Economy
The Trump administration fired at least 20 IRS employees in Ohio, with experts and former IRS employees warning that refund checks may be delayed because of the staffing cuts.
Education
The Trump administration laid off about half of the Department of Education, which the Ohio Teachers Union warns could prevent the agency from fulfilling its duties.
Environment
The Trump administration laid off two Cincinnati engineers treating “forever chemicals” in Ohio and Kentucky waters.
Health Care
The Trump administration fired a HHS employee that helped mothers struggling with Post-Partum Depression.
Public Safety
The Trump administration cut retention bonuses for federal prison guards, which union leaders warned would exacerbate staffing shortages.
Veterans
The Trump administration fired Veterans Affairs employees who helped provide food and mental health services to veterans.
February 2025: Trump Administration Cut Funding To Cincinnati Nonprofit That Helps Prevent Housing Discrimination. According to Spectrum News One, "Nearly $1 billion allocated for affordable housing initiatives through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has been slashed, according to the Associated Press. [...] The cuts are now being felt in Ohio, where one local fair housing group says the funding reduction has placed them in a difficult position, with the future of housing stability uncertain. For the past 57 years, Housing Opportunities Made Equal (HOME) of Greater Cincinnati has worked to eliminate illegal discrimination in housing. Elisabeth Risch, the organization’s executive director, explained their mission." [Spectrum News One, 3/18/25]
February 2025: Trump Administration Cancelled Grant For Toledo Nonprofit To Address Racial Discrimination And Opposition To Affordable Housing. According to the Toledo Blade, "The Fair Housing Opportunities of Northwest Ohio Inc. has joined a class-action lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Department of Government Efficiency after losing two federal grants that would help residents in Lucas and Wood counties combat housing discrimination. On Thursday, Relman Colfax PLLC, a national civil rights law firm based in Washington, and members of the National Fair Housing Alliance announced the filing of the lawsuit against the federal agencies over the 'sudden and unlawful terminations of grants disbursed under the Fair Housing Initiatives Program.’” [Toledo Blade, 3/17/25]
March 2025: New Richmond Farmer Lost Biggest Customer After Trump Administration Cut Funding To Food Banks. According to WCPO, "The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced last week it was cutting $1 billion in funding to local food banks and schools — funding used to buy fresh produce from local area farmers. Louise Gartner has owned Fox Tail Farm in New Richmond for over 10 years. Her farm grows certified organic produce and edible flowers. 'Well, the last couple years, the food bank has been our biggest customer,' said Gartner. Gartner said the money coming in from food banks has allowed her to hire more staff and buy more equipment, adding that she was planning on expanding operations for the local food banks. We asked her what the funding cuts meant for her and her farm. 'It’s gonna affect me quite a bit,' Gartner said. 'I haven’t found other markets that could replace the entirety of what I send to the food bank.'" [WCPO, 3/19/25]
March 2025: Trump Administration Cut Funding For Mercer County Food Bank That Purchased Local Produce. According to WFMJ, "Food banks across the region are bracing for a surge in demand after the USDA cut funding for the Local Food Purchase Assistance Program (LFPA) and the Local Food for Schools Program—two initiatives that helped provide fresh, locally sourced food to food banks and school meal programs. The Mercer County Food Bank is among those feeling the impact. Executive Director Becky Page says her organization relied on nearly $100,000 annually from the LFPA program to purchase fresh produce. With that funding gone, the food bank must find new ways to fill the gap. 'A cut like this is huge and will have lasting effects on our neighbors facing hunger,' Page said. 'Our produce distribution accounts for 19% of the food we provide, and in a resource-poor area like ours, this loss will be felt across the entire community.' Page says they have already begun reaching out to local foundations and donors in an effort to replace the lost funding before the summer months, when demand typically increases as children lose access to school meals." [WFMJ, 3/12/25]
March 2025: Ohio Food Bank Suffered $1 Million Cut After Trump Ended USDA Program That Allowed Them To Buy Produce From Local Farmers. According to the Columbus Dispatch, "The Mid-Ohio Food Collective, which provides food to more than 20 Ohio counties, including Franklin County, is among the organizations hit by the cut. Mike Hochron, MOFC vice president for communications and public affairs, said the LFPA program provided more than $1 million in purchasing power to the collective. 'It's definitely a loss. In the bigger picture of the things we're worried about right now, it's a smaller one,' Hochron said. 'If this were the only thing that went bad, and everything else stayed as it has in the last couple years, we would be in better shape.'" [Columbus Dispatch, 3/13/25]
March 2025: Ohio Food Bank Leader Warned Trump USDA Cuts Were “Going To Cause Hardship For Local Farmers. According to the Columbus Dispatch, "Joree Novotny, executive director of the Ohio Association of Food Banks, said while the LFPA program was funded through an executive branch spending program, it enjoyed bipartisan support. She said the program helped new farmers scale up their operations and get real experience in connecting with purchasers. 'It is really going to cause hardship for local farmers, and we're devastated about that,' Novotny said. 'And of course, we're also really disappointed to lose what was really nutritious, wholesome, delicious food from local farmers in our food banks.'" [Columbus Dispatch, 3/13/25]
March 2025: Akron Food Bank Warned Of “Detrimental Impact” After Trump Administration Cut Funding For Program That Provided 200,000 Meals For Local People In Need. According to the Akron Beacon Journal, "Katie Carver Reed, vice president and COO of the Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank, said the loss of the Local Food Purchase Assistance program could have a detrimental impact. The Foodbank provides food to partner organizations in Carroll, Holmes, Medina, Portage, Stark, Summit, Tuscarawas and Wayne counties. These partners operate 600 food pantries, meal sites, shelters, children and senior programs and other hunger-relief programs throughout the region. 'This program provided enough food for more than 200,000 meals for our region last year,' Carver Reed said. 'We are concerned any time there are cuts to programs that support the people we serve. We ask our community to continue supporting us and sharing the importance of our work with legislators.'" [Akron Beacon Journal, 3/13/25]
April 2025: Trump Administration Reportedly Planned To Slash $500 Million Grant To Cleveland-Cliffs Plant In Middletown. According to CNN, "The centerpiece of President Donald Trump’s America-first economic agenda is reinvigorating the manufacturing industry. But his administration is planning to slash a key program that invests in some of the biggest manufacturing industries in the US, including in Vice President JD Vance’s hometown in the heart of the Rust Belt. A $500 million grant from the Biden administration was slated for steel giant Cleveland-Cliffs in Middletown, Ohio — to help the company upgrade its aging blast furnaces. Another $75 million was awarded to the company for a similar project in Pennsylvania. The new furnaces — which run on climate-friendly hydrogen, natural gas and electricity instead of coal — would have extended the life of the plant and given the steel company a foot in the future. But those grants, which would have created over 100 permanent jobs and 1,200 construction jobs in Middletown alone, are slated for termination under the Trump administration, according to internal administration documents obtained by CNN.” [CNN, 4/8/25]
February 2025: Trump Administration Fired At Least 20 IRS Employees In Columbus, OH. According to WTTE, "Thousands of IRS employees across the nation have been laid off, including more than 20 workers in Columbus, according to a former employee.." [WTTE, 2/24/25]
February 2025: Fired IRS Employee Warned Of Delayed Refunds For Families Because Of Trump Cuts. According to WTTE, "[Stanovsek] expressed concern about the impact of these cuts on local families during the upcoming tax season. 'It's my prediction and anticipation that it's going to be a rougher tax season for a lot of people,' he said. 'While some support functions for filing returns remain,' Stanovsek warned that taxpayers might experience delays in receiving their refunds." [WTTE, 2/24/25]
March 2025: Trump Administration Executive Order Called For Reduction To Federal Agency That Funded Multiple Cincinnati Museums And Zoos. According to WKRC, "Cincinnati museums are bracing for cuts to a major source of funding. President Trump signed an executive order to take money from the Institute Of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). Some of the exhibits you've seen at the Contemporary Arts Center, the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden, and the Children's Museum have been funded by IMLS grants." [WKRC, 3/18/25]
April 2025: Trump Administration Slashed 90% Of Ohio Nonprofit’s Budget That Supports Local History And Cultural Programs. According to the Columbus Dispatch, "As cultural institutions around the country reel from an abrupt loss of federal funding, smaller places will also feel the brunt of the sledgehammer. The National Endowment of the Humanities, which provides most of the funding to Ohio Humanities, canceled grants in all 50 states earlier this week. Most of the agency’s staff have been put on administrative leave, as of late Thursday, NPR reported. This will disproportionately affect smaller museums, historical societies and cultural institutions in rural areas of the Buckeye State. Rebecca Asmo, the executive director of Ohio Humanities, confirmed the organization heard from the federal government early Thursday morning that all Endowment grants were being terminated as of April 1 to comply with executive orders about reducing the size of the federal bureaucracy. Ohio Humanities receives about $2 million annually from the Endowment. That's about 90% of its budget, Asmo said." [Columbus Dispatch, 4/7/25]
April 2025: Cincinnati Book Festival Faced Uncertainty After Trump Administration Cut 25% Of Its Budget.
According to the Cincinnati Enquirer, "Cincinnati’s Books By the Banks is predicting its annual festival will draw 4,500 booklovers to Downtown's public library on Nov. 15. But the festival is not guaranteed, given one of the latest cost-cutting decisions of the Trump administration. With the federal government defunding the National Endowment for Humanities, Books By the Banks will lose about a quarter of its festival dollars. 'We’re going to take a significant hit to our budget,' said David Rippe, the group’s board president." [Cincinnati Enquirer, 4/10/25]
March 2025: Ohio Teachers' Union Leader Warned Trump Layoffs At Department Of Education Could Prevent Agency From Carrying Out Mission. According to WCMH, "The president of the Ohio Education Association called Wednesday 'a sad day for everyone in education' after the U.S. Department of Education announced it will lay off more than 1,300 employees. This is the latest move by the Trump administration to cut government spending. Scott DiMauro, the president of the Ohio Education Association, said he fears this is going to have negative ripple effects on the state’s department of education. 'When you eliminate half the staff, it’s going to be very difficult for the department to do the job that it was authorized to do,' DiMauro said. DiMauro said while the federal DOE does not set learning standards for curriculum, he said they are primarily responsible for school funding. He fears much of that will be lost. 'I’m really concerned about ultimately the impact that this is going to have on exploding class sizes, a loss of civil rights, protections for students, and just a loss of overall support for public education here in Ohio,' DiMauro said." [WCMH, 3/12/25]
March 2025: Trump Administration Froze Grant To Help City Of Columbus Plant Trees In Local Area. According to the Columbus Dispatch, "Columbus is joining other cities and nonprofits to sue President Donald Trump, Elon Musk and Musk's Department of Government Efficiency for cutting federal grants for their local programs. In Columbus' case, the funding involved tree planting. Columbus City Attorney Zach Klein announced Thursday that the plaintiffs filed a lawsuit in federal court in South Carolina challenging DOGE's cuts to community grants, including a $500,000 U.S. Forest Service grant for Columbus. The city has already spent most of the allotment to plant more than a thousand trees in Linden and two other city neighborhoods that lack tree canopy, but it hasn't been reimbursed. [...] The plaintiffs' lawyers allege in the suit that multiple executive orders and actions by the Trump administration violated the Constitution by unlawfully cutting funding that had already been approved by Congress. They're asking a judge to force the federal government to make good on the grants." [Columbus Dispatch, 3/20/25]
February 2025: Trump Administration Laid Off Two Cincinnati Engineers Responsible For Treating “Forever Chemicals” In Ohio And Kentucky Waters. According to the Cincinnati Enquirer, "Work friends Esther Hughes and Brooke Gray, both 25 and environmental engineers in the Cincinnati office of the Environmental Protection Agency, lost their jobs on Friday. Each focused on working with Ohio and Kentucky communities dealing with 'forever chemicals' in their water. Working from their respective homes, they received late-afternoon emails that said they were being terminated at 5 p.m. that day because they 'failed to demonstrate fully your qualifications for continued employment.'" [Cincinnati Enquirer, 2/19/25]
February 2025: Trump Administration Fired Cleveland HHS Worker Helping Mothers With Post-Partum Depression. According to News 5 Cleveland WEWS, Thousands of Northeast Ohio federal workers have lost their jobs under President Donald Trump's new administration. 'I received a letter on Saturday in my email that my position was being terminated,' said Health Education Specialist Danielle Augustin. Augustin worked for the US Department of Health and Human Services as a health education specialist for the last two years. 'I was working on projects that were focused on providing resources and access to postpartum women who would be struggling with depression. It’s unfortunate that so many needed resources are being taken away from individuals. And contracts and grants that do this amazing work to serve people,' Augustin said. In October, Augustin received a promotion, which came with a new probationary period. And during this flurry of federal layoffs, departments were directed to fire mostly probationary employees." [News 5 Cleveland WEWS, 2/20/25]
March 2025: Trump Administration Claimed To Cut More Than $300 Million In Funding To Ohio Health Agencies Including Grants For Addiction Treatment And Mental Health Programs. According to WLWT, "The Department of Government Efficiency is looking to ax nearly a billion dollars worth of grants intended for state health departments in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana. The website's wall of receipts, which showcases the department's savings efforts, indicates that $867,801,623 intended for state-level health departments in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana is set to potentially be impacted. [...] In Ohio, $303,447,624 is being cut from grants that were set to go to the state's Department of Health, $32,577,014 is being cut from a grant that was set to go to the state's Department of Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services, and $25,348,625 is being cut from a grant set to go to the state's Department of Mental Health." [WLWT, 3/31/25]
April 2025: Dayton And Montgomery County Health Agency Lost $830,000 Grant That Was Used In Part To Help Treat Infectious Diseases. According to Dayton Daily News, "The federal government wants to move on from the COVID-19 pandemic, and one way it is doing this is by cutting about $11.4 billion in COVID-19-related funds for state and local public health departments. 'The COVID-19 pandemic is over, and HHS will no longer waste billions of taxpayer dollars responding to a non-existent pandemic that Americans moved on from years ago,' the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement. While the full impact is still being evaluated, these cuts could lead to changes to local services as these cuts are happening months prior to when health departments were anticipating their grant funding would end. 'Any loss of resources to provide services to our community is concerning,' said Jennifer Wentzel, health commissioner for Public Health – Dayton & Montgomery County. Public Health received notice from the Ohio Department of Health that the federal government is discontinuing funding for a local Enhanced Operations grant, the department said. The loss of funds totals $830,890. [...] These funds were essential in supporting a variety of ongoing and upcoming initiatives, Public Health said, including to pay for staff to combat the spread of communicable diseases." [Dayton Daily News, 4/2/25]
April 2025: Trump Administration Fired Hundreds Of Employees At Cincinnati Office Of The National Institute For Occupational Safety And Health Which Studies Worker Injury And Illness. According to WCPO, "Some employees at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) office in Pleasant Ridge have been terminated, according to Micah Niemeier-Walsh, vice president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 3840. Niemier-Walsh said all non-union employees, which totals all supervisors in the building, were part of the termination. He said the termination notices instructed those employees to vacate the building by 5 p.m. Tuesday. Roughly 200 members of the union also received termination notices that are effective at the end of June, Niemier-Walsh said, though he was unsure on what terms. " [WCPO, 4/1/25]
March 2025: Trump Administration Slashed Retention Bonuses To Federal Prison Guards, Including At FCI Elkton In Lisbon, Which Union Leaders Warned Would Exacerbate Staffing Shortages. According to the Morning Journal, "As Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) continues slashing through federal agencies, the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) remains in the cross hairs. What that means for the 35,952 people including or the several hundred employees at the Elkton Federal Correctional Institution is unclear. What is clear is that FCI Elkton staff will see a decrease in salary and incentives. Last week, pressure by DOGE to increase efficiency and reduce economic burden led to the BOP under the Trump administration’s direction to eliminate or cut in half retention bonuses for prison workers. According to the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), its Council of Prison Locals 33 and AFGE Local 607 which represents 333 federal employees at the FCI Elkton, retention bonuses also known as 'stay bonuses' — a one-time lump sum payment offered by a company to an employee as an incentive to stay with the company — are a crucial in solving prison staffing issues, both correctional and medical. The retention pay adds between 10% and 25% to an employee’s salary. An entry level correction officer at a federal institution earns just $49,739 annually, even at maximum-security facilities. [...] Council of Prison Locals 33 National President Brandy Moore White reverberated the importance of retention bonuses. [...[ Moore said stay bonuses 'has been the only mechanism to recruit and retain individuals over the last year' and reiterated that prison employees 'are working in extremely difficult and understaffed conditions.' She added that taking away the retention bonus was 'not just a financial blow' but a 'blow to morale.'" [Morning Journal, 3/10/25]
February 2025: Trump Administration Laid Off Roughly 40 VA Employees In Ohio. According to WKYC, "The U.S. Department of Veterans has terminated more than 1,000 workers as part of the Trump administration's wide-ranging cuts across the federal government. Sources confirm to 3News that roughly 40 of those employees were from the multistate region that includes Cleveland and nearly all of Ohio. The firings impacted probationary employees, or people in a non-bargaining position 'who have served less than a year in a competitive service appointment or who have served less than two years in an excepted service appointment.' The VA claims this will save the department $98 million a year, money they say will be reallocated back to health care services for veterans." [WKYC, 2/18/25]
March 2025: Trump Administration Fired Dayton VA Worker Who Helped Order Food For Medical Center. According to the Dayton Daily News, “Carly Risenhoover-Peterson was 28 days from her first anniversary of employment with the Dayton VA Medical Center when she received a Feb. 24 email from the Veterans Affairs Office of the Chief Human Capital Officer. The email's message: Her employment with the VA was at an end. ‘I took a $20,000-a-year pay cut to leave a contractor's position and return to civil service because I felt that was where I could make a bigger difference,’ Risenhoover-Peterson told the Dayton Daily News. [...] Risenhoover-Peterson said her initial feelings were ‘Worry for my service, worry for the veterans we serve. At nutrition and food services, we had a vacancy rate such that people were already covering additional duties and keeping plates spinning and were under a lot of pressure.’ She added, ‘It really was bigger than me.’ Her job title was ‘program support assistant.’ She handled timecards for up to 90 people, tracked schedules and attendance, handled digitization of files, handled access and receptionist duties. She ordered bread so patients could have sandwiches, assisted with hiring and more.” [Dayton Daily News, 3/6/25]
February 2025: Two Cleveland VA Mental-Health Professionals Were Fired Despite Having Patients Scheduled For Appointments The Next Day. According to News 5 Cleveland WEWS, "While the VA won’t confirm the impact of the layoffs in Ohio, a Cleveland VA employee who wishes to remain anonymous emailed us with information. They said two psychometrists at the Cleveland VA were fired by email at approximately 4:22 p.m. on Monday. 'Their supervisors did not know they were going to be fired. They were probationary employees,' they wrote. Psychometrists facilitate psychological testing and can treat patients with various cognitive or mental health issues. Those employees often conduct testing for neuropsychology, helping to provide clarification on neurological disorders for veterans and to identify areas of cognitive impairment. 'The staff fired had patients scheduled the next day. This is a direct impact to veteran healthcare and needs to be spread. [Elon] Musk and others act as though critical roles are not being cut within the VA but that is not the case,' they said." [News 5 Cleveland WEWS, 2/27/25]