Trump Budget Would Strip $3 Million in Annual Federal Housing Funding From Pasadena, Lobbyist Warns

President Trump’s proposed fiscal year 2027 budget would eliminate two key federal housing programs that together provide roughly $3 million a year to the city of Pasadena, the city’s federal lobbyist reported to the Legislative Policy Committee on Tuesday.

Chris Giglio, the city’s Washington, D.C.-based federal advocate, told the committee that the president’s budget proposal calls for eliminating the Community Development Block Grant program and the Home Investment Partnerships Program, both administered by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The fiscal year 2027 budget cycle would technically begin Oct. 1.

Giglio said the proposal mirrors Trump’s budget submission last year, which called for massive increases in defense spending paired with deep cuts to domestic discretionary programs. He said reductions in some agencies were far worse than the overall 10 percent figure.

“Other agencies would experience deep cuts in programs like at the Department of Labor, the Department of Justice, lots of grant programs and formula programs that impact local governments,” Giglio said.

Despite the severity of the proposals, Giglio expressed cautious optimism that Congress would again reject the cuts. He noted that even the Republican-controlled Congress “pretty soundly rejected” similar proposals last year and largely maintained funding at prior-year levels.

However, Giglio cautioned that flat funding carries its own cost.

“Level funding over three or four years becomes a cut because you’re not growing with inflation,” he said, calling the preservation of existing program levels “a minor victory” given the scale of the president’s proposed reductions.

Giglio said the budget is likely the most significant piece of federal legislation Pasadena will see before the November elections, predicting that legislative activity will slow considerably by June or July as neither party will want to hand the other side victories heading into the campaign season.

He also briefed the committee on the partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security, noting that Congress left for its two-week spring recess without approving the department’s budget.

Giglio said a deal is expected to reopen the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Transportation Security Administration when Congress returns, while funding for immigration enforcement agencies would be extended separately.