Big DOGE Cuts Are Coming to Small Towns: BGOV Starting Line

Small-Town Impact

If Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency gets its way, the federal government will terminate 653 building leases. Jack Fitzpatrick reports that the shutdown hit list disproportionately targets small towns.

For instance, Somerset, Pa., population 5,898, would lose the office used by the National Park Service to oversee operations of the Flight 93 memorial, Fort Necessity National Battlefield, and other federal historic sites.

Batesville, Ark., with a population of less than 12,000, faces four federal lease cancellations, the same number as Arlington, Va., just across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. Eastern Kentucky faces as many closures as New York City, with five each.

The full list is HERE. It shows a lot of five-digit drops in the nine-digit bucket of spending cuts that are the goal of the office-space purge. Most of the list hits states Trump won in 2024. Read More

Also Read:

• Musk to Refocus on Ailing Tesla With DOGE Work ‘Mostly Done’
• DC’s Special Status Gets Ripped Up by DOGE’s Job and Cost Cuts

All Ears

Stock traders and government officials around the globe will be hanging on every word when Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent gives a keynote speech this morning.

Bessent’s remarks at the Institute for International Finance forum come a day after he said behind closed doors that the tariff standoff with China is unsustainable, and he expects some de-escalation. News of the comments from Bloomberg inspired a stock trading boomlet.

The speeches are happening alongside annual meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, which downgraded its global economic forecast because of President Donald Trump’s trade war.

Elsewhere in Trumponomics, the president seems to have backed off his criticism of the Fed chief, and more:

• Trump Floats ‘Substantial’ China Tariff Cuts in Trade Deal
• US Stocks Rally as White House Signals Progress on Trade Deals
• Trump’s Tariffs Threaten to Push Cambodia Even Closer to China
• Trump Says He Has No Intention of Firing Fed Chief Powell

Expendable Sanitation

One of the side effects of cramming so many kinds of personnel cuts into the administration’s first 100 days is that it’s easy to miss when government functions are thrown overboard.

So we did a double-take when a press release came by from congressional Democrats raising alarm about a cut that hadn’t broken through for us yet: the elimination of all full-time staff at the CDC’s Vessel Sanitation Program.

They were stomach bug experts charged with trying to prevent gastrointestinal illnesses from running amok on cruise ships.

“These environments provide a prime opportunity for the transmission of disease,” wrote Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Rep. Doris Matsui (D-Calif.). “Severely reducing or eliminating the program that holds CDC’s subject matter expertise on this issue is short-sighted, and will ultimately lead to more illnesses.”

OK So Far

This week’s Lobbying Disclosure Act deadline opened a window in to the immediate aftermath of Trump’s business assault on DC law firms.

Trump’s sudden withdrawal of clearances and building access happened midway through the quarterly reporting period. Roy Strom reports that the lobbying records show little immediate impact for the law firms that also lobby.

It’s also worth noting that lobbying is a small part of the revenue stream for firms including Covington and WilmerHale. The bigger risk from Trump’s moves was to other kinds of work, like appearing before federal regulators and federal court litigation. Read More

Meanwhile, General Motors spent the most it ever has in a single quarter on lobbying the federal government, Kate Ackley and Chris Cioffi report. The company’s forms cited efforts to influence policies on taxation, tariffs, other trade barriers, and “global market access.” Read More

Revolving Door

First in Starting Line: Matt Jennings, former head of in-house lobbying for Etihad Airways and a one-time aide to Republicans on the Hill, has landed at the Klein/Johnson Group where clients include Oracle America Inc., US Travel Association, and the Airports Council International - North America. — Kate Ackley

Ukraine Talks

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is among the US negotiators meeting in London today with top officials from France, Germany, the UK and Ukraine. Their goal: a deal to halt Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he wants an unconditional ceasefire as a first step. He also repeatedly said he won’t cede territory to Russia. The US is proposing to let Russia retain de facto control of parts of Ukraine. Trump said “there’s a very good chance” of a deal this week. Read More

• Also Read: Vance Says Territory Concessions Needed for Ukraine-Russia Deal

Before You Go

Some quick updates as the Washington weekday begins:

• Secret Service Finds Lessons in Review of Texas Mass Shooting
• Hegseth Remains Defiant After Second Signal Chat Episode
• Trump Administration Must Halt Voice of America Dismantling
• New York Times Prevails Over Sarah Palin At Second Libel Trial
• Summers Says ‘Attack’ on IRS May Risk a $1 Trillion Revenue Hit

Like it? Share It. Then your friends and colleagues can SIGN UP HERE for their own free copy of Starting Line every weekday.