The beginning of a new fiscal quarter has Missoula-area nonprofit and government organizations reckoning with more rounds of federal spending cuts by the Trump administration.

In March, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced more than $1 billion in cuts to food aid programs, including around $500 million to help food banks stock their pantries. The Missoula Food Bank and Community Center announced this week that it anticipates the cut will reduce the center’s funding by $180,000. Federal funding comprises about a fifth of the center’s overall budget.

Missoula Food Bank executive director Amy Allison told KPAX that while the center will still be able to feed people, it will need to make tough decisions about its priorities at a time when hunger is on the rise locally.

“Ultimately, those cuts will really end up being about a reduction in 91,000 pounds of food, which is around $180,000 that we’ll really need to make up for because we continue to see rising demand in our community and are seeing unprecedented numbers on a regular basis in our store and in the rest of our programs,” she told the outlet.

USDA says the programs, which were created under the Biden administration, “no longer effectuate the goals of the agency,” per reporting from Reuters and POLITICO.

At Missoula County, the feds have pulled two grants supporting three staffers, county Chief Administrative Officer Chris Lounsbury told the Missoulian.

The first grant, $1 million from the Environmental Protection Agency, funded a program that helped finance energy efficiency upgrades to homes, with the goal of lowering utility bills and facilitating a transition to renewable energy.

The second grant comprised $1.8 million to fund six community healthcare workers at Partnership Health Center, All Nations Health Center and Missoula Public Health. The organizations are determined to find ways to support these positions with other funds, they told the Missoulian.

Back in Washington, D.C., the Trump administration has also laid off the entire staff of the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which helps low-income families pay heating and cooling bills. LIHEAP works by giving eligible homeowners one-time payments to defray energy costs. It’s especially important, of course, during Montana’s harsh winters. About 40,000 people applied for assistance in winter of 2023 in Missoula, Ravalli and Mineral counties, the Missoula-based Human Resource Council told NBC Montana last year.

The council’s director was not immediately available for comment on the effects of the cuts. But an official with the National Energy Assistance Directors Association told The New York Times that the cuts to the $4.1 billion program jeopardize its core mission.

“They fired everybody, there’s nobody left to do anything,” association executive director Mark Wolfe told the Times. “Either this was incredibly sloppy, or they intend to kill the program altogether.”

Missoula judge stalls ‘bathroom bill’

A Missoula district court judge issued an order Wednesday temporarily blocking enforcement of Montana’s so-called bathroom bill, a new law effectively restricting transgender Montanans’ access to public bathrooms and locker rooms.

The ACLU of Montana filed suit against the law on behalf of a variety of public employee plaintiffs almost immediately after the law, House Bill 121, was signed.

Writing Wednesday, Judge Shane Vannatta said the plaintiffs have demonstrated the merits of their equal protection and right to privacy claims and established that they are “likely to suffer irreparable harm in the absence of a temporary restraining order.”

In very simple terms, a temporary restraining order is one of several kinds of restraining orders or injunctions that a court can use to prevent something from happening. In this case, in recognition of the possibility of immediate harm, it blocks enforcement of the law on a temporary basis. Meanwhile, the court is considering a separate motion from the plaintiffs for a preliminary injunction, a longer-term order that would preserve the status quo while the entirety of the case makes its way through the court.

In Wednesday’s order, Vannatta wrote that the law was “motivated by animus and supported by no evidence that its restrictions advance its purported purpose to protect women’s safety and privacy.”

Public institutions in the state had already taken steps to comply with the law. The University of Montana, for example, removed “all gender” signs from seven on-campus restrooms following a directive from the state commissioner of higher education effectuating the new law.

University spokesperson Dave Kuntz told the Missoulian that the University of Montana will still make changes to restroom signs pursuant to the commissioner’s order.

The ledger #️⃣

$1.5M

The approximate combined value of three Missoula school levies that voters will consider in May. Missoula County Public Schools Board of Trustees voted last week to place three levies on the May special election ballot: $384,947 for elementary school operations, $164,315 for high school operations and $1 million for high school safety.

The week ahead 🗓️

On Monday, April 7, the Missoula City Council will take a final vote on a petition to rezone three parcels at the corner of N. California Street and River Road, where the property owner envisions a mixed-use development that could include 235 dwelling units, 245 parking spaces and 8,500 square feet of commercial space.

Find a list of all upcoming city meetings here and county meetings here.