Gov. Tina Kotek reacts to Trump, his policies, after visit to Washington D.C.

An annual business meeting between federal and state leaders at the White House last Friday started off on a good foot, Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek said.

A bipartisan group of governors met with cabinet secretaries in small groups to talk about their concerns, and she felt like they provided some assurance they would work on the issues the governors raised. Conversations were constructive, she said.

Then a more than hourlong address by President Donald Trump shifted the tone, Kotek said. In what’s become a viral moment, Trump sparred with Maine Gov. Janet Mills over an executive order he’d issued banning transgender women and girls from competing in women’s sports. Trump threatened to cut Maine’s federal funding if it didn’t comply. Mills replied she’d see him in court.

“I was extremely disappointed,” Kotek said. “I think it broke the tenor of the day.”

During the National Governor’s Association event in Washington, D.C., Kotek urged federal officials to provide more clarity and stability around critical funding streams and jobs for the federal workforce, she told reporters at a news conference on Monday. The issue is one of particular importance for rural Oregon, she said, where there are wide swaths of federal land and a host of federal employees.

Kotek raised concerns about staffing at the Bonneville Power Administration with Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, she said, and urged Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins to restore wildfire mitigation grants.

Oregon has already hired people to do fire fuel removal work in the state to prepare for the fire season, she said, but federal wildfire grants need to go forward. Federal officials assured her and other western governors that they are reviewing those grants, Kotek said.

“It will be very difficult for us to be ready for the fire season without full partnership from the federal government,” Kotek said. “My understanding from those meetings is that they are reassessing, and I hope they do that quickly.”

Questioned by reporters on her concerns over a federal lawsuit targeting Oregon’s sanctuary laws for immigrants, Kotek played it cool. Oregon has not seen a specific threat from the Trump administration yet, she said, and if or when one arises she will analyze it with the state’s attorney general.

“Right now, we’re following our law and federal immigration officials are doing whatever they need to do,” Kotek said.

She also said that she is not aware of any plans by the federal government to detain undocumented immigrants at a site in Oregon, as suggested by a Friday New York Times article. Sites in several other states are also reportedly under consideration.

Oregon has a relatively low presence of Department of Defence facilities compared to other states, Kotek said “so I think it’s unlikely that they’d be looking at us.”

While an ominous threat of federal funding cuts looms over state budget items from health care to wildfire to education, Kotek said she’s cautioning legislative leaders and financial planners not to overreact.

Oregon will have to keep an eye on the federal funding situation, she said, but should focus on passing a budget that meets the state’s needs.

“I think it’s going to be quite a while before we understand the full impact of any potential restrictions on federal funding,” she said. “Right now we are just analyzing what we’re seeing from the Trump administration, but I can’t say today what we think is going to happen.”

Sami Edge covers higher education and politics for The Oregonian. You can reach her at sedge@oregonian.com or (503) 260-3430.