Local officials discuss potential effects on programs
Staff, wire reports
A federal judge on Tuesday temporarily blocked a push from President Donald Trump to pause federal funding while his administration conducts an across-the-board ideological review to uproot progressive initiatives.
The Trump administration plan plunged the U.S. government into panic and confusion and set the stage for a constitutional clash over control of taxpayer money.
The order from U.S. District Judge Loren L. AliKhan came minutes before the funding freeze was scheduled to go into effect. It lasts until Monday afternoon and applies only to existing programs.
Administration officials said the decision was necessary to ensure that all funding complies with Trump’s executive orders, which are intended to undo progressive steps on transgender rights, environmental justice and diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, efforts.
They also said that federal assistance to individuals would not be affected, including Social Security, Medicare, food stamps, student loans and scholarships.
However, the funding freeze could affect trillions of dollars, at least temporarily, and cause widespread disruption in health care research, education programs and other initiatives. Even grants that have been awarded but not spent are supposed to be halted. State agencies and early education centers appeared to be struggling to access money from Medicaid and Head Start, stirring anxiety with answers hard to come by in Washington.
Officials with Monongalia County Schools weighed in on the panic surrounding Head Start.
Donna Talerico, Mon’s deputy superintendent of schools, reported “great relief” as she said that Head Start programs, so far, have escaped the federal funding suspensions.
“If you start taking away funds,” she said, “Mon County families are going to be affected. I can’t put it any more clear than that.”
Mon’s Head Start efforts received a $1.8 million grant last fall. At the time, there were more than 300 families enrolled.
Health care executives said it may be too early to tell what effects the freeze could have on local and regional systems.
David Goldberg, president and CEO of Mon Health System and Davis Health System – Vandalia Health Northern Region, and executive vice president of Vandalia Health, said Tuesday, “The announced federal spending freeze does not impact patient care but may affect grants and some discretionary funding from the federal government. Currently, we see no impacts but are watching developments closely. Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and other individual governmental support are not affected by this executive order.”
WVU Medicine told The Dominion Post on Tuesday, “We’re not yet prepared to make a public statement about this topic. Like many others, we’re still gathering information and assessing the OMB directive.”
The Dominion Post reached out to WVU for comment but did not hear back by deadline.
Healthcare Dive, an online medical news source, reported Tuesday afternoon that several lawmakers in Congress reported that states are being shut out of Medicaid payment portals, despite a new White House fact sheet saying Medicaid is not subject to the pause.
Medicaid portals are down in all 50 states, according to a post on X from Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore. Wyden called it a “blatant attempt to rip away health insurance from millions of Americans overnight” that “will get people killed.”
Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii, Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut and Rep. Maxwell Frost of Florida also confirmed Medicaid payment systems are offline in their states.
The reports conflict with messaging coming from the White House. “Mandatory programs like Medicaid and SNAP will continue without pause,” according to a Q&A from the Trump administration obtained by Healthcare Dive.
Providers have reported other payment systems are also offline, suggesting the outages could be part of a broader shutdown of federal portals related to grants and funding.
The HHS’ payment management website currently has a warning notice that payments may be delayed or rejected “due to Executive Orders regarding potentially unallowable grant payments.”
On Monday, Trump’s acting budget director sent a memo to all federal agencies directing them to halt all financial assistance, including grants and loans, starting at 5 p.m. Tuesday. The pause will remain in place until the Office of Management and Budget has a chance to review the spending, according to the memo.
Court battles are imminent, the Associated Press reported, and Democratic New York Attorney General Letitia James plans to ask a Manhattan federal court to block the Republican president’s moves.
“My office will be taking imminent legal action against this administration’s unconstitutional pause on federal funding,” she said on social media.
The issue dominated the first briefing held by White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt. She said the administration was trying to be “good stewards” of public money by making sure that there was “no more funding for transgenderism and wokeness.”
Democrats and independent organizations described the pause as capricious and illegal because Congress had already authorized the money.
It’s unclear from the White House memo how sweeping the pause will be. Vaeth said all spending must comply with Trump’s executive orders,
Vaeth wrote that “each agency must complete a comprehensive analysis of all of their Federal financial assistance programs to identify programs, projects, and activities that may be implicated by any of the President’s executive orders.” He also wrote that the pause should be implemented “to the extent permissible under applicable law.”
