City Council Members Lincoln Restler and Justin Brannan slammed Adams administration officials for not showing up to a hearing about preparing for Trump’s funding cuts on Wednesday, April 16, 2025.
Credit: Emil Cohen/NYC Council Media Unit
City Council leaders on Wednesday fumed over Mayor Eric Adams administration officials not showing up to a hearing on preparing for Trump’s deep funding cuts and submitting written testimony instead — a move they said shows Hizzoner “remains silent” in the face of Trump’s attacks.
City Council Member Lincoln Restler (D-Brooklyn), a frequent Adams critic, opened the proceedings by pointing out that no one from the mayor’s administration was present. The hearing came after the council released a plan to “Trump-proof” city services against federal funding cuts from the president and billionaire Elon Musk, who heads the so-called “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE).
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Restler arguedthat the administration’s absence at the hearing demonstrated that City Hall was not only unprepared for an onslaught of cuts to funding that supported vital programs but also thatAdams was seemingly more loyal to Trump than the city he governed.
“Today, no one from the Adams administration is here to answer our questions,” Restler said. “The mayor once again has chosen to be silent while Donald Trump makes us less safe, destabilizes our economy, and deports our neighbors. The lack of planning and preparation by this administration for the impending tsunami of cuts is a complete dereliction of duty.”
Restler also noted that the council had not received the administration’s written testimony by the start of the hearing. The mayor’s office said the testimony was later sent to the council.
City Council Finance Chair Justin Brannan charged that City Hall only informed the legislative body late Tuesday night that it would not send anyone to testify at the hearing and would instead submit written remarks.
“It’s an absolute disgrace that the administration chose to refuse to show up today,” said Brannan, who happens to be running for NYC comptroller. “It’s a slap in the face to every New Yorker who deserves answers. At a moment of unprecedented budget threats, the administration should be standing with us and not ducking accountability.”
‘Political stunt’?
The dust-up comes as Adams has faced consistent rebukes from City Council members and many other Democratic politicians for refusing to criticize Trump in the wake of the Justice Department moving to drop his corruption charges.
Adams spokesperson Kayla Mamelak Altus blasted the hearing as a “political stunt,” while arguing that the administration’s written testimony lays out all that it has done to counter Trump’s already enacted funding cuts.
“When a reduction in funds has indeed taken place, our administration has filed lawsuits, submitted affidavits, lobbied the federal government, and done more to ensure our city gets the critical funding we need, and our written testimony provides extensive detail on all that work,” she said. “Any council member claiming otherwise is exposing this hearing for what it truly was: a political stunt, not a genuine effort to solve problems.”
The Adams administration has sued the feds to recoup $80 million in migrant crisis funding it clawed back from a city bank account in February. It has also pledged to sue to block Trump from taking back another $106 million in migrant aid.
Mamelak Altus said administration officials decided to submit written testimony rather than show up in person because they do not want to reveal their contingency plans for countering looming funding cuts to the White House. She insisted council members have an open line to administration officials to get more information about how they are preparing.
Nevertheless, the council argues that Trump’s funding cuts are already occurring rapidly and that the city must prepare for them immediately.
“Let’s be clear: Approximately all-in 10% of the city budget comes from federal funding,” Brannan said. “Just a few months into Trump’s return, the federal government has already clawed back hundreds of millions of legally appropriated dollars from Congress, money we counted on to provide housing, health care, food, shelter to New Yorkers.”
The plan includes investing in areas under threat by Trump at both the federal and local levels, such as combating infectious diseases, counterterrorism, and disaster relief. It proposes investing $8 million to transform city health clinics into vaccination and immunization sites; $2.5 million for the NYPD to hire 25 more counterterrorism officers; and $2 million to better train and prepare New York City Emergency Management workers for natural disasters.
