Georgia Rep. Nikema Williams and Atlanta city councilwoman Andrea L. Boone held a joint budget town hall at Jackson Memorial Baptist Church on Thursday. The two listened to concerns and questions from constituents of the “fighting fifth” congressional district, which includes a significant portion of Atlanta and other cities such as Brookhaven, College Park, Decatur, East Point, Forest Park, Lake City, Morrow, and South Fulton.
Nearly 200 people packed the church pews to express their issues and concerns. The town hall began with a moment of silence for DeKalb County officer Derrick Rose, who was killed in the line of duty after responding to a shooting at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) headquarters in Atlanta. Williams then lamented the gun violence in the city. She touched on the Israel-Hamas war and humanitarian crisis in Gaza, which garnered a round of applause and an interrupting yell from a member in the audience, who demanded she call it a “genocide.”
“Nowhere in the world should children be dying of starvation or forced to live in the conditions that the people of Gaza have had to endure. That too is unacceptable. It’s not just enough for me to say this is unacceptable; I have to lead with my actions as a leader in this country,” Williams said. “What I know is that we have atrocities happening right here at home in our backyard.”
Williams criticized the Trump Administration and its One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which was signed into law on July 4, 2025. The bill affects tax reform and includes shifts in healthcare, immigration, and SNAP. Williams said that while Americans, young and old, experience cuts to healthcare, food assistance and educational programs and grants, the rich will benefit from tax breaks.
According to data posters displayed at the church’s altar, 651,540 people across Georgia will lose healthcare, 154,000 people across Georgia will lose food assistance, 180,913 students in Georgia will have their Pell Grants cut or eliminated, and 2,023,789 social security recipients in Georgia who receive $3.6 billion in monthly benefits will be affected.
“We are here because decisions made in Washington, D.C., on the federal budget, Medicaid, taxes, infrastructure, and so much more directly impact our everyday lives right here in Atlanta,” Boone said. Some of those developments are positive and deserve to be celebrated. Others require us to push back, speak up, and demand better. Tonight is about hearing directly from you.”
The districts’ constituents presented a range of concerns about housing, Medicaid, President Trump and Republican control of Congress, the deployment of The National Guard in D.C., and the crisis in Gaza, the latter of which presented a moment where a Palestinian woman began aiming criticism at U.S. support for Israel while another member of the audience was asking a question about the war.
Many expressed their surprise and satisfaction at seeing so many people attend the town hall, with demands that the people of Atlanta fight back against the current administration.
“The Trump administration is telling our students to dream smaller. It’s telling our families to make smaller portions and making our medical debts larger, all for tax cuts to billionaires,” Williams said. “I am just your voice in D.C., but we do this work together. So, it is important that I hear from you. It is important that you raise your voice, especially at this moment with so much confusion and chaos in this country.”