4 ways federal government actions are impacting Pennsylvania

President Donald Trump has wasted little time taking action to implement his agenda since assuming office in January. Through a series of executive actions, he’s established a Department of Government Efficiency tasked with cutting costs and government waste, attempted to freeze the disbursement of federal funding and signed several executive orders to set in motion a series of tariffs on imports from Canada, Mexico and China.

The impacts of some of Trump’s early executive actions are already being felt across the country, including in Pennsylvania. Below, City & State takes a look at some of the ways Pennsylvanians are reacting to the first month of Trump’s second term in the White House.

Josh Shapiro sues the Trump administration

This week Gov. Josh Shapiro sued the Trump administration over its decision to freeze federal funding, asking the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania to issue an injunction that prevents federal agencies from freezing, pausing or interfering with the disbursement of congressionally appropriated funding. The lawsuit alleges more than $1.2 billion in grant funding to Pennsylvania government agencies is currently suspended, and that another $900 million in grant funding is currently identified as needing further review. 

 “The federal government has entered into a contract with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, promising to provide billions of dollars in Congressionally-approved funding that we have committed to serious needs – like protecting public health, cutting energy costs, providing safe, clean drinking water, and creating jobs in rural communities,” Shapiro said in a statement. “While multiple federal judges have ordered the Trump Administration to unfreeze this funding, access has not been restored, leaving my Administration with no choice but to pursue legal action to protect the interests of the Commonwealth and its residents.” 

Pennsylvania university research funds imperiled by NIH funding cut

On the heels of a funding cut made by the National Institutes of Health that seeks to cap rates on research grants to universities at 15%, research universities across the commonwealth are expressing concerns over the impact the move could have on their respective programs.

J. Larry Jameson, the interim president of the University of Pennsylvania, wrote that the decision could have major consequences for the Ivy League institution. “The effect of this sudden and major change in research support will be to severely harm our highly impactful research mission,” he wrote in a Feb. 11 message on Penn’s website. “These cuts by NIH will affect universities across the country, and we continue to explore legal options to address these reductions.” Jameson estimated that the move could result in a loss of $240 million in annual federal funding for the university.

Officials at Pennsylvania State University have also publicly expressed their worries. Andrew F. Read, Penn State’s senior vice president for research, and Dr. Karen E. Kim, dean of Penn State’s College of Medicine, said that the university could lose a total of $35.2 million if the decision holds. “The loss of these funds will substantially reduce our ability to conduct groundbreaking research, particularly in the health sciences,” the two university leaders said in a statement. For the time being, a federal judge in Massachusetts has temporarily blocked the NIH cut from taking effect. 

PA food banks feeling federal funding freeze

Pennsylvania food banks are also feeling the pinch from the Trump administration’s funding pause. 

Joe Arthur, executive director of the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank, told PennLive this week that the freeze has disrupted the federal Local Food Purchasing Program. “Right now, we have to pause our farm acquisition because we can’t take the risk of not being reimbursed for hundreds of thousands of dollars,” Arthur told the outlet. “Federal funding is definitely important to our mission. We’re monitoring it very, very closely.” 

Meanwhile, in Allentown, Anne Egan, the executive director of the Allentown Area Ecumenical Food Bank, told WFMZ that the move is “devastating” to the food bank and that the pantry is running short on produce. 

Iron Mountain limestone mine draws attention of Elon Musk

A former Butler County limestone mine is now in the limelight after attracting attention from tech billionaire Elon Musk, who is advising the president and leading government reform efforts at the Department of Government Efficiency, otherwise known as DOGE.

The underground data center and record storage facility, located in Boyers and operated by Iron Mountain, attracted Musk's attention because the federal government used it to store retirement paperwork. 

“This mine looks like something out of the ’50s, because it was started in 1955. It’s like a time warp,” Musk said during a press conference with Trump in the Oval Office. “The limiting factor is the speed at which the mine shaft elevator can move determines how many people can retire from the federal government. The elevator breaks down sometimes, and then nobody can retire. Doesn’t that sound crazy? There’s like a thousand people that work on this … So I think if we take those people and say, like, ‘You know what, instead of working in a mine shaft and carrying manila envelops to boxes in a mine shaft, you could be practically anything else, and you would add to the goods and services of the United States in a more useful way.’”

Musk suggested the Iron Mountain facility is an example of where the government could improve productivity and efficiency – despite the fact that the facility is operated by the private sector, not government employees. 

Federal employees have already pushed back on Musks’s claims, telling the Butler Eagle that the site does not have an elevator and that the handling of retirement records varies accordingly.