JOHN YANG: Tonight on PBS News Weekend, President Trump and top congressional leaders are set to meet in the Oval Office trying to avert a government shutdown that could result in and even more mass federal worker layoffs.

Then, why renters are increasingly outnumbering homeowners in the suburbs of some of America's biggest cities.

And a special musician racks up millions of views online with performances tailored to help neurodivergent children.

MAN: I believe that's what music was created for, to bring everybody together.

And so to see that is something that wows me every day.

(BREAK) JOHN YANG: Good evening.

I'm John Yang.

The battle lines are drawn for tomorrow's high stakes Oval Office meeting between President Trump and bipartisan congressional leaders one day before the deadline to avert a government shutdown.

Appearing separately on NBC's Meet the Press, Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer each said the other would be to blame for a shutdown.

SEN.

JOHN THUNE (R) Majority Leader: I think there is potentially a path forward.

We have to see where it goes.

But we can't do it while the American people are being held hostage by the Democrats in a government shutdown.

SEN.

CHUCK SCHUMER (D) Minority Leader: We need a serious negotiation.

Now, if the president at this meeting is going to rant and just yell at Democrats and talk about all his alleged grievances and say this, that and the other thing, we won't get anything done.

JOHN YANG: Republicans want a short term spending bill without any other provisions, while Democrats say the price of their support is restoring Medicaid cuts and extending subsidies that help low and middle income earners buy health insurance under the Affordable Care Act.

Adding to the uncertainty are administration plans to use a shutdown to fire more federal workers.

Eric Katz covers federal agencies for the online publication Government Executive.

Eric, tell us about these plans to use this shutdown to fire more federal workers.

ERIC KATZ, Reporter, Government Executive: The White House, through its budget office, put out guidance this past week advising agencies that they should develop plans to instead of having the normal furloughs of, you know, employees are sent home only until the shutdown ends, they would instead be sent home permanently.

They would lose their jobs.

The White House said the agencies should focus on any federal employee who doesn't receive special funding for their job.

So anyone funded through the normal annual appropriations and anyone whose work is not focused on Trump administration priority.

So there'd be certain areas that would be exempted from this, but large swaths of the federal government would be facing potential layoffs under this shutdown.

JOHN YANG: How does this fit in with the president's goal of reshaping the federal government and making it smaller?

ERIC KATZ: President Trump has been focused on shrinking the size of the federal workforce and the federal government since he took office.

Not too long after he took office, he ordered similar layoff plans from every agency.

A couple agencies went through with those.

Health and Human Services, for one, laid off 10,000 people.

But a lot of those got held up in court, and then they never ended up being implemented, at least not yet.

But the administration has taken other steps to shrink the federal workforce through offering various incentives.

I believe the administration has said that around 2 or 300,000 federal employees will be off the rolls by the end of September compared to what they inherited in January.

Then they also have a hiring freeze.

So very few new employees are coming in.

And this is just the next step in that process to potentially further shrink the agency's workforces.

JOHN YANG: In your conversations with federal workers, is this adding to the anxiety and the concern as we approach a possible shutdown?

ERIC KATZ: It absolutely is.

We've talked to a lot of folks over the last couple days since this memo came out.

Everyone is sort of panicked.

There's always a bit of anxiety during a shutdown.

Over half the federal workforce, in a normal shutdown continues to work, and they only on the promise of delayed pay.

They face a lot of negative rhetoric from the administration over the last several months, and they've been incentivized and pushed and in some cases, forced out of their jobs.

And this is, like I said, the next step in that.

And we've been hearing from folks over the last few months that their workforces are already trimmed back to the bone and they're already struggling to carry out key functions.

Some of these agencies are doing less enforcement or less oversight.

At national parks, there's bathrooms that are not being cleaned and certain services that are no longer being offered.

We've reported on the Forest Service that they.

They're really struggling to keep haste.

You could really go down the gamut with this.

You know, we've talked to people at Veterans Affairs who are saying that they're not able to provide the same care that they used to because of staffing issues there.

And if there's further cuts, further layoffs, that would only exacerbate some of these issues that we've been hearing about.

And employees, you know, you talk about morale.

The employees have been saying for months that because of this pressure to leave and because of some of the rhetoric that's being coming out from the White House that they just.

They feel attacked or villainized.

And this is, you know, as we're having these discussions over the last few days, they're saying this is just continuing to add to that.

JOHN YANG: You know, a lot of people, when they hear federal workers, they think Washington, D.C.

but.

But it goes well beyond that, doesn't it?

ERIC KATZ: Yeah.

About 15 percent of federal workforce is based in the D.C.

area.

Vast majority is spread out around the country and around the world in some cases.

We actually, before this memo came out, we had reported that the Interior Department, for example, is contemplating and preparing for widespread layoffs.

And those employees are in national parks and in regional offices all around the country.

You can think through Social Security Administration and VA and all sorts of land management agencies in addition to Interior and, you know, even like EPA enforcement there.

These people are not just in D.C.

but they're in offices all around the country.

And some of them would almost certainly be subject to these layoffs if they are seen through.

JOHN YANG: Eric Katz of Government Executive.

Thank you very much.

ERIC KATZ: Thank you.

JOHN YANG: In Tonight's other headlines.

There's been a shooting in a church in Michigan.

It's left at least two people dead, several others injured and the church in flames.

It happened during worship services at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Grand Blank, Michigan, which is about 50 miles north of Detroit.

The police chief said a 40-year-old man rammed his vehicle into the front door of the church, started shooting at worshippers and then set the church on fire.

WILLIAM RENYE, Police Chief, Grand Blanc Township: We believe that was deliberately set by the suspect.

We do believe that we will find additional victims once we have that scene secure.

JOHN YANG: Police said the two officers who initially responded to the scene immediately took the shooter out.

His motive is still unknown.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams is ending his bid for reelection.

The Democrat, who was running as an independent, made the announcement in a video posted to social media.

Adams campaign had been hurt by his now dismissed federal bribery case and by liberal anger over his warm relations with President Trump.

The remaining candidates include Democratic nominee and frontrunner Zoran Mamdani, former Governor Andrew Cuomo, who's running as an independent, and Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa.

Oregon Governor Tina Kotek is pushing back on President Trump's demand to send troops to Portland.

Kotek, a Democrat, said she called Mr.

Trump to say that Portland is not a war ravaged city as he says it is.

Kotek said sending troops to the city would only create conflict.

GOV.

TINA KOTEK (D) Oregon: Oregon is our home.

It is not a military target.

Any deployment would be an abuse of power and a misuse of federal troops.

JOHN YANG: The White House hasn't laid out a timeline for deploying troops or said where they would be stationed.

Kotek urged the public to stay calm and said violence will not be tolerated.

And the Southeast is bracing for the effects of newly designated Tropical Storm Imelda, which is churning away in the Atlantic.

The National Hurricane Center says Imelda is expected to further strengthen and bring tropical storm conditions to Florida beginning tomorrow.

It's then forecast to move north, and while it's not expected to make landfall, it is likely to bring heavy rainfall, flooding and dangerous surf to the coastal Carolinas into Wednesday morning.

Still to come on PBS News Weekend public transit systems in crisis across the country and the rise of renters in the suburbs of some of the nation's biggest cities.

(BREAK) JOHN YANG: A shortfall in federal transportation funding is threatening bus and metro systems across the country.

When ridership dropped during the pandemic, the government spent billions of dollars to support public transit.

But that money has largely run out.

And now with inflation added to the mix, local governments are saddled with hundreds of millions of dollars in deficits.

That's leading to reduced services and increased fares.

Ali Rogin explores the effect all of this is having beyond the morning commute with Philip Plotch, the principal researcher and senior fellow at The Eno Center for Transportation.

ALI ROGIN: Philip Plotch, thank you for joining us.

How did regional public transit systems find themselves at the edge of this financial cliff?

PHILIP PLOTCH, The Eno Center for Transportation: So you might remember when the pandemic first hit, there was a real concern about a potential for a real economic crisis in the United States.

That's why the government, the federal government pumped so much money into the economy.

They lent a lot of money to small businesses.

Money was given to schools, local governments, and about 70 billion with to B went to keep public transportation running across the country.

The thinking was people needed to get jobs, supermarkets and hospitals.

And remember, we wanted all of our frontline workers to get to work.

The programs worked, the economy kept chugging along.

But now many agencies are running out of money because ridership is down.

So compared to what it was before the pandemic, about 14 percent fewer people are taking the bus and about 28 percent fewer people are taking the train.

So the transit agencies, they're making cuts.

They've been stretching out the COVID funding, and they've just been hoping that the state and local governments are going to help bail them out before their money runs out.

That's why many of them are now staring at the edge of a cliff without any good options.

ALI ROGIN: And how is this disrupting the average commuter who is still trying to get to work every day right now?

PHILIP PLOTCH: If you're a transit rider, you might need it to get to a job or a medical appointment, school or grocery store.

You might not be able to get there if you don't have the bus service or the train service, or they're going to be more crowded, or you're going to have to wait longer.

And sometimes the long wait, we're not talking about 10 or 15 minutes.

So imagine you take one bus to another bus and you need a transfer.

If that second bus is only running one every hour, your one hour bus ride could turn into a two-hour bus ride really fast.

If we cut service across the country at transit agencies, it affects people who don't use transit.

So there's more traffic on the roads, it's harder to find parking spaces.

When there's more traffic in a city, it slows down emergency vehicles.

It really hurts everybody.

ALI ROGIN: So let's talk a little bit more about what we saw in Philadelphia.

Sort of a case study in how this is playing out.

What's been happening there and what are the chances that it's going to repeat itself in other cities like San Francisco, Chicago and the like.

PHILIP PLOTCH: So Philadelphia has been staring down a $200 million annual shortfall.

$200 million.

And they put a plan together to cut service, eliminate routes, and to stop service in late evening and early in the morning.

And a judge put it on hold.

So they are going to continue their service.

But what they're doing now is possibly worse.

They're taking money that was set aside from improving their system and now they're using it to keep running the same level of service they had.

So it's sort of like if you set aside money to, let's say, fix up your roof to pay your grocery bills, the water is going to keep seeping into your leaky roof.

It might ruin the ceiling, it might ruin the wiring.

So you can spend $1,000 now to fix up your roof, but it could cost you $30,000 later if you're not taking care of it.

That's going to happen at transit agencies if they start taking the money set aside for upgrading their system to use it just to run their day to day service.

At some point things just break down more often and they're more expensive over the long term and they're not as safe.

So the transit agencies are really trying to avoid what they refer to as a death spiral.

That means they cut service so service is less attractive and fewer people are going to be using it.

And then because fewer people are using it, they have to cut service.

And it's really sad for people who really need to use public transportation.

ALI ROGIN: But this is also happening or has the potential to happen in other cities.

Right?

PHILIP PLOTCH: Some cities have already taken care of this problem.

They've sort of gotten ahead of it.

So Massachusetts recently passed a millionaires tax and money is going to be used for their transit authority up in Boston.

In New Jersey, the state legislature is taking money from the tolls from the New Jersey Turnpike and the Garden State Parkway.

And Minnesota increased their sales tax and their gas tax to pay for more.

But there are places that are really taking a hit.

And San Francisco you mentioned, that's going to be a big problem.

So San Francisco has two things going on.

The Bay Area, a lot more people work from home than any other region.

So there's fewer people.

Also, they relied on their fare.

The BART system, that's the Bay Area Rapid Transit.

They relied about 70 percent of their expenses came from the fares and also from parking fees.

Now because the ridership has plummeted so much, only about 20 percent of their money is coming in.

So they really have to look for the local and state governments for help.

So it's really -- it's different.

Every, every city is different.

Pittsburgh is facing a big problem while other places aren't necessarily going through that same thing.

ALI ROGIN: Philip Plotch with The Eno Center for Transportation, thank you so much.

PHILIP PLOTCH: And thank you for informing all of your listener.

JOHN YANG: As the cost of homeownership soars across the country, renting has emerged as an increasingly popular alternative, and not just in cities, but in suburbs, too.

An analysis of Census data by Point2Homes, an online marketplace for rental homes, found a steady rise in the number of renters in suburbs surrounding the country's 20 biggest metropolitan areas.

Some of the big reasons the shortage of affordable housing, coupled with the rising cost of homeownership.

Doug Ressler is a manager of business intelligence at Yardi Matrix, which is a sister company to Point2Homes that creates software for the real estate industry.

Doug, how big a piece of this is affordability, or are there other factors driving this?

DOUG RESSLER, Yardi Matrix: It's a very significant piece.

This really has started since 2008 with the financial crisis when there were a lot of evictions and home turnovers.

And exponentially the demand kept growing, but the supply did not.

So over the course of the last 10 to 15 years, this problem has been exacerbated and will continue to grow until we find reasonable solutions to the issue of affordability.

JOHN YANG: You call it a problem.

What's the -- what's at issue here?

What's, what's the problem, I guess of people deciding to rent rather than buy?

DOUG RESSLER: Well, the problem is, prior to 2008, you would see a migration pattern of folks who rented, moving out, starting households, and buying homes that has been abbreviated because of the cost of a home, the lack of supply, and the affordability of the home.

So what you have is you have demographic groups renting longer and not being able to purchase a home.

JOHN YANG: Now, I know your report said that of the roughly 1,500 suburbs you looked at, 203 were majority renters.

Renters outnumbered owners.

Some of them were around military bases, where you'd expect a transient population.

But was there anything in common or a common thread among the other -- the other places?

DOUG RESSLER: What you saw is typically student centers, academics, universities.

What we found in addition to the military, that people drive their roots deep and they tend not to migrate great distances.

Migration patterns are down from what they were three years ago with the pandemic.

And so that mobility has decreased.

And what people are looking at is where to find the best affordability within a general geospace that is very small.

JOHN YANG: You said that sort of the progression of starting out in the city, renting an apartment, moving out to the suburbs, buying a home is changing.

Are the demographics changing or is it just that the people who move out to the suburbs are renting rather than buying?

DOUG RESSLER: It's certainly the demographics.

What we find is that Gen Zers typically like urban cores.

They like the social environment.

They like the availability of restaurants and social amenities.

What we find with Millennials is that they are looking starting a household, they have children, they're looking for better school systems.

JOHN YANG: Beside other than that, the improvement of school systems is there.

Are they changing the culture or the nature of suburbs in any way?

DOUG RESSLER: They are.

And there's also pushback in terms of that.

You have NIMBYism, which means not in my backyard, that don't like to see rental communities established.

What we have found is, though, through studies that have been conducted by a myriad of people, that the ability to create households, either rental or purchase, adds to economic vibrancy in a given area.

It doesn't detract from it.

JOHN YANG: Builders and developers have noticed this trend and they're focusing more on multifamily residences rather than single family residences.

Could we reach the point where there's more choice, more inventory among multifamily residences instead of single family homes?

DOUG RESSLER: We're already beginning to see that inflection in terms of the BTR community, the build to rent community is being established.

So that whole niche market has grown and is continuing to grow.

JOHN YANG: What is it going to take to turn this around, to change this trend?

DOUG RESSLER: It's going to take a collaboration between governance and business.

And typically much of this is really situated at the local level.

So we really see it as a collaboration of all three groups, not just necessarily one group in general.

JOHN YANG: Doug Ressler of Yardi Matrix, thank you very much.

DOUG RESSLER: Thank you.

Privilege.

JOHN YANG: Finally tonight, a visit to Jahri's World, a place where quirky costumes and silly songs are designed to create a sensory oasis for neurodivergent children.

His videos on TikTok have gone viral, racking up millions of views.

Earlier, I spoke with the man behind the music, Jerry Turner.

I asked him how Jari's World got started.

JERRY TURNER, Children's Music Entertainment: So it was by accident.

Just I got asked, hey, do you want to work at a school?

And I'm just thinking it's just, you know, a public school.

But come to find out, you know, it's working with children on the spectrum.

So I had to learn quickly and adjust to a new world.

JOHN YANG: Jerry, I got to ask you, explain your costume.

JERRY TURNER: Okay, so I have a song called the Hot Jalapeno.

I'm a hot jalapeno.

And it was the first performing video I did that went viral on TikTok.

And I needed something cool to look in.

Like, even though it's not a jalapeno, it's close enough to.

So it was initially just for the video, but when I started performing at the schools, the children in the schools started getting excited about it.

I go by Jahri's World, but the children understood, oh, it's the pepper guy, the jalapeno guy, the chili pepper guy.

And the children kind of picked the costume out.

They made it into the entity that it is today.

JOHN YANG: I noted on your website you say that the primary goal is to help children learn and retain basic academic and social skills.

How do you do that?

JERRY TURNER: As a child, I really struggled academically, but I've always had an interest in music and entertaining while educating.

For me, it's pretty basic.

Comes pretty easy just finding a nice beat, nice cool melody and something that the children can get in touch with.

Because a lot of children, they grow up and they're just taught ABCs and counting shapes.

So when you make a song with those concepts now they feel a part of the performance because we are making songs that are relevant to where they are.

JOHN YANG: How does it feel when you see a child who may have been quiet before, maybe seem withdrawn, sort of get in touch with the music and your singing?

JERRY TURNER: That's what I live for when those moments happen, especially in the neurodivergent community, when they may not be able to necessarily be one accord somewhere in the music, spiritually, there's an alignment.

I believe that's what music was created for, to bring everybody together.

And so to see that is something that wows me every day.

It keeps it fun, spontaneous, and it keeps me humble and grateful.

JOHN YANG: And what sort of reaction do you get from parents?

JERRY TURNER: So after the shows and the interactions, you know, there's parents that I see smiles before they were coming in, kind of upset, mean, mugging, sad.

But then at the end, a lot of comments is, I've never seen my child be able to interact this way with other children.

I didn't know that they could sing.

I didn't know that they could dance.

I didn't know that they had these social skills.

JOHN YANG: Jerry Turner, also known as Jahri's World.

Thank you very much.

JERRY TRUNER: Thank you.

Thank you for having me.

JOHN YANG: Now on the NewsHour Instagram, we learn about the kissing bugs that have a sweet nickname but a deadly bite.

All that and more is on our NewsHour Instagram account.

And that is PBS News Weekend for this Sunday.

I'm John Yang.

For all of my colleagues, thanks for joining us.

Have a good week.