FROSTBURG — Health care and federal emergency disaster funding were among issues local leaders told U.S. Rep. April McClain Delaney that impacted their communities during a meeting Friday at Frostburg State University.
Leaders sat spread out amongst tables to brainstorm, and created and presented lists of their top three priorities moving forward.
“I think that all of these county convenings that I’m doing are really to bring people together and to define how these different cuts, tariffs and policies that have been hitting kind of like a tsunami are impacting individual communities,” Delaney said.
How federal cuts will affect local hospitals and those reliant on Medicare and Medicaid transpired were a top concern.
This is Delaney’s third fact-finding meeting and a fourth will take place after the new year in Montgomery County.
“I think that the mountain and more rural parts of Maryland are really going to see more cuts to Medicaid or really going to impact us deeply, our rural hospitals and health providers,” Delaney said.
“And I heard that, you know, almost all of the different comments that came out, and that there is real concern about the fact that there is economic insecurity, and the federal cuts kind of cascade down to the state and the municipal budgets.”
She said the idea to hold these meetings has stemmed from major cuts at the federal budget that are affecting smaller communities.
“People and counties are going to have to do a lot more with a lot less,” she said. “So, how can there be collaboration and synergies between different stakeholders, i.e. profits or working with for profits to kind of help issues of health issues, of aging infrastructure? I think the most critical piece that I heard today was the health care and some of the food security issues.”
In regard to Westernport and Western Maryland’s recovery following May flooding, Delaney said she has introduced new legislation through the United States Department of Agriculture that she hopes will be able to assist those communities.
“It’s very, very sad. I am still reaching out to Secretary (Kristi) Noem at her agency, and there’s been different acting directors at FEMA. The problem is that as I’m hearing it, that they are having even more cuts to FEMA, and President Trump wants to almost dismantle the entire agency,” she said.
“So, I don’t know where it will come from, but this is what I’ve been looking at is I have legislation that I’ve introduced that takes some of that recovery assistance to USDA.”
Delaney has consistently emphasized that she believes the decision to twice deny FEMA funding was politicized, and does not believe that should have been the case.
“Many of these rural smaller communities, there is no way they can rebuild without having federal assistance, and that’s why we all pay tax dollars,” Delaney said.
“Whether you were in Brooklyn or Missouri or Western Maryland, you should be able to access that when you have a historic emergency, and that’s the whole point of the agency. But, this administration seems to be wanting to do away with that.”
She said this is the first in a series of county meetings, and she hopes to be able to have each county in her district come together and share their thoughts and plans on a larger scale.
Natalie Leslie can be reached at 304-639-4403.