In today’s news and commentary, President Trump’s proposed budget aims to eliminate the Legal Services Corporation, Colgate settles a class action lawsuit, and local governments prepare for hurricane season following FEMA cuts.

The Trump administration recently released a budget appendix which requests $21 million for an “orderly closeout” of the Legal Services Corporation (LSC). The proposed elimination of the independent agency threatens the funding of 130 non-profit legal aid programs, the representation of approximately 6.4 million low-income people, and the employment of staff at legal aid organizations, a group that unionizes at higher rates than the rest of the legal industry. President Trump attempted to eliminate the LSC in 2018, but failed after meeting bipartisan resistance. Defenders of the LSC say the proposed elimination is not cost-justified, citing over fifty studies in the last 25 years that show a positive return on investment.

On Thursday, Colgate-Palmolive Co. and a class of 1,100 retirees agreed to settle a nine-year-old lawsuit regarding pension benefit calculations. The case was originally filed in 2016 by two former employees who alleged that the company was underpaying residual annuities to certain retirees. In 2020, a federal judge ruled in favor of the retirees and ordered Colgate to recalculate the annuity payments, but stayed the proceedings pending appeal. Following several trips to the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, the parties have finally reached agreement and expect court approval by August 15. The parties did not share details of the agreement.

State and local governments are bracing for hurricane season following staff cuts at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Since President Trump’s inauguration, an already undermanned FEMA has seen several months of additional firings, grant freezes, and canceled initiatives. The agency has been led by “a rotating cast of interim chiefs” who have attempted to shift preparation and response costs to states and localities. Alan Harris, Emergency Manager for Seminole County, Florida said, “We are planning that FEMA is not coming. We pray that FEMA is. But our contingency plan is that they aren’t.” “It is a disaster waiting to happen,” said Robert Verchick, a climate change legal expert at Loyola University in New Orleans. The Atlantic hurricane season began on June 1 and is expected to be more active than usual this year.