Maine-Who Is Taking Apart What America Built?
An Address on What We All Depend On
~1200 words | approx. 10 minutes
Preface: Our communities are facing real struggles. Families have been separated. Public health systems are under pressure. Voting access is being questioned in ways it hasn't been in decades.
Something has been changing over the past year or more. The concern in living rooms, congregations, and union halls isn't new — but it's moving from private worry toward public conversation. Think of it like coals that have been smoldering: the heat has been there, spreading person to person, but it needs oxygen to become visible. Leaders speaking out — clearly, consistently, together — provides that oxygen.
Think about the last time your child needed a doctor and help was there. The last time a flood struck your community and emergency workers showed up ready to help. And how about feeding your family without worrying whether the food was safe?
What made those things possible? Who was keeping watch?
For most of our lives, the answer has been a web of programs — built by Americans across generations — not perfect, but always present. Programs that tracked illness before it spread. Inspectors who caught fraud and waste inside government. Health resources that kept working families from going without care. Emergency systems that kicked in when disaster struck. These are not political favors. They are what America built — because experience taught us that without them, people suffer.
So here is my concern — and I want to share it, because I think we all need to pay attention to what is happening. I trust you to think it through.
What Has Changed
Beginning in January 2025, the federal government undertook a rapid and sweeping dismantling of agencies, programs, and the experienced people who run them. Some reductions were called efficiency. Some reorganization. But when you look at what was actually eliminated — and who was affected — a different picture comes into view.
The inspectors whose job was to catch waste and fraud inside government agencies were fired — in violation of federal law, as federal courts have found. The national program that tracked dangerous foodborne illnesses across 54 million Americans removed checks for 6 out of 8 of the diseases that it had been following. The Department of Justice eliminated more than 4,500 positions, including FBI lay-offs of 1,500 employees in February 2025. Plans before Congress are to cut an additional 1,500 FBI positions. The DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis — the only federal agency legally mandated to share threat information with state, local, tribal, and territorial law enforcement — was reduced by roughly half, from 1,000 to approximately 500 employees.
Let's see what happens, then, to communities, and to our family and neighbors.
Real People. Real Consequences.
These are not abstractions. They are our neighbors — and our public safety partners.
The Major Cities Chiefs Association, County Sheriffs of America, and the Association of State Criminal Investigative Agencies wrote directly to the Secretary of Homeland Security, warning that cutting the intelligence office would create "dangerous blind spots in our homeland security network" and leave local officers unable to "detect and prevent threats before they occur." This was not a partisan warning. It came from America's own law enforcement community.
The Harms Are Already Here
Measles cases have exploded — from 58 confirmed cases in 2023 to 2,288 in 2025, with 2,073 more confirmed by June 11 of this year. Kindergarten vaccination rates have fallen below the level needed to keep children safe. A disease that America worked for generations to eliminate is back, partly because federal vaccination outreach was weakened.
As Dr. J. Glenn Morris of the University of Florida observed: "If you want to make foodborne disease go away, then don't look for foodborne disease." The CDC's FoodNet program — the only system tracking multiple foodborne illnesses across ten states — was cut in July 2025 from checking eight pathogens to just two. One of those cut was the parasite cyclospora, which is spread mainly with contaminated green leafy vegetables and can be deadly. Even as that outbreak surpassed 17,000 people, research was being reduced and disrupted.
During the July 4th Texas flooding, Government Executive reported nearly two-thirds of calls to FEMA's emergency line went unanswered. Meanwhile, the administration canceled $3.6 billion in disaster mitigation grants already awarded to communities nationwide; a federal court ordered the funding restored in December 2025. Some of the funding has been restored, but long term status of the program is uncertain.
About 77,000 Mainers had no health insurance in 2024, one of the lower shares of uninsured residents in the nation. Recent gains are being reversed. Enhanced ACA tax credits have expired, and new Medicaid, CHIP, and Marketplace eligibility rules are taking effect. According to Kaiser Family Foundation's analysis of Congressional Budget Office data, Maine's uninsured are projected to climb from roughly 1 in 18 residents in 2024 to nearly 1 in 12 in 2034. This will be roughly 118,000 without insurance. That trend is already being confirmed: KFF found ACA Marketplace enrollment fell in 49 of 50 states as the credits lapsed at the end of 2025. And the most substantial losses overall are expected to continue over the next two years, leaving a narrowing window to change course.
Rural hospitals face consequences beyond who loses insurance. Elisa Blethen, CFO, Penobscot Valley Hospital, in Lincoln, warned, “There’s not much we can close without closing the hospital entirely.”
Families USA analyzed 5 independent rural hospitals in Maine as part of a national study. The study estimates that Medicaid cuts would leave all five operating at a loss. Cary Medical Center, for example, would see an about face from a 2023 net income of barely $349,000 to a net loss of $446,000. As new requirements reduce Medicaid enrollment, reduced revenue from the cuts would cost independent rural hospitals, on average, more than half their annual net income. With this strain the risk rises for service reductions or hospital closure. The pressure can be expected to increase through 2028, threatening access to care even for patients who can keep their insurance.
This is only a sampling. The damage is widespread across government and across the country.
Our Communities Are Fighting Back
Here is something important: your community is not standing still.
Twenty-two states and the District of Columbia took the FEMA grant cancellations to court — and a federal judge agreed with them. Local health departments are filling gaps. State legislators are pushing to protect Medicaid. Hospital associations are speaking up. Pediatricians are calling Congress. Faith communities are organizing. Law enforcement agencies across the country are writing warning letters. The doctors, nurses, epidemiologists, food safety inspectors, and emergency managers who built and maintained these systems understand what is at stake.
They are asking us to pay attention and to join them.
Where Do We Go From Here?
What does it mean when the systems designed over lifetimes to protect us are taken apart, one by one?
What generations of Americans built belongs to all of us. We can protect it.
Congress has real tools here: it can conduct oversight, set funding priorities, and write the rules under which public services operate. Are members of Congress using those tools to strengthen independent Inspectors General and protect the services your community depends on — local health departments, rural hospitals, Medicaid, children's health programs? How will your members of Congress use those responsibilities to protect the safety, stability, and well-being of our communities?
Find out.
Talk about these issues with your family, friends, faith community, and neighbors. Share reliable information. Ask: What is happening? Who is affected? What can our communities do to protect the public institutions on which people rely?
Conversation raises awareness. Awareness turns to action.
This is not a moment to sit out. Your voice belongs here. Along with speaking with your local officials, and supporting your hospitals and health departments, one of the most effective tools you have as a citizen is your vote. Plan now to vote in every election: check your registration, make your voting plan, and encourage the people in your life to do the same. Find registration and nonpartisan voting information at vote.org or vote411.org.
Thank you for thinking this through with me.
Sources
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/11/climate/fema-missed-calls-texas-floods.html
Nextgov/FCW July 1, 2025; CBS News July 3, 2025; Defense One April 6, 2026; Nextgov/FCW April 10, 2026.
FEMA press release, April 4, 2025. Cited in Congressional Research Service Insight IN12609 (multiple versions, June 30, 2026 final). Available at: https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/IN12609
WBUR News, December 12, 2025: https://www.wbur.org/news/2025/12/12/judge-orders-fema-grant-restored-bric-massachusetts
International Code Council summary, April 2, 2026: https://www.iccsafe.org/building-safety-journal/bsj-news/fema-resumes-the-building-resilient-infrastructure-and-communities-bric-grant-program/
SBP USA, April 17, 2026: https://www.sbpusa.org/blog/bric-funding-2026-what-communities-need-to-know/
For the budget proposal version:CBS News, June 17, 2025: "4,000 employees took 'fork in the road' at Justice Dept., with more cuts to come": https://www.cbsnews.com/news/4000-employees-took-fork-in-road-justice-dept-more-cuts-coming/
For the actual February 2025 layoffs version:Reuters/AP, February 22, 2025, cited in Deccan Herald: https://www.deccanherald.com/world/pentagon-to-fire-5400-workers-fbi-lays-off-1500-as-backlash-builds-to-trump-downsizing-effort-3417008
For total actual FBI reduction (2,600 positions, ~7%):Reuters, April 23, 2026, cited in Minnesota Lawyer: https://minnlawyer.com/2026/04/23/doj-cuts-thousands-law-enforcement-jobs-crime-crackdown/
✓ Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) opposed BRIC cancellations on the Senate floor — available as a cross-partisan credibility anchor if desired.
• CDC Measles Cases and Outbreaks, 2025–2026: cdc.gov/measles/cases-outbreaks.html
• NBC News, "CDC quietly scaled back surveillance program for foodborne illnesses," 2025: nbcnews.com/health/health-news/cdc-quietly-scaled-back-surveillance-program-foodborne-illnesses-rcna227089
• KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation), Medicaid Cuts and State Impact Analysis: kff.org
• Georgetown University Center for Children and Families, "Medicaid, CHIP, and ACA Marketplace Cuts in the Budget Reconciliation Law, Explained," updated August 13, 2025: ccf.georgetown.edu/2025/07/22/medicaid-chip-and-affordable-care-act-marketplace-cuts-and-other-health-provisions-in-the-budget-reconciliation-law-explained/
• Congressional Budget Office, Final cost estimates for H.R. 1 (P.L. 119-21), July 21 & August 11, 2025: cbo.gov/publication/61570
• Governor Bob Ferguson, press statements on Medicaid impact in Washington State, 2025
• Dr. Jason Deen, Pediatric Cardiologist, University of Washington, February 2025 public statement
• Mat Slaybaugh, CEO, Garfield County Hospital District, February 2025 public statement
• Cathy Bambrick, Administrator, Astria Toppenish Hospital, February 2025 public statement
• Dr. J. Glenn Morris, Director, Emerging Pathogens Institute, University of Florida, quoted in NBC News, 2025
• Federal court rulings on Inspector General Act violations, January 2025
• CBS News, "DHS to cut 75% of staff in its intelligence office," July 3, 2025: cbsnews.com/news/dhs-intelligence-arm-to-cut-staff-by-nearly-75/
• Washington Examiner, "DOJ axes 4,000 jobs including plans to end 1,500 FBI positions," June 17, 2025: washingtonexaminer.com/news/3445088/doj-ends-4000-jobs-plans-end-1500-fbi-positions/
• Associated Press / CT Mirror, "Federal judge orders FEMA to restore canceled disaster mitigation funding," December 12, 2025: ctmirror.org/2025/12/12/fema-funding-bric-judge-orders-restored/
• Government Executive, FEMA emergency assistance line reporting, December 1, 2025 [URL to be confirmed at govexec.com]
Major Cities Chiefs Association, County Sheriffs of America, Association of State Criminal Investigative Agencies: joint letter to DHS Secretary Noem, 2025 (quoted in CBS News report above)
Projected Reductions in Medicaid Expansion Enrollment Under OBBBA’s Work Requirements and Six- Month Redeterminations: National and State Estimates for 2028, April, 2026. https://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/2026-04/Executive%20Summary_Projected%20Reductions%20in%20Medicaid%20Expansion%20Enrollment%20Under%20OBBBA%E2%80%99s%20Work%20Requirements%20and%20Six-Month%20Redeterminations.pdf
https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-cdc-food-net-monitoring-parasite-cyclospora-12180951
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