As Congressional Republicans continue their push to cut $1.5 trillion from Medicaid and other critical services to pay for tax cuts, House committees are deliberating on some of the most contentious issues. Democrats, along with the AFL-CIO, SEIU and AFT, are actively opposing a wide range of harmful proposals emerging from these individual components of the reconciliation bill.  For example, labor unions have been urging members of the House Oversight and Reform Committee to support measures promoting government transparency and oversight, particularly regarding the unilateral agency budget and staffing reductions made by the so-called Department of Government Efficiency.

Federal funding cuts to State services will impact the vital public services that PEF members deliver and millions of New Yorkers rely upon. More than $90 billion of New York’s $254 billion budget is funded by federal money. In broad strokes, here is how just some of that money is allocated:

Medicaid $56 billion
Additional healthcare programs (ACA, etc.) $15 billion
Social welfare programs $5.5 billion
Education, museums, libraries $4.4 billion

 

In the midst of all this uncertainty, PEF President Wayne Spence at PEF’s March 2025 Executive Board meeting directed the union to come up with a Member Mobilization Plan to help counter the federal government’s actions. The plan reads, in part: “We must stand strong and work together in this fight to protect vital services and, potentially, our members’ jobs. Neither PEF nor its national affiliates have the power to stop any of these potential cuts. The work to save our members jobs and the services they provide will require action by individual members, their families and members in their communities.”

So how can every PEF member help? We’ve summarized a few high-impact ways in this Campaign Primer, but it comes down to this: Make. Some. Noise. Personal stories about the impact these cuts will have on the services PEF members provide and the New Yorkers who benefit from them are the best way to get noticed by the media and policymakers. The U.S. House of Representatives, currently controlled by Republicans, has the real power here to check the executive branch. The budgets that are being slashed by the president, after all, were just enacted by Congress in December 2024! So the quickest and easiest thing for every member to do is to contact their member of Congress. The House switchboard at (202) 224-3121 will direct you to your representative. You can also send a pre-written letter to your Congressman using our Action Network software. Click here to get started.

If you’d like to make a video like these telling Congress to “Stop the Cuts,” get in touch with PEF Communications at Comms@pef.org or just record the video, post it to your favorite social media platform, and tag any of the union’s social media accounts: Facebook, X, Instagram, and Bluesky.