Democracy in Crisis
May 2, 2025
Amy Jacobson, Prairie Action ND
Good morning. My name is Amy Jacobson, Executive Director of Prairie Action ND. We work to advance social and economic justice right here in North Dakota by supporting local communities and organizations through strategic communications, education, and grassroots organizing.
I’m here today, standing with others, with a clear and urgent message for our federal delegation — Senators Hoeven, Cramer, and Representative Fedorchak: It’s time to come home and listen.
We are calling on you to hold in-person town halls across North Dakota during the upcoming congressional recess, May 24th through June 3rd. This is not a symbolic request — it’s your obligation. In uncertain times, your constituents deserve to be seen, heard, and answered.
Right now, the impacts of federal decisions are hitting North Dakotans hard.
Let’s start with housing. When federal grants disappear, so do critical services. High Plains Fair Housing, which takes nearly 800 calls a year, is struggling to continue their work helping people with disabilities, survivors of domestic violence, and families facing housing discrimination due to federal grant loss.
Farmers, the heart of our economy, are being whiplashed by trade policy. As NDFU put it, tariffs are a “lose-lose” for farmers and North Dakota. Topped off with cuts to USDA staffing, and farmers are rightly worried they won’t be able to access federal loans or support when they need it most.
Veterans are crying out. They’re alarmed that VA staffing cuts will increase wait times, have life and death impacts on health care and crush into less-equipped community systems. These are men and women who served this country, they deserve better.
Our universities NDSU and UND have already seen critical research programs cut, programs that brought in hundreds of thousands of dollars to support students, faculty, and statewide innovation. These cuts don’t just stall progress; they shut doors for future generations.
And people with disabilities– just this week in Minot, 23 employees were laid off from the North Dakota Center for Persons with Disabilities. That’s not a budget adjustment — it’s a direct blow to some of the most vulnerable people in our state.
Now let’s talk about the deeper fears, the potential dismantling of core federal programs:
Head Start– NDKids court reports approximately 2,694 children across North Dakota, including four tribal Head Start programs that enrolled 736 children are enrolled in Head Start.Eliminating it, as proposed by the Trump administration, would strip early education from families who rely on it most. It’s not just short-sighted… it’s cruel.
SNAP helps more than 45,000 North Dakotans put food on the table. Over 66% are children and 32% are families with older or disabled adults. But the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, led by Elon Musk, has already shuttered food programs that supported schools, food banks, and local farmers. That’s not reform — it’s abandonment.
Medicaid– its a lifeline..
Medicaid is a joint federal and state program that provides health coverage to low-income individuals and families, including: Children, Pregnant women, Seniors, People with disabilities and Some low-income adults
100,000 North Dakotans are enrolled in Medicaid.
But behind closed doors in Washington, sub subcommittees are discussing deep Medicaid cuts.. And yes, our own Rep. Julie Fedorchak sits on one of those very committees, the Energy and Commerce Committee, tasked with finding hundreds of billions in cuts from Medicaid.
These numbers represent real North Dakotans people who worked hard, paid in, and now fear losing the very basics: healthcare, housing, food, education, and dignity.
These are not hypotheticals, these are active policy discussions in Washington that threaten programs our most vulnerable neighbors rely on to survive, and our federal delegation owes them answers.
That’s why we’re standing here today.
We demand in-person town halls during the May 24th to June 3rd recess. We expect our federal delegation to look us in the eye, not through a computer monitor, and answer for these decisions. Democracy only works when leaders show up and North Dakotans are watching.