Today's Headlines: WA hospitals, SNAP, WA Braille Library all sound alarms on federal, state cuts

Proposed cuts to the Medicaid program could have devastating effects on the state’s health care system, according to the Washington State Hospital Association.

CEO Cassie Sauer said on a call with reporters Thursday that a bill approved this week by the House Energy and Commerce Committee does more than eliminate waste in the federal Medicaid program.

"There are massive cuts contained in this bill and will result in millions of people in America losing health coverage and closure of hospital services, clinics and, potentially, whole hospitals," Sauer said.

She estimated Washington hospitals will collect 700 million fewer dollars next year to cover the cost of caring for Medicaid patients.

Sauer said the bill also contains provisions that require work, community service or job training for Medicaid recipients.

"What the states that have done work requirements have found is that people don’t lose coverage because they’re not eligible, because they’re not working," she said. "They lose coverage because they can’t make it through the bureaucracy and the frequency of verification."

The association says the full House could vote on the bill that contains Medicaid cuts by late next week and then send it to the Senate.

Washington Attorney General Nick Brown attended oral arguments at the U.S. Supreme Court on whether nationwide injunctions blocking President Trump’s birthright citizenship ban should be allowed to stand while cases challenging the ban move forward.

Brown, who obtained one of the injunctions against the executive order, was in court Thursday alongside attorneys general from several other states. He spoke with KUOW after the hearing.

Brown said he was encouraged to hear many of the justices express “pretty explicitly that they thought the president’s order was unlawful and unconstitutional."

"It was great to be there," Brown said. "It was obviously a packed courthouse.”

He said the three hours of oral argument were unusual for the court.

“You could see the justices really struggle with the issue about the scope and propriety of nationwide injunctions in general, and then specifically in this case,” Brown said.

He said concern over the increasing use of nationwide injunctions by individual judges “is not a partisan issue.”

But Brown said they are necessary in this situation. “In this particular case I think the absurdity of the argument was really laid bare,” he said, given that babies born to people who are undocumented immigrants or visiting the U.S. on temporary visas could lose their right to citizenship depending on the state where they’re born.

According to the Washington Post, the Trump administration "asked the justices to limit the nationwide orders to the individuals or states involved in the litigation while those cases make their way through the court system, or to at least allow the relevant federal agencies to begin developing plans and issuing public guidance for banning birthright citizenship if Trump’s effort eventually passes legal muster."

Brown said he makes no prediction on how the U.S. Supreme Court will rule on the use of these nationwide injunctions. But he did offer three takeaways from oral arguments:

1. “Justice Alito, viewed as probably the most conservative justice on the court — or he and Justice Thomas certainly – he was also clearly struggling with the Department of Justice’s arguments because I think he recognized that no matter what, they’re going to end up back here in front of the Supreme Court. At one point he said, 'What is the point of what you’re doing here? Why are we having this debate on this case rather than on the merits at the heart of the issue.' To hear Justice Alito voice a lot of skepticism about that surprised me.”
2. “Justice Sotomayor made an analogy to the Second Amendment and protections for gun owners in America and said, ‘What if President Biden or any other president had come in and said all firearms are illegal and Americans can’t possess them.' Are you arguing that the only way we would get relief on that is if individual gun owners brought their cases to district courts or in some sort of class action, rather than a nationwide injunction to protect the Second Amendment? And the Department of Justice tried to defend such an argument; they argued that it could be done quickly, and gun owners would get relief quickly. But I think that really gets to the heart of what is kind of a silly argument, you just change the subject area.”
3. “Then there were a couple moments when the Department of Justice would not say unequivocally that they would abide by circuit court rulings on this issue or others. Because their argument was essentially that this needed to work its way through the courts and the circuits and Justices Kagan and Sotomayor and Barrett all sort of asked, ‘Will you follow if the Second Circuit weighed in on this issue against you?’ And [Solicitor General John Sauer] said, ‘Well, generally we would,’ but not unequivocally. So that to me was pretty surprising to hear the Department of Justice hedge their argument on whether they’d follow a circuit court, but that is sort of the logical extension of what they’re saying.”

Brown said the challenge to Trump's executive order filed by Washington state and joined by three other states is scheduled to go before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in June. U.S. District Judge John Coughenour in Seattle was the first federal judge to block an executive order by the second Trump administration.

Meanwhile the U.S. Supreme Court, according to Scotusblog, “will almost certainly act on the government’s request in this case before its summer recess, which usually begins at the end of June or the beginning of July.”

Officials at Washington's Talking Book and Braille Library say they should know in a few weeks what the impacts will be from state budget cuts.

Legislators rejected a $6.7-million request to fund that library and the Washington State Library.

The Talking Book and Braille library serves 8 thousand patrons a day. It offers Braille books, audiobooks and magazines to anyone in the state who has difficulty reading standard print.

Regional Director Danielle Miller said the library is critically important.

"People with print disabilities have access to about 7-10% of the published material. So it's really important that we do this work to make more books accessible," she told KUOW public radio.

Miller said the library is working on a fundraising effort to help offset some of the state budget cuts.

But officials also say that the lack of state funding could mean layoffs and cuts in service.

A Spokane non-profit that provides services to people with low incomes is warning proposed federal budget cuts may harm its ability to help its clients.

Leaders at Spokane Neighborhood Action Partners say they’re especially worried about plans to eliminate a program that funds services like emergency home repairs program.

"Spokane and Spokane County have said what they need is to make sure that the existing housing stock is well maintained and is stable for low- and moderate-income people. So that's how SNAP uses those funds is to assist families who are of modest means to maintain their housing," John Hoover, SNAP’s director of housing and services, said.

SNAP said this community grant program also funds housing-related financial assistance and counseling.

Hoover told SPR News that federal officials have also proposed eliminating the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program.

That provides funding for the group’s home weatherization projects.

Now, SNAP officials say they want to mobilize community members to contact congressional representatives in hopes of keeping the funding for these programs.

The judge overseeing the trial of the man accused of killing four University of Idaho students is asking for an investigation into the investigation.

Judge Steven Hippler says some of the information that aired in a recent episode of NBC’s Dateline should not have been public and likely came from someone who should have been bound by a gag order.

On Thursday, Hippler asked prosecutors to submit a list of people who had access to sensitive case materials as well as a written plan to prevent further leaks.

He’s also requested that both the prosecution and defense preserve all documents or communications related to the case.

The accused, Bryan Kohberger, could face the death penalty if convicted. Jury selection in the trial begins in late July.

Washington Governor Bob Ferguson signed a bill Thursday that could bring more money to the city of Spokane to create a new public safety dispatch center.

The new law allows the city to receive a greater share of a county tax levied on phone lines.

The tax partially pays for operations of the Spokane Regional Emergency Communications system.

"With this legislation, we will be equipped to develop the best possible emergency communications infrastructure, ensuring that anyone in the City of Spokane — whether they live, work, play or visit — receives the highest level of emergency response when they need it most,” Spokane Mayor Lisa said in a statement.

Negotiations to bring the city fully into the county system have not been successful, but the two sides plan to go to mediation soon to try to solve their differences.

Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson is getting a lot of outside opinions on how to proceed with the budget bills lawmakers sent to his desk.

Corporate interests like Tesla and Netflix want the governor to veto certain bills over the end of tax breaks on electric vehicle sales and new taxes on things like digital advertising and temporary staffing.

Many companies and organizations want Ferguson to ax the surcharge on companies that gross more than $250 million, including the Washington Hospitality Association and Washington Food Industry Association.

In an interview with the Washington State Standard and an address to the Thurston County Chamber of Commerce, Ferguson declined to provide any clues, saying he wants to “keep people guessing” and that “it’s a work in progress.”

The governor has until Tuesday to make his decisions.

If he chooses to veto a bill — or even part of a bill — that imperils the balance of the budget, lawmakers would be required to return to Olympia for a special session.

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Reporting by Doug Nadvornick, Amy Radil, Derek Wang and Owen Henderson.