Washington – A sudden judgment on subsidies and federal loans announced Monday evening by the Trump administration created generalized confusion through the government, the Congress, State Programs and non -profit organizations based on this funding .
The management and budget office sent A vaguely formulated two -page memo To all federal agencies on Monday evening ordered them to “temporarily suspend all activities related to the obligation or disbursement of all federal financial aid” which could conflict with the agenda of President Donald Trump.
The next morning, non -profit organizations said they were unable to embark on a system used to access federal funds to pay expenses, such as wages and rent.
The White House tries to clarify the affected programs
We do not know exactly which programs will be interrupted, but Omb also sent a document to agencies asking details on more than 2,600 programs, including school meals for low -income students, the American agency for foreign assistance International development, mining inspections, WIC program for pregnant women and infants and a reintegration program for homeless veterans.
In addition to information on the disbursement of funds, the OMB calculation sheet had more specific questions to the Trump Agenda, in particular:
- Does this program provide funding involved in the directive to end discriminatory programs, including illegal dei and “diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility” (DEIA) Mandates, policies, programs, preferences And activities, under Telon name, or other directives in the same EO, including those related to “environmental justice” programs or “actions” subsidies?
- Does this program promote gender ideology?
- Does this program promote or support in an abortion manner or other related activities identified in the Hyde amendment?
The OMB asked that the information be submitted by February 7.
A senior administration official said that action was not a freeze on funding, but a break to give agencies time to examine whether subsidies and federal loans comply with recent executive actions taken by Trump. The official said that the OMB has already worked with agencies to exempt certain programs and that The break would take effect at 5 p.m. Tuesday.
“This no longer means funding for the new green scam that cost US taxpayers tens of billions of dollars,” the White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Tuesday during her first briefing. bureaucracy and agencies. “”
The financing of programs which provide direct assistance to the Americans would be excluded from the break and exempt from the examination process, said the senior administration official. These programs include Medicaid, food coupons, assistance to small businesses, a step ahead, rental assistance and PELL federal subsidies for students, according to a service note sent Tuesday afternoon by OMB.
“If you receive individual assistance from the federal government, you will continue to receive it,” said Leavitt. “However, it is the responsibility of this president and this administration to be good intendants of taxpayers’ dollars.”
When asked specifically Medicaid, who provides health insurance to more than 70 million low -income and disabled Americans, Leavitt said that she would get journalists a full list of the OMB.
The CAMB memo sent Monday evening said that the financing examination would be linked to “activities that could be involved by decrees, including, but without limiting itself, financial aid for foreign aid, Non -governmental organizations, DEI, gender ideology. Green New Deal.
Non -profit organizations unable to access funds
The memo launched a wave of confusion and panic on Tuesday among non -profit organizations, which said they were unable to access the federal government systems used to withdraw previously allocated federal funds.
“Although we understand that this is an evolving story, this disruption, at best, will slow the capacity of Head Start agencies to pay hundreds of thousands of staff, entrepreneurs and small businesses that support HEAD START operations in all corners of the country, “Yasmina Vinci, Executive Director of the National Head Start Association. “At worst, this means that hundreds of thousands of families will not be able to depend on critical services and will probably not be able to work.”
A message at the top of a website used by health care providers and childhood education to access their federal funds has warned of possible delays.
“Due to decrees concerning the payments of potentially intestinable subsidies, PMS takes additional measures to treat payments. Applicable programs and payments examinations will lead to delays and / or discharges of payments, “said the message.
Local housing organizations did not know if they would have the available funding to help pay the rents due on February 1 for thousands of low -income households in subsidized housing across the country, said Ann Oliva, CEO of The National Alliance to End Homelessness. She said her organization had heard several members that the system had used funds to reimburse their housing costs was not available on Tuesday.
“What we hear this morning is honestly a fairly good panic of the beneficiaries,” said Oliva. “These programs exist in red states and blue states, and there are vulnerable people who will be affected in many communities and in all states across the country.”
If these funds are not made available in the coming days, organizations will not be able to pay the rents to the owners and certain tenants may be expelled.
The repercussions could also affect health programs, said Dr. Erin Sorrell, principal researcher at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. She said the funding of the National Institutes of Health could affect current clinical trials for infectious and chronic critical diseases.
“People travel across the country to participate in these trials, some vital tests,” said Sorrell. “The break has not only an impact on the researcher, their work, their livelihoods; this has an impact on the patients themselves, potentially fatal impacts.”
Medicaid confusion
Medicaid payments appeared on Tuesday because access to online gates was blocked across the country.
Medicaid websites manage the federal health funds used to help provide coverage of nearly 80 million people in the United States.
Leavitt Tuesday confirmed In an article, the portals were broken but said that no payment had been assigned.
In the United States, nearly 80 million people are registered in Medicaid, a public health insurance program that covers low-income people, making it the largest health care program funded by the federal government.
The program is jointly funded by the States and the federal government. States first cover the initial cost and are then reimbursed by the federal government for part of this cost – at least 50%.
States are required to provide information to the federal government on the measure they spend to be reimbursed, said Larry Levitt, executive vice-president of KFF health policy, a non-profit group that research health policy problems.
“If the federal money for Medicaid does not arise, the states remain holders of the bag, then finally the hospitals, the nursing homes and the doctors,” said Levitt.
Levitt said that estimated Medicaid payments to states are generally presented on a monthly basis – although this may vary – which means that action must occur quickly before it can potentially affect service providers and patients. »»
If there was a continuous uncertainty about the payment of the federal government on his part of Medicaid and that the States could not pay their bills, the doctors could very well start to divert the patients, said Levitt.
Hiking to the OMB Directive
A prosecution was filed on Tuesday against Camb at the Washington Federal Court, DC, by the National Council of Non -Lucrative Organizations and the American Public Health Association, requesting a temporary prohibition order to “maintain the status quo Until the court has the possibility of considering the illegality of the OMB actions more fully. »»
The National Low Income Housing Coalition urged its members to call members of the Congress to “repel the extreme order of the Trump administration to retain federal investments”.
“It’s super terribly written, and for this reason, we do not know exactly what it has an impact, that’s why you will see absolute chaos today and the days that followed, unless they do not clarify it “, a former official of the administration of President Joe Biden dit.
On Capitol Hill, legislators rushed to understand what the financing frost would mean for their voters.
“The scope of what you order is breathtaking, unprecedented and will have devastating consequences across the country”, the Democrats of the Chamber and the Senate credits committees – the representative Rosa Delauro, D -Conn. , And Senator Patty Murray, D-Wash. – wrote to the OMB, continuing to say that the break is unconstitutional and illegal.
During a press conference on Tuesday morning, Murray said that the Senate credit committee tried to contact the agencies to fully understand the impacts.
The head of the Senate minority, Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., told journalists on Tuesday morning: “It is a dagger in the heart of the average American family – in red states, in blue states, in cities , in the suburbs, in rural areas. It’s just scandalous. “”
A republican agent noted that a wide effort to redirect the mission of the federal government has long been an objective of the party – but that Trump took all this at the same time.
“Some of these things were only discussed during cocktails at the Bertation Foundation jokingly,” said the operator. “And they do everything.”
In an interview with the conference on the problems of the Républicains of the Chamber at Trump National Doral Miami, Chairman of the Chamber’s credits committee, Tom Cole, R-Okla., Smashed Trump’s frost on the aid, arguing that It is a way for Republicans to stop immediately spending with which they disagree.
“I think they do the right thing. They take control of the situation, “he said.” There is a lot of money to move at the end of the Biden administration. You know, quite typical. So I think they want to take control of this and make sure that nothing moves with which they do not agree. And they are good in their prerogative to do so. “”