NYC NOW - Midday News: Judge Blocks Federal Health Cuts, 9/11 Program at Risk, Study Looks at NJ Childcare, and Poetry Month Spotlight

Episode Date: April 4, 2025

A federal judge in Rhode Island has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from cutting $11 billion from health programs nationwide, including in New York and New Jersey. Meanwhile, advocates say federal staffing cuts are threatening the World Trade Center Health Program, which provides care to people exposed to toxins after 9/11. Also, a new study from Rutgers says changing one state rule could make childcare more affordable for tens of thousands of New Jersey families. And finally, April is National Poetry Month. Today, we hear from poet and Queens College professor Kimiko Hahn.

Welcome to NYC Now. Your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. It's Friday, April 4th. Here's the midday news from Michael Hill. A federal judge in Rhode Island has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from cutting more than $11 billion from health programs in New York, New Jersey, and across the nation. Judge Mary McElroy in Rhode Island issued a 14-day stay while 23 states and the District of Columbia contest the health and human services cuts.

McElroy said of the state's legal challenge, quote, the likelihood of success on the merits is extremely strong. New York stands to lose $360 million if the cuts go through. HHS has said the money was primarily for COVID-19 response and was no longer needed. New York officials and advocates say recent federal staffing cuts put the World Trade Center Health Program at risk. The program provides free medical care to pay. people who were exposed to toxins and other hazards in the aftermath of the 9-11 attacks.

John Fiel says he was injured during the cleanup in Lower Manhattan. He has since advocated for federal health benefits. These reckless actions not only show their gross incompetence, but also show their inability to have any sort of empathy. The Trump administration is firing more than 800 staff from the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, which oversees the World Trade Center Health. A spokesperson for the administration says the program will continue to serve patients. Remember tonight at 9, Yukon's women's basketball team play the number one overall seed, UCLA,

and a final four semifinal matchup. The winner advances to play the winner of South Carolina and Texas for the national championship on Sunday afternoon. 65 and cloudy now, partly sunny and 69. Met's home opener this afternoon, 63 and partly sunny. Stick around. There's more to come. As child care becomes increasingly expensive, a new study finds changing one state rule could help tens of thousands of New Jersey families pay it.

The Rutgers Center for Women in Work says some parents in New Jersey are paying as much as 30% of their income on child care, while others have dropped out of the workforce altogether. Joining us now are Deborah Lancaster, the center's executive director, and Becky Lowe Conroy, a research analyst at the center. Thank you very much for joining us. Debert Rutgers Center for Women and Work is part of the first 1,000 Days Policy Coalition. What is that? The first thousand days really refers to, you know,

some of the most critical months, the first couple years of a child's life, both for children and families, is a group of advocates, researchers, educators, and other community leaders to recognize that it does impact their concerns. their members, their families, and to bring them to the table because we want to expand who is advocating for child care, right? It shouldn't just be, you know, one or two organizations. You know, that this is a problem that can bring people together, people across the aisle even.

As you know, New Jersey's, we have a race for governor going on, and we want to also ensure that the candidates running are aware of the issue and that it becomes something our next governor will not lose sight of. Becky, you know, one of the authors of this report, and it says New Jersey is stricter than most states when it comes to warning child care subsidies to families. Explain for us how. So with the Child Development Block Grant,

that is the federal block grant that comes to states to help them to give subsidies to families for child care, the federal government allows states to provide subsidies up to 85% of the state median income and to working families. But the federal government does not put any parameters on the hours of work or anything like that. But states have some latitude for how they can cover it, depending on how many families they think that they can serve, given the money that they get from the block grant. New Jersey sets the limit at 200% of the federal poverty line, which is much lower than 85% of the state median income in New Jersey.

So if we're looking at a family of three, so perhaps two parents and a child or one parent and two children, the current threshold for 200 percent of the poverty line is $53,300. One way to look at that is if it's two parents and a child, if both parents work full-time around 37 and a half hours per week at minimum wage, they will be over that threshold. So are you asking for or seeking a rule change? And if so, what kind of change? Well, I think that there are different ways to address this issue. You could change the level of the income level. You could go up to 85% of the state median income,

which we think would cover around 200,000 more children and families. We estimate, given the census in New Jersey. What dollar meant would you be talking about then, if that were the case? In our research, we looked at the year 2022, and 85% of the state median income, a family of three, so perhaps two parents and one child, would have been about $94,000 then and is approximately $108,000 now. So that's about 85% of the state median income. So it would cover families up to that amount. You could also lower the amount of hours that families work,

that parents have to work. You could put it at 20 hours per week. You could put it at just that they're employed at all, which allows families who perhaps are working part-time. or maybe have precarious work. So maybe one week they might have 30 hours, but another week they might have 10 hours. And while the state looks at the last four weeks of work to determine the 30 hours per week, it's possible that a family would not qualify

if they did not get up to that average of 30 hours per week. Is there any push now among state lawmakers? Who has the authority to make this change? Yes, so it would be state legislators. There is currently a bill in the state legislature that would put the threshold at 300% of the federal poverty line, which we estimate would cover an additional around 100,000 children that would be eligible. I want to draw on a hypothetical here. Where do you think child care affordability would be if the roles in America were reversed, men who dominate state legislatures, and bodies of government that tend to make the decisions on a lot of this.

If the roles were reverse, where would this fight be? Care work has not been historically funded in the way that we would like to see and to provide quality childcare, as Deborah has said, costs a lot of money and more money than many families have. And I think if the roles were reversed or if we have seen care work done potentially for a longer time by different people, or there has been an expectation in our history that one person, most often the mother, would be the one who would potentially leave the labor force to care if care were too expensive. And that still happens today. And I do think that looking at this from the perspective of two working parents or one working parent who is the only parent in the

household is a way to show that we can support more families and that we see families as working families and not as families who can afford to have one person stay home. So in order to keep our labor force thriving, including those people who are in the labor force as caregivers, as early care and education workers, we need to fund it in such a way that care workers are supported and that families are supported, families who are in the labor force. Our guests have been Deborah Lancaster, the executive director of the Rutgers Center for Women in Work, and Becky Logue Conroy, a research analyst at the center. Thank you both for joining us. Thank you. Thank you so much.

April is National Poetry Month. This week, we've been asking for your poems on the theme of memoir reflecting on your own life or the life of another person. Joining us now is Kimiko Hahn. She's one of the chancellors of the Academy of American Poets and a professor in the English Department at Queens College. Camico, welcome the morning edition. Thank you. Good morning.

As we mentioned, your professor at Queens College, will you teach students creative writing, among other things? What advice do you give to people trying their hand at writing poetry? That's a big question. There's an often used phrase, show don't tell. But what does that mean show don't tell? It means that you want the poem to be the experience. It is not up to the writer to interpret the poem.

So if I say, oh, I'm so sad, that doesn't really give the reader or listener an experience. But if I say, I lay down on the carpet this morning and I couldn't get up. Now, that might mean I should lose weight or that I'm doing some deep breathing, or it might mean that I'm absolutely in the throes of grief and I can't get up. So that shows the extent of my grief. And that's what we aim for in art. We've received dozens of listener submissions on this week's theme memoir, and we've asked you to pick one you think is successful. What did you choose, and who submitted it?

Okay. It was hard to choose which one. They were all really wonderfully written. I chose sealing the driveway this spring by Charlie Nunzio. We are advised to seal the driveway, cover over scars and protect the asphalt, a reasonable fee to pay. Will it cover the scars of my grief or the suffering of a loved one who once walked there? That's the whole poem, Five Lines. Why did this poem speak to you, Kimiko?

Well, first of all, the title is very specific, so I was drawn in, immediately to the experience of the poem. It's a specific activity, sealing the driveway, which we can actually picture. I also chose it because it starts out, we are advised to seal the driveway. It's kind of a general tone, we, not just I am. If Charlie changed it to, I am advised, it would be a very different poem. And it might be interesting to even try that, but cover over scars and protect the asphalt. Scars immediately moves the reader to metaphor. And then in the fourth line, will it cover the scars of my grief?

That seals our understanding that the scars in the second line are indeed the scars of this person. I think that if Charlie were to revise this, I would suggest taking the word scars which comes very close in such a short poem, and having a visual. So, for example, will it cover the scars of my grief? Will it cover the cracks? And that's a moment where you can actually flip it around and describe the kind of scars we find in asphalt. We'll cover the cracks and holes and gravel of my grief. And that is also an example of showing, not telling.

I feel this conversation with you has been a lesson in poetry writing. Thank you. And I hope listeners will heed what you have said and will make some submissions based on that, that it's show instead of tell. Is that the right phrase? Yes, exactly. That was Kimiko Hahn, a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, helping us wrap up week one of Poetry Month with poems on the theme memoir. Kimiko, thank you.

Thank you very much. Thanks for listening. This is NYC now from WMYC. Catch us every weekday three times a day for your top news headlines and occasional deep dives. And subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. More soon.