“Can we get something going on Twitter in a short bit?” Senior Policy Strategist May Mailman asked several members of the White House communications team in an email late in the day on March 18. “Stephen request,” added Mailman, who works closely with Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller.

“POTUS wants to see more action against universities,” Mailman wrote. Administration officials raced to make it happen.

She CC’d Federal Acquisition Service Commissioner Josh Gruenbaum on the email chain, which included Communications Director Steven Cheung and Deputy Communications Directors Alex Pfeiffer and Kaelan Dorr, under the subject line: “Funding yanked from San Jose State + UPenn.” The administration had launched investigations into both campuses over trans athletes’ past participation in sports. (One of those investigations concluded in April, finding the University of Pennsylvania in violation of Title IX.)

NOTUS reviewed the full email chain, which surfaced in court documents in a case targeting DOGE’s funding freezes. The internal communications detail a push fueled by a desire to get media attention, as senior officials rushed to coordinate with various federal agencies, the DOGE teams within them and Fox News to deliver on the president’s wish.

The emails also show that the administration targeted San Jose State University in a previously unreported effort to punish the campus — even before the Title IX investigation into it had concluded.

“We specifically focused on San Jose State and U of Penn at the advice of some of the agencies involved in live investigations and the guidance that it was best to have ongoing investigations and incidents as rationale for the stop work, which is only at these two universities currently,” Gruenbaum wrote in the email chain.

Administration officials were attuned to the possibility of bad optics — particularly when funding cuts touched national security and public health.

“If you all deem we should turn this back on, we can do that immediately given criticality- it’s just a simple email given we didn’t terminate,” Gruenbaum wrote at one point. But ultimately, those concerns did not outweigh the White House’s desire to punish the schools, which it did within hours of Mailman’s first note.

The White House and San Jose State University did not respond to a detailed list of questions about the email chain and the funding cutoffs. A University of Pennsylvania spokesperson directed NOTUS to the campus’ past public statements.

In the following weeks and months, the White House would strip hundreds of millions of dollars from Brown, Cornell, Northwestern and Princeton.

The impacts of the administration’s pressure campaigns are ongoing. Harvard, which has seen billions of federal dollars withheld, is “probably going to settle,” Trump said on Saturday. Last week, Penn joined Columbia University in caving to the Trump administration’s demands, banning transgender athletes from participating on women’s sports teams as well as a series of other concessions, including a “personalized letter of apology to each impacted female swimmer.” In return, the administration unfroze the almost $175 million in funds it had pulled, a White House official confirmed to NOTUS.

Secretary of Education Linda McMahon called the resolution “the Trump effect in action.”

***

Two of these funding freezes began on March 18, with two bullet-pointed draft social media posts sent to the White House communications team.

“Today, we have paused ALL grant awards to San Jose State which continued to play a male athlete on the female volleyball team, including access to intimate, overnight spaces,” read the first draft post Mailman passed along, according to the internal email chain reviewed by NOTUS.

San Jose State had become the epicenter of the trans athlete debate after an online magazine outed Blaire Fleming, a member of the women’s volleyball team, prompting teams to forfeit matches against the university and lawsuits that targeted her eligibility to play.

Trump had taken an interest in the controversy during his 2024 campaign. At an all-women Fox News town hall, he brought up a viral video in which Fleming, an outside hitter, spiked a ball into an opposing player. “I never saw a ball hit so hard,” he marveled, vowing to “just ban” trans athletes from campus sports altogether. Anti-trans rhetoric had become a focus of his campaign.

(Keira Herron, the San Diego State player on the receiving end of the ball, later told The New York Times Magazine that “It was fine. … Everyone gets hit in volleyball.” Fleming said the season was “the darkest time in my life.”) In December, NCAA President Charlie Baker testified to senators that out of some 510,000 NCAA student-athletes, “less than 10” were transgender.

Mailman’s second draft post mirrored the first, this time announcing the pause of “tens of millions from UPenn” for having permitted a trans athlete to compete on the women’s swimming team years prior. The university receives roughly $1 billion annually in federal funding.

The government held significantly less leverage over San Jose State. Mailman noted that ending “all awards” to the campus meant “$100k of EPA funding,” and asked Gruenbaum to confirm if it was “paused or revoked?” Gruenbaum, from his perch inside the agency that directs federal contracting, acted as the White House’s point person between various agencies.

He was a more than willing partner. Gruenbaum left his post at a global investment firm to join the Trump administration, calling the president’s election and the formation of DOGE “this coming of everything I’ve been trying to put together,” in a profile that ran in Jewish Insider just a few days before the White House accelerated its war against higher education institutions. In it, he said he was brimming at the prospect of using the federal government’s leverage to combat antisemitism, along with cutting “lower-hanging fruit of some things in the DEI category or in the climate and sustainability category.”

The White House team peppered him with questions about the funding cutoffs.

“Are these from every single agency?” Pfeiffer asked. “What are the deets? Once confirmed— we can get a story in a major outlet.” Pfeiffer himself had worked as a White House correspondent for The Daily Caller during Trump’s first year in office — landing the role at just 20 and replacing Kaitlan Collins — before serving a four-year stint as a producer for Tucker Carlson at Fox News.

Gruenbaum explained that there was just one grant that would be paused at San Jose State, and it was for “healthy drinking water so up to you guys if you want to trumpet that.” He added that it was an Environmental Protection Agency grant, and that the agency was “concerned having their name in media but defer to you all…if going to print that will just give them a heads up, so Imk.”

Half an hour later, he wrote that he “Found another $1MM for San Jose St, stand by.”

By then, it was almost 5 p.m. Officials were growing impatient.

“Josh,” Mailman wrote back. “per Stephen, we need to get this on social media TODAY. Please no more piecemeal emails. Just one with clear bullet points on what’s being frozen/paused and from which agency. THANK YOU!!!”

“Yep you got it,” Gruenbaum replied. “I didn’t want you guys tweeting San Jose first before I cleaned up DHS and DoD hence the piecemeal, but understood.”

Gruenbaum, Mailman and Miller are all involved in the administration’s Task Force to Combat Antisemitism, which directed the stripping of $250 million from Columbia and launched investigations into the University of California system and Harvard University.

Over an hour later, Gruenbaum returned with the details of the funding cuts across the two universities, the specifics of which are reported here for the first time.

At San Jose State, “all” federal awards had been halted under stop-work orders, including a $17,400 Department of Defense contract and the $99,700 healthy drinking water study. A third award, this one with the Department of Homeland Security, raised red flags. The $977,000 contract was for “the terrorist and serious criminal database support.”

But exempting those funds from the stop work, Gruenbaum pointed out, would drop the San Jose State total from $1.093 million to around $120,000. Nobody on the email chain took him up on the offer to reverse the freezes.

There was, however, a problem with Gruenbaum’s math. The $977,000 figure was a theoretical maximum. Only $562,585 had actually been obligated to the university, and of that $448,796 had already been used, federal records show. The campus theoretically lost out on a maximum of $528,204, but the real number was likely closer to $113,789. Ultimately, the total punishment amounted to little more than a rounding error for a campus with a nearly half-billion-dollar annual budget.

At Penn, seven contracts were terminated. Six of them, worth a collective $26.5 million, had been awarded by the DOD and deemed “non-mission critical.” Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth had approved, Gruenbaum noted.

The remaining award was a $146.3 million Department of Health and Human Services IDIQ contract — a type of open-ended contract that other orders are drawn from. At the time of termination, only one task order had been drawn from the massive pool of money: an “animal infectious disease study,” according to Gruenbaum.

Penn President J. Larry Jameson would later say that terminating the funds would impact “research on preventing hospital-acquired infections, drug screening against deadly viruses, quantum computing, protections against chemical warfare, and student loan programs.” Jameson had only officially been Penn’s president for a few days at that point, after serving as interim president.

***

In early February, three former Penn swimmers filed a federal lawsuit against the university and the NCAA for having allowed Lia Thomas, a transgender student, to compete years earlier. The following day, Trump signed the executive order “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports.

The day after the bill signing, Trump’s Department of Education opened its Title IX investigations into Penn, San Jose State and the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association, despite the college athletes at the center of the administration’s ire having concluded their final seasons long before. The administration gave Fox News the exclusive.

“This is NOT the result of the Title IX investigation,” Mailman wrote to Pfeiffer in March. “UPenn and San Jose State are still at risk of losing all of their federal education program funds because of those investigations. This is immediate action to review discretionary funding streams to those universities. Early action!!” Versions of that statement, attributed to an unnamed official, would later appear in coverage of the funding pause.

Pfeiffer replied he would “get this out shortly.” The focus, he said, would be on Penn “since it is a nice big number.” There were still concerns about canceling the DHS grant at San Jose State.

Mailman asked about San Jose State’s absence from the draft.

“If the premise is we want to show we are on top of it — I think the big 175 million number to a known university will make that splash,” Pfeiffer wrote. “I can get San Jose State out separately post UPenn.” Pfeiffer pushed the announcement to the following morning to avoid an already crowded news cycle. The staffers wrapped their work a little after 9 p.m., less than five hours after Mailman first pinged the communications team.

***

At 8 a.m. on March 19, Fox Business, part of Pfeiffer’s old stomping grounds, flashed a breaking news alert. The president’s desire for “more action” became a reality.

“President Trump has promised to protect female athletes, he has threatened to rip federal funding away from any university that defies his executive order banning biological males from infiltrating women’s sports, and he is doing it,” Fox Business’ Hillary Vaughn said on air.

“We are the first to report,” Vaughn continued, looking down to read from her phone as she spoke. “President Trump has paused $175 million in federal funding from the University of Pennsylvania over its controversial policies.” The language largely mirrored the communications team’s draft statement.

The word “approximately,” which appeared in the administration’s draft statement to couch the fact that the White House had actually paused $172.8 million, did not make it onto Fox. Most other major outlets would also report the $175 million total without any such caveat.

“UPenn is still at risk of losing all of their federal education program funds because of those investigations,” the White House draft statement read.

“The university is still at risk of losing all its federal funding as a result of the ongoing Title IX investigation…” Vaughn said on air. After she wrapped, various Fox personalities took turns lauding the decision.

The announcement completely blindsided Penn.

The campus that day said it was “aware of media reports” that it had just lost out on $175 million, but had “not yet received any official notification or any details.” Penn insisted it “has always followed NCAA and Ivy League policies.”

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Cupertino, in collaboration with VTA and Caltrans, can move forward with the Interstate 280 and Wolfe Road interchange improvement project thanks to a roughly $4 million donation from Apple to bridge the remaining funding gap. The $124-million project was nearly canceled this month due to a funding shortfall. The city and transit agency had exhausted state and federal grant opportunities. But with Apple’s contribution, Cupertino can save the project and mitigate traffic gridlock as hundreds of homes come online.

The interchange lies between Apple’s headquarters and The Rise, a housing development designed for 2,669 apartments at the former Vallco Mall site.

The project is primarily funded by VTA’s Measure B, a 30-year, half-cent sales tax increase voters passed in 2016. Planned improvements to the interchange include a new structure that carries Wolfe Road over Interstate 280, on and off ramps, sound and retaining walls and upgraded bicycle lanes and pedestrian walkways at existing street intersections. Construction is anticipated to begin in 2026 and is slated to finish by 2029.

Kristina Raspe, Apple vice president of global real estate and facilities, said the company is happy to back the project’s plans for an interchange adjacent to its headquarters. Some of the Apple money was originally intended for other projects, including the McClellan Road protected bikeway improvements, but the tech titan reallocated it to fund the interchange after the city deemed the previous projects no longer feasible.

“We are proud to call Cupertino home, and to support projects that strengthen this community and make it a great place to live and work,” Raspe told San José Spotlight.

The project began nearly 10 years ago. The interchange is at the end of its useful life as a product of the 1960s, according to city reports. It’s often congested with significant delays. City officials expect it will worsen as more people move into Cupertino to live in housing developments like The Rise. Developer Sand Hill Property Company has supported the interchange project since it’s been in the works.

Councilmember Sheila Mohan has been stuck in the gridlock at the interchange many times. She said the interchange improvements will help anyone who travels Cupertino’s streets.

“It’s a really win-win, not just for Apple, but for the entire community,” Mohan told San José Spotlight. “It’s, in my opinion, the best example of public, private partnership.”

VTA was unavailable for comment.

The transit agency is also working on traffic improvements to other West Valley roadways including Highway 17 near Los Gatos.

Seema Lindskog, board chair of pedestrian and bicycle safety group Walk-Bike Cupertino, is looking forward to the project because of how dangerous the existing intersections are. She often advises high schoolers walking or biking to school to avoid Wolfe Road, but said she doesn’t want that to be the case.

“It’s been kind of on the shelf for a long time, so the fact that we’re now finally able to move forward with it is really great,” Lindskog told San José Spotlight.

Contact Annalise Freimarck at annalise@sanjosespotlight.com or follow @annalise_ellen on X.

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The Senate reconciliation bill would cut $186 billion from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) over the next decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office. It would be the largest cut in the program’s history. SNAP, known as CalFresh in California, provides low income families a stipend every month for groceries. The cuts would push the onus on states to shoulder some benefit costs—a departure from how the program traditionally has worked—and impose work requirements on certain adults. The bill is now with the House of Representatives for a final vote before reaching Trump’s desk.

In Santa Clara County, where CalFresh participation is at its highest level in the past decade, these cuts would mean some families could lose their benefits if the state can’t fill in the gap. Overall, cuts to food stamps, Medi-Cal, housing vouchers and more could cost Santa Clara County up to $1 billion in federal funding.

“The bill proposes changes to eligibility that will make it harder for families to access benefits while also shifting a significant portion of costs to states—costs that are simply untenable for state and local governments to absorb,” County Executive James Williams told San José Spotlight. “Food is essential to survival…we are profoundly concerned about what these unprecedented cuts mean for so many families in our community, and we are continuing to evaluate impacts to our community.”

As of last July, the federally funded food assistance program has more than 130,000 individuals receiving food stamps in the county, almost double what it was in 2019, according to CalFresh data.

Some 5.3 million Californians in 2024 received an average of $189 per month in food stamps, totaling $12 billion. Trump’s bill would cut the state’s CalFresh’s funding down between $5.4 billion to $2.8 billion, resulting in more than 735,000 people losing their benefits, according to the governor’s office.

Traditionally, the federal government covered food stamp benefits while costs of administering the program is shared by counties, states and the federal government. This formula works since the federal government can operate at a deficit and print money when needed, unlike state governments.

Fullwell Executive Director Eli Zigas operates a Bay Area nonprofit that creates policies to tackle food insecurity in the state. He said requiring states to cover anywhere from 5% to 25% of the benefits means cuts are inevitable.

“The federal government is walking away from its commitment to fully fund this program, and they’re pushing some of the costs onto the states without really caring whether the states can handle it,” Zigas told San José Spotlight. “Or they know that the states can’t handle it, and therefore they’ll see a reduction in the number of people receiving assistance.”

California provides assistance

While the federal government continues to pare back money for these vital resources, the California Legislature is trying to bolster some programs in a difficult budget year. Included in the state’s budget for this new fiscal year is $36 million for the CalFresh Fruit and Vegetable Program, a pilot program which allows people with EBT cards to receive instant rebates up to $60 a month when buying produce at select grocery stores.

“It’s more money than the program’s ever received,” Zigas said. “It’s an example of California providing some money to boost the safety net, but the magnitude of the SNAP cuts dwarfs that.”

The state also added $60 million for CalFood, a program that allows food banks to purchase California-grown foods for the communities they serve. Many food banks use these dollars to buy more expensive items like eggs.

“We are incredibly grateful to the governor and legislature for the $60 million in CalFood, which will help food banks serve over 6 million Californians each month,” Itzúl Gutierrez, senior policy advocate with the California Association of Food Banks, told San José Spotlight. “However, if these devastating cuts to SNAP in the Budget Reconciliation bill get passed, food banks will not be able to fill the gap. For every meal that a food bank provides, SNAP provides nine,” Gutierrez said.

During times of food insecurity, families turn to food banks for assistance—and food banks will see longer lines as people lose CalFresh benefits. However, food banks are already being stretched to the limit.

Second Harvest of Silicon Valley serves approximately 500,000 people a month in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties — the same number as during the height of the pandemic. Prior to that, the food bank served 250,000 people every month through food distributions and grocery programs.

“In our two counties alone, people receive about 32 million in benefits (from CalFresh) a month,” Second Harvest CEO Leslie Bacho told San José Spotlight. “So those are dollars that people are spending in our local grocery stores. And so the cuts will have an impact, not just on individuals, but also on our local economy.

“Editor’s note: A previous version of this story included lower projected cuts prior to the passing of the ‘Big Beautiful Bill’.

Contact Joyce Chu at joyce@sanjosespotlight.com or @joyce_speaks on X. 

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California lawmakers are among those who are most relieved that they narrowly avoided this provision getting tucked into the legislation. The AI provision would have disproportionately affected California, where most advanced AI labs like OpenAI and Anthropic are located and legislators are eager to regulate the new technology given its prominence in the tech industry.

“Congress finally came to its senses and voted overwhelmingly to remove the AI moratorium provision,” California state Sen. Josh Becker, a lawmaker who has pushed for regulation of AI in California, told NOTUS in a statement.

“In the absence of a strong federal standard, states must retain the flexibility to advance AI in ways that do not compromise safety, privacy, or the rights of our residents,” he wrote.

Even after several rewrites to comply with Senate procedural rules and concessions to appease opponents, the provision, led by Sen. Ted Cruz, was ultimately cut by a vote of 99-1. Cruz’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina was the only one to vote against cutting it.

Proponents of the provision said it was important to include in the reconciliation package to avoid a patchwork of different laws across states. Opponents of the provision said it would take power away from the states and block them from passing regulation that could protect their residents.

South Bay, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan wants to explore creating incentives for AI companies to move or expand in the city. He wants to research opportunities to make city services more efficient and accessible through AI.

The city has been integrating the technology into every day government services to improve the lives of residents. Mahan along with other city officials are using it to identify problems and strategize solutions. San Jose is already using AI to optimize public transit, translate languages, review documents and find street issues like potholes, graffiti, broken street lights, illegal dumping and more — all before they’re noticed by residents.

California’s state legislature has advanced several pieces of legislation intended to regulate AI. And several state legislators petitioned Congress in May to strike down the provision.

State Sen. Aisha Wahab — who represents Silicon Valley — said in a statement that the AI provision would have been detrimental to California and that it is important to “balance necessary guardrails while encouraging innovation.”

“Technology evolves at a faster pace than we can legislate, and an AI moratorium would have stifled California’s ability to establish necessary oversight of AI and all the technologies it is embedded in,” Wahab added.

State Sen. Tom Umberg, who like Wahab signed onto the letter asking Congress to strike down the provision, told NOTUS the Senate’s decision would allow the legislature to attend to their constituents.

“We are pleased that California will have the ability to create its own regulatory framework to advance the benefits of Artificial Intelligence while simultaneously mitigating the risks to protect all Californians,” Umber told NOTUS in a statement.

Rep. Ami Bera, a California Democrat, told NOTUS he welcomed the Senate’s decision to leave it out of the package, adding that Congress now needs to work on providing clear guardrails for AI.

“We can’t have a patchwork of 50 different AI laws and regulations. Congress needs to do its job, create a federal regulatory framework and pass sensible and bipartisan AI regulations,” Bera said.

Some federal lawmakers in Congress who supported the AI provision said having different regulations for each state amounted to a commercial obstacle. Others argued it gave the federal government too much power.

Sen. Josh Hawley, a Republican critic of the provision, wrote on X that the Senate’s decision was a “big victory for parents, kids and workers.”

Sen. Marsha Blackburn, another Republican opponent of the provision, said on the Senate floor Tuesday morning that Congress has been unable to regulate AI effectively and that in the meantime the issue should be left to the states.

“This body has proven that it cannot legislate on emerging technology. It is frustrating,” Blackburn said. “There are all of these pieces of legislation dealing with AI and we haven’t passed them. You know who has passed them? It is our states.”

The Senate and House still need to finalize the language of the reconciliation bill before it heads to President Donald Trump’s desk for signing. But back in the House, where the reconciliation package originally passed with the AI moratorium provision, there’s also some pushback.

Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene said last month that she regretted voting for the provision in the reconciliation bill, writing on X that the measure violated states’ rights.

California Rep. Luz Rivas, who introduced an amendment in May to cut the provision from the House reconciliation bill, told NOTUS in a statement that the federal government needs to collaborate with states on this issue as AI becomes more prevalent in American life.

“We should be learning from how states address current and new challenges from Artificial Intelligence systems, not blocking their progress and their ability to innovate,” Rivas said. “We must continue to ensure that all levels of government are able to address current and future challenges emerging technologies like AI can pose.”

Samuel Larreal is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow. This story was produced as part of a partnership between NOTUS and San José Spotlight

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The California Transportation Commission awarded two grants to the BART expansion project on Thursday and Friday, totaling about $100 million. At the same time, the VTA board of directors has approved recommendations to look for a different contractor to bore the expansion’s 5-mile tunnel, hoping to save on the expensive contract.

While VTA representatives are excited about the funding, the public transit agency still needs to find millions in savings on the $12.75 billion project. Estimates show the funding gap to be between $700 million and $1 billion, even with a $5.1 billion federal funding commitment.

VTA Board Chair and Campbell Mayor Sergio Lopez said he’s glad the grants were fulfilled at the requested amounts, especially as agency officials discuss ways to cut costs.

“I know oftentimes at the city level, even getting partially funded for some of these grants is positive, so it speaks to the importance of this project for the region,” Lopez told San José Spotlight. “It’s definitely welcomed, but we’re going to continue having (discussions) where we take a big picture look at every level of cost savings, as we’ve been doing.”

Construction has already begun at the Newhall Maintenance Yard on the border of San Jose and Santa Clara, where Kiewit Shea Traylor is building the launch structure for the tunnel boring machine. The VTA board approved plans to keep Kiewit Shea Traylor on to finish the launch structure, but to look for another contractor to bore the tunnel.

VTA officials said they negotiated with Kiewit Shea Traylor for about 18 months, but their prices were nearly twice what VTA could afford. Tom Maguire, VTA chief megaprojects delivery officer, said the agency spoke with other possible contractors and heard multiple cost estimates well below Kiewit Shea Traylor’s offer.

Suds Jain, a VTA board member and Santa Clara councilmember, said he feels the decision to cut the contract should have been made earlier, when the public transit agency’s negotiations team knew Kiewit Shea Traylor wouldn’t come down.

Jain said the agency needs to look at bigger cost savings, such as a smaller tunnel size, because of the large funding gap.

“We can’t apply to the feds until we have all the money. We have to prove we can build the project and in my opinion, I personally can’t see that we have the money,” Jain told San José Spotlight. “It’s good news, but I don’t think it’s enough for us to build the 54-foot tunnel.”

It’s unclear how large the project’s funding gap is now, as VTA has adjusted elements to bring the cost lower, such as changing parking lots and designs. Officials estimate those cuts could total about $400 million in savings.

They don’t have an estimate on how much can be saved by cutting the contract with Kiewit Shea Traylor, since it’ll depend on the cost of the new contract. Finding another contractor will delay groundbreaking on the tunnel by about 18 months, though officials said they’re looking for ways to save time during construction — aiming to maintain the expansion’s 2037 expected opening.
Monica Mallon, a transit activist and San José Spotlight columnist, said the state grant shows momentum and commitment from VTA officials and the state. She said the awarded money is especially important given concerns around federal funding cuts to other services and the administration’s hostility against California and transit projects.

“What gives me a lot of hope is that it’s very clear that our elected officials and everyone working on the project still really care about moving the project forward and getting funding,” Mallon told San José Spotlight. “(The grants) show the state is committed to the project and wants to see it move forward, and has confidence that VTA will be able to deliver it.”

Contact B. Sakura Cannestra at sakura@sanjosespotlight.com or @SakuCannestra on X.

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About two dozen protesters from the Solidarity and Unity Network (SUN) rallied in front of Robert F. Peckham Federal Building in San Jose on Thursday to speak out against the bill, which has passed the House and is being debated in the Senate. Baked into the bill are deep cuts to programs the poorest people rely on, including Medicaid, known as Medi-Cal in California, food stamps, housing vouchers and more. Protesters waved signs that said “ICE out of San Jose,” “Stop War,” and “No Big Ugly Bill” as they chanted “Stand up, fight back.”

SUN is made of two dozen groups representing a myriad of issues including Amigos de Guadalupe, Asian Law Alliance, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Jewish Voice for Peace South Bay, Laborers Local 270, Latinas Contra Cancer, Services Immigrant Rights and Education Network and more.

“If you take each one of our values, we can honestly say that Trump is working against all of those values,” Richard Hobbs, a lead organizer with SUN, told San José Spotlight. “It’s not about democracy for him, or equity or cooperation or kindness or sustainability. This bill incorporates a lot of the backsliding in our nation that we can’t afford.”

The budget proposals advancing through Congress could cost Santa Clara County up to $70 million. Trump wants Congress to work out the details of the bill to get it on his desk to sign by July 4.

The House version of the bill would slash health care programs by about $1 trillion over the next decade and require certain adults on Medi-Cal to work 80 hours a month to maintain health insurance. Due to the changes proposed to the Affordable Care Act marketplace and Medi-Cal, nearly 11 million people could lose health insurance, estimates the Congressional Budget Office. In California, about 1.7 million more people could be uninsured.

Medi-Cal represents roughly $1.9 billion in funding received by Santa Clara County this year. The county receives that money through reimbursements for patient care at county hospitals. It costs the county $4 billion, or $33%, from its $12 billion budget to run the hospitals. Half of the county hospital system’s patients pay through Medi-Cal.

“In Santa Clara County, one-third of our budget comes from the federal government,” San Jose State University professor emeritus Scott Myers-Lipton said at the rally. “The Trump cut in Medicaid will lead to even longer wait times here in Silicon Valley and an increase in infant mortality.”

Food insecurity would also rise under the bill, which would cut the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) by nearly $300 billion over the next nine years, according to the Congressional Budget Office. That’s expected to lead to more than 7 million people losing or significantly reducing their food stamp benefits. Some parents would be required to work 80 hours a month to qualify, and it would require states to shoulder between 5% and 25% of the costs.

In Santa Clara County, participation in CalFresh is already at its highest level in a decade. As of last July, the federally funded food assistance program has more than 130,000 individuals receiving food stamps in the county, according to CalFresh data.

“We know when our children are hungry, they cannot learn,” Misrayn Mendoza with Amigos de Guadalupe said. “This is a health issue too, since food insecurity is linked to increased risk of diet related disease. SNAP helps low income households afford healthier diets.”
The bill would also shift more wealth to the highest income earners, while those at the bottom will experience the greatest loss. People at the top 10% would see their incomes increase by an additional $12,000, while the lowest 10% would see their resources decrease by about $1,600 annually due to cuts in Medi-Cal and SNAP, according to Congressional Budget Office estimates. Those in the middle income bracket will experience a slight bump in income by $500 to $1,000.

“Let’s be clear, this money is not just disappearing. It’s being stolen,” Darcie Green, executive director of Latinas Contra Cancer, said. “Stolen by corrupt politicians to line the pockets of their billionaire friends.”

Contact Joyce Chu at joyce@sanjosespotlight.com or @joyce_speaks on X.

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Contractors have been working in the yard 22 hours a day since June 9 pulling bentonite — a clay-like material — from more than 80 feet below ground and installing reinforced concrete to create a launch structure for the tunnel boring machine. The agency plans to use a single-bore tunnel for the 5-mile stretch beneath downtown San Jose.

VTA began preparations April 2024 on the 6-mile expansion, which includes a 5-mile underground tunnel and four new stations across San Jose and Santa Clara. The cost is tagged at $12.75 billion.

@sanjosespotlight

The whir and thunks of heavy equipment hauling clay and soil from underground could be heard throughout the Newhall Maintenance Yard on Monday, as VTA begins construction on the BART expansion through Silicon Valley. Contractors have been working in the yard 22 hours a day since June 9 pulling bentonite — a clay-like material — from more than 80 feet below ground and installing reinforced concrete to create a launch structure for the tunnel boring machine. The agency plans to use a single-bore tunnel for the 5-mile stretch beneath downtown San Jose. VTA began preparations April 2024 on the 6-mile expansion, which includes a 5-mile underground tunnel and four new stations across San Jose and Santa Clara. The cost is tagged at $12.75 billion. The initial work, including the launch station, is being done by Kiewit Shea Traylor. But the BART Silicon Valley Phase II Oversight Committee has approved recommendations to find another contractor for the tunnel boring, after the agency and Kiewit Shea Traylor couldn’t agree on a price. The VTA board of directors will consider the recommendation at its meeting Thursday. Read the full story at SanJoseSpotlight.com. #VTA #BART #transit #sanjose #siliconvalley

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The initial work, including the launch station, is being done by Kiewit Shea Traylor. But the BART Silicon Valley Phase II Oversight Committee has approved recommendations to find another contractor for the tunnel boring, after the agency and Kiewit Shea Traylor couldn’t agree on a price. The VTA board of directors will consider the recommendation at its meeting Friday.

Tom Maguire, VTA chief megaprojects delivery officer, said they don’t have a specific dollar amount on how much the agency could save, but VTA has spoken with 10 other potential contractors and heard multiple cost estimates well below Kiewit Shea Traylor’s offer.

“The prices we’ve seen from the current contractor are nearly double our budget, we just can’t work with those,” Maguire said at a news conference.

The public transit agency has been looking for more ways to save after being awarded a $5.1 billion federal grant in August 2024. While the grant will cover about 40% of the project’s costs, it still leaves VTA with a roughly $1 billion gap.

Maguire added the agency has already found about $400 million in savings through design cuts, such as modifying the four stations’ designs and converting expensive parking structures to surface lots.

Despite looking toward changing contractors, VTA Director of Construction Sarah Wilson confirmed the launch structure that’s being built will be used regardless of who takes on the project.

“We want them to install this launch structure and we fully intend to use it,” Wilson said.

Wilson said it could take about two years to finish building the launch structure. Construction goes from 6 a.m. to 4 a.m., and she said the agency is looking for approval from San Jose and Santa Clara to extend work hours to a full 24-hour cycle.

The agency installed noise barriers and used water to keep dust down around the construction site. If neighboring residents or businesses have concerns with noise or other impacts from the construction, she encouraged them to reach out to VTA’s hotline. So far, Wilson said they’ve heard no complaints.
Maguire estimated VTA could bring on a new contractor before 2027. He said that would delay the tunneling, but the agency still aims to open the extension by 2037.

“Our challenge right now is to find a way to build the tunnel faster and to build the other aspects of the project — the four stations, the yard, all the construction above ground — in a way that compresses the schedule,” Maguire said. “We’re confident we’ll make that happen.”

Contact B. Sakura Cannestra at sakura@sanjosespotlight.com or @SakuCannestra on X.

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But as a tenuous ceasefire agreement appears to be in place between Israel and Iran, Khanna, who represents Silicon Valley, said he wants to keep the pathway to force the House of Representatives to vote on the resolution open.

Asked what Congress should do to preempt future unilateral military action from the White House, Khanna pointed to the process through which the resolution would be able to make its way to the floor without Republican House leadership greenlighting it. War powers resolutions are a privileged procedure in the House, meaning that they can be called for a House vote 15 days after being introduced without any committee action.

“We need to make sure that war powers resolution is still privileged, and they don’t take away the privilege on it,” Khanna said.

On Tuesday, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson suggested the Nixon-era War Powers Act might be unconstitutional because it limits Trump’s ability as commander in chief. Specific resolutions like Khanna and Massie’s fall under that act, which says the president must notify Congress within 48 hours of launching military action and end such action within 60 days if Congress does not declare war. Congress has not declared war since World War II.

For now, both lawmakers appear to be on the same page about their resolution.

“If the ceasefire holds and there’s no further U.S. involvement, then no, but we have to wait and see. It’s all such a fragile situation,” Khanna told NOTUS when asked whether the House should move forward with the resolution regardless of a peace deal. “We’re taking a wait-and-see approach.”

The lawmaker added that he talked with Massie to discuss their next steps. On Monday evening, Politico reported Massie told Johnson he would withdraw the resolution if the peace deal announced by Trump that evening held.

On Tuesday, Massie, a vocal critic of Trump’s strikes on three nuclear sites in Iran over the weekend, told NOTUS he still planned to pursue the resolution if the conflict continues.

“It will depend on if the war keeps going on. It’s a wait-and-see approach,” Massie said, using the same phrase as Khanna.

Massie has received heat from the right for his opposition to the U.S. involvement, including from Trump. The president threatened to campaign “really hard” for a challenger to the Kentucky congressman.

Massie said Trump’s attacks were not a factor in his decision to hold off on the resolution.

“I tweeted about this stuff and then he tweeted at me again,” Massie told NOTUS. “But no, not at all.”

Khanna emphasized how crucial it is to have bipartisan relationships on issues like this.

“It’s very important to have bipartisanship when it comes to opposing wars of choice,” Khanna said. “We don’t have to be in these wars; these are not wars that are being fought in self-defense.”

Samuel Larreal is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow. This story was produced as part of a partnership between NOTUS and San José Spotlight.

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As soon as the playground’s gate opened on June 13, children, adults and older people rushed in to hop on the spherical spinner, scale the blue climbing tower and kick their feet on the swings. The playground is a first for Cupertino and was built for people of all ages and abilities — and is the newest addition in Santa Clara County’s quest to uplift accessibility for its more than 170,000 residents with disabilities, according to 2023 American Community Survey data.

“There are few places that everyone’s welcome, and this is one of them,” Schober told San José Spotlight.

The playground features four swing types, with some big enough for adults, wheelchair accessibility and a sign with pictures for nonverbal park-goers. It was built by MIG at a cost of $5.4 million, and is funded by roughly $1 million from the state and nearly $1.5 million from Santa Clara County, along with city funds and $25,000 from PG&E.

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As soon as Cupertino’s new, all-inclusive playground at Jollyman Park opened on June 13, children, adults and older people rushed in to hop on the spherical spinner, scale the blue climbing tower and kick their feet on the swings. The Cupertino playground was built for people of all ages and abilities — and is the newest addition in Santa Clara County’s quest to uplift accessibility for its more than 170,000 residents with disabilities, according to 2023 American Community Survey data. The playground features four swing types, with some big enough for adults, wheelchair accessibility and a sign with pictures for nonverbal park-goers. Read more at SanJoseSpotlight.com. #inclusive #playground #disability #accessibility #inclusiveplayground #cupertino #siliconvalley

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Schober first envisioned the playground in 2016 as part of a community leadership initiative. All-inclusive playgrounds weren’t as widespread in the county then, and Schober’s idea caught the attention of former District 5 Supervisor Joe Simitian. He spearheaded the grant program for all-inclusive playgrounds in 2017, which has since allocated $20 million toward the effort countywide. The county now has 24 all-inclusive playgrounds at parks and schools in cities including San Jose, Palo Alto, Mountain View, Morgan Hill, Sunnyvale, Santa Clara and Campbell.

The playground at Jollyman Park in Cupertino adds one to the West Valley, which only has a few. That’s significant for Schober and her adult son Nathan, who was diagnosed with ADHD as a child and struggled with sensory processing issues.

“You can be a quiet citizen pushing for good,” Schober said. “As long as you’re persistent, you can make things happen. Each one of us has the opportunity to influence, to make big things happen.”

Nathan told San José Spotlight a playground like this would have given him another way to express himself. He’s proud of his mom and said it’s a win for the disabled community.

“This is exactly what they need and exactly what they deserve,” he told San José Spotlight.

While Nathan likely won’t use the playground much as an adult, other families with adult children in the community will.

Cupertino resident Minna Xu said the playground is vital for her adult son, who is on the autism spectrum. He can use the adult-sized slides and swings to help with his sensory needs. Xu said he can get easily overstimulated without that outlet, adding it’s important for the community to know there are adults who need this. Nearly 70,000 residents in the county have a cognitive disability like Xu’s son, according to 2023 data.

“(People) didn’t tend to realize there’s such community needs,” Xu told San José Spotlight. “But this playground raised the awareness, and after that, our city decided to bring more all-inclusive elements to other parks.”

Mayor Liang Chao said the playground sends an important message: Cupertino welcomes everyone.

“We (wanted) to create something where you come and you feel you belong, not only in this playground, but also the city,” she told San José Spotlight.

Other recently finished all-inclusive projects include the playgrounds at Emma Prusch Farm Park in San Jose and Central Park in Santa Clara, which opened this spring.

Simitian said this is one of the few times he had an idea that worked out as intended during his time as supervisor. He termed out in 2024. He wants inclusivity to be a countywide movement spurred on by local nonprofits, including Magical Bridge Foundation, which specializes in creating all-inclusive playgrounds and parks.

“Each and every one of these playgrounds can be a model that communities look to and say, ‘You know, yes, we want to do that,'” Simitian told San José Spotlight.
Olenka Villarreal, Magical Bridge Foundation founder, said that message is important to keep the momentum going for residents who need accessible spaces. The nonprofit has playgrounds opening at Foothill College, Ravenswood Middle School in East Palo Alto and the Morgan Autism Center in San Jose.

“Chances are each of us knows somebody that benefits from thoughtful design, and so when we talk about creating public spaces as important as a public playground, that sort of sets the tone how your family is welcomed into this community,” Villarreal told San José Spotlight. “For us, of course, it is all about the equity.”

Contact Annalise Freimarck at annalise@sanjosespotlight.com or follow @annalise_ellen on X.

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The California Legislature on June 13 passed a $325 billion preliminary budget for the 2025-26 fiscal year, and the state’s main source of homelessness funding — the Homelessness Housing, Assistance and Prevention Program — has been zeroed out. The funding can be used toward homelessness prevention, rental assistance, temporary and permanent housing, outreach, services and shelter improvements. Last-minute budget details are being hashed out before the fiscal year starts on July 1, but the potential axing of the program could have a devastating effect in Santa Clara County and San Jose in coming years.

San Jose will lose about 550 beds and spaces in temporary homeless housing if it doesn’t find other sources of funding, Housing Director Erik Soliván said. Because of the timing of when state dollars are distributed, the impact on the city won’t be felt until fiscal year 2026-27, resulting in a loss of about $30 million.

“What happens to the people who are in (those units)? The impact will be big,” Soliván told San Jose Spotlight. “Those funds are vital to not only the continuation of shelter operations, but also the work we do around outreach and engagement and providing services to encampments.”

The state established its program six years ago to give one-time grants to reduce homelessness. With the funding, California’s 13 largest cities have created 17,000 shelter beds and served more than 150,000 people. This fiscal year, the state set aside $1 billion for the program, and $760 million is left to be allocated.

Since the start of the program, San Jose has received nearly $120 million in grants in five rounds of funding. San Jose applied for $25.3 million this fiscal year, and awards will be announced and distributed next fiscal year. The city has allocated the largest chunk toward interim housing at $39 million and put $23 million toward new emergency shelters and navigation centers. San Jose has also has invested $14 million in street outreach.

“If we walk away from that now, we are not just walking away from progress. We are walking away from people,” San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan said in a statement. “Because if (the state program) disappears, our ability to respond to this humanitarian crisis goes with it.”

Santa Clara County has received a total of $114 million from the program, with the largest amounts of money being allocated toward funding operations at temporary housing sites, at nearly $50 million, and homelessness prevention at more than $20 million.

Kathryn Kaminski, acting director of the Santa Clara County Office of Supportive Housing, said the county would begin to feel the impacts of cuts starting fiscal year 2026-27.

“The county has been strategic and thoughtful about leveraging (Homelessness Housing, Assistance and Prevention Program) funding with other sources and allocating it over multiple years to prevent immediate disruptions of the system,” Kaminski told San José Spotlight. “However, discontinuation, delay or significant cuts to HHAP funds may require us to wind down or significantly reduce capacity of programs given the fiscal challenges at the local, state and federal levels for critical programming including temporary housing, basic needs and homelessness prevention.”

Nearly 10,000 homeless residents live in Santa Clara County, according to a 2023 count. Results for this year’s count have yet to be released. San Jose has 6,340 homeless residents — the fourth highest population of homeless people per capita in the nation.

While San Jose waits to see if its recent bid for funding is successful, the city will continue construction of its planned temporary housing sites, including Cherry Avenue tiny home site, the expansion of the Rue Ferrari tiny home and the Cerone safe parking site — all slated to open in the fall. The city also has five hotel conversions into temporary housing in its pipeline. San Jose aims to add more than 1,000 shelter beds and spaces this year.

Soliván said the housing department is making contingency plans for future state funding cuts. The preliminary budget outlines $500 million in state program funding to be restored for the 2026-27 fiscal year, half of what was distributed in the 2024-25 fiscal year.
Officials are already preparing for a challenging year ahead with the county anticipating $70 million in proposed cuts from the federal budget, which would slash funding for Medi-Cal all the way to housing vouchers.

“It’s absolutely the worst time to see continued reduction in funding and services for our most vulnerable residents,” Ray Bramson, chief operating officer at Destination: Home and San José Spotlight columnist, told San José Spotlight. “My hope would be that we find a path forward to make it a permanent funding source, because we’re going to need this investment for a while to truly make a difference.”

Story updated June 23 at 9:45 a.m. Original story published June 20 at 8:30 a.m.

Contact Joyce Chu at joyce@sanjosespotlight.com or @joyce_speaks on X. 

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