King County officials warn federal staff layoffs and new grant conditions are delaying projects, join suit to block conditions

Dwight Dively, director of the Office of Performance Strategy and Budget, told the King County Health, Housing and Human Services Committee on May 6 that threats to federal grants and widespread federal staff layoffs are already disrupting local projects and services and that the county joined litigation challenging new grant conditions.

Dively said the county is facing three categories of federal risk: 1) federal grants already approved but the administration attempting to stop funding; 2) funds appropriated that require new or renewed contracts but are being conditioned on compliance with presidential executive orders; and 3) deep domestic discretionary cuts proposed in the president’s federal budget. He said the county and partner jurisdictions filed a challenge in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington seeking a temporary restraining order on the new conditions for certain continuums-of-care and Federal Transit Administration funds.

Why it matters: Dively said legal wins have restored some threatened awards, but programmatic disruptions persist because essential federal…