Community health centers, like HealthLinc, operate on a thin margin budgetarily, so announcing a funding freeze “can cause chaos and panic,” said CEO Melissa Mitchell.
The next question, Mitchell said, was what does it mean. For example, would federal funds the state distributes count under the freeze, she said.
“There’s a little bit of uncertainty and definitely a level of uneasiness, almost to the point of fear,” Mitchell said.
Tuesday morning was filled with a “lack of clarity and uncertainty” at Meals on Wheels Northwest Indiana as information came in about a federal funding freeze, said CEO Ryan Elinkowski.
“We had some board members express concern. Some of the clients that we serve were also calling in. The just not knowing, the unknown, it was a challenging day,” Elinkowski said.
President Donald Trump’s budget office on Wednesday revoked a memo freezing spending on federal grants less than two days after it sparked widespread confusion and legal challenges across the country.
The Monday evening memo from the White House Office of Management and Budget sparked uncertainty over a crucial financial lifeline for states, schools and organizations that rely on trillions of dollars from Washington and left the White House scrambling to explain what would and wouldn’t be subject to a pause in funding.
Post-Tribune
Ron Monson, of Crown Point, checks the contents of a cooler at Meals On Wheels NWI in Merrillville Tuesday, May 11, 2021. Monson, a Xerox retiree, has been volunteering since last June. (Andy Lavalley/Post-Tribune)
The White House confirmed that OMB pulled the memo Wednesday in a two-sentence notice sent to agencies and departments, but said that Trump’s underlying executive orders targeting federal spending in areas like diversity, equity and inclusion and climate change, remained in place.
Administration officials said the notice to halt loans and grants was necessary to conduct a review to ensure that spending complies with Trump’s recent blitz of executive orders. Agencies had been directed to answer a series of yes or no questions on each federal program by Feb. 7. The questions included “does this program promote gender ideology?” and “does this program promote or support in any way abortion?”
Still, the vaguely worded memo, combined with incomplete answers from the White House throughout the day, left lawmakers, public officials and average Americans struggling to figure out what programs would be affected by the pause. Even temporary interruptions in funding could cause layoffs or delays in public services.
The freeze was scheduled to go into effect at 5 p.m. Tuesday, but was stayed by a federal judge until at least Monday after an emergency hearing requested by nonprofit groups that receive federal grants. An additional lawsuit by Democratic state attorneys general was also pending.
When the freeze was announced, Gov. Mike Braun issued a statement to “applaud” Trump’s decision to pause government spending. Braun said his office will release guidance to state agencies for compliance.
“This level of fiscal discipline is exactly the kind of leadership we need in Washington D.C. and is in line with the values of Hoosiers and the American people who elected him,” Braun, a former U.S. Senator, said in the statement. “I am confident we will continue to deliver needed services to Hoosiers with efficiency, doing more with less.”
U.S. Rep. Frank Mrvan, D-Highland, said in a statement that his office received many calls Tuesday from constituents and organizations directly impacted by the freeze.
Mrvan said the freeze was “disappointing” because federal funds that positively impact people, small businesses, Northwest Indiana municipalities and non-profit organizations that serve children, seniors and veterans.
“I believe that we are a nation of laws, and I will continue to fight to ensure that federal funds are spent as required under law to keep our nation and communities safe, to lower costs and to grow our economy,” Mrvan said.
Higher education research grants were impacted as well. Indiana University officials issued a statement, saying that it was notified to cease grant activities on a small number of awards but most active federal grant activity and proposal submissions should continue uninterrupted.
Over the last roughly two days, organizations like Meals on Wheels were left questioning if they would be impacted — and if so by how much — if the federal freeze went into effect.
Approximately 37% of Meals on Wheels funding comes from the Older Americans Act, which is a grant on the freeze list, said Meals on Wheels spokeswoman Jenny Young.
While the memo stated that funding pause excludes assistance “provided directly to individuals,” Meals on Wheels funding doesn’t go directly to the recipient, which caused confusion, said Meals on Wheels America President and CEO Ellie Hollander in a statement.
Meals on Wheels funding goes from the Agency on Aging within the Administration for Community Living to State Units on Aging and through area agencies on aging to roughly 5,000 community-based senior nutrition providers.
If the Older Americans Act nutrition program funding was paused, it could put millions of seniors who use Meals on Wheels for their nutritional needs at risk, Hollander said.
“This adds insult to injury as these programs are already underfunded to begin with. Freezing funding provided through the Older Americans Act nutrition program is unfathomable at a time when we should be addressing the gap between those Meals on Wheels can serve and those desperately in need — not halting an essential lifeline for millions of our nation’s most vulnerable,” Hollander said.
Meals on Wheels of Northwest Indiana’s meals continued to go out through Tuesday, Elinkowski said.
“We certainly weren’t going to make any interruptions to our service,” Elinkowski said.
The organization delivers about 2,000 meals a day, he said, which includes day cares and senior citizen centers. For homebound deliveries, Elinkowski said the deliveries are a form of a wellness check and human connection.
“Of course the nutrition is important, but some of our clients, our volunteers or staff are the only people they are seeing all day or all week,” Elinkowski said.
Meals on Wheels of Northwest Indiana “will remain vigilant” and monitor any future potential freezes, Elinkowski said.
Food Bank of Northwest Indiana staff and clients experienced “widespread confusion” throughout Tuesday, said CEO Victor Garcia.
The organization depends on federal and state funding to provide meals to thousands of people facing food insecurity, Garcia said. The organization’s The Emergency Food Assistance Program and the Commodity Supplemental Food Program, which serves vulnerable seniors, are federal programs, he said.
“A prolonged freeze on federal funding could hinder our ability to procure and distribute nutritious food, thereby exacerbating hunger in our community,” Garcia said.
Kelley Smith/AP
William Sigler, seventh-grade social studies teacher at Krueger Middle School, looks away as he gets his COVID-19 vaccination Friday, March 12, 2021 at Michigan City High School, thanks to a pop-up clinic hosted by HealthLinc. (Kelley Smith/The News Dispatch via AP)
At HealthLinc, about 15% of its 2024 budget was federally funded, Mitchell said. It provides various programs, from providing healthcare to the underserved to addiction and behavioral health services, she said.
“When someone says that all federal funding will stop, there’s a lot of concern, given that, as a group, we don’t frequently have a lot of rainy day funds to cover everything,” Mitchell said, adding that HealthLinc has some rainy day funds.
When the funding freeze was announced, Mitchell said HealthLinc staff were scared they would lose their jobs. On an administrative level, Mitchell said the website that distributes the funds and accepts reports was inactive amid the announced freeze.
While HealthLinc didn’t miss January payments, Mitchell said the administrative staff was anxious about submitting required federal reports, which are due Thursday.
“We’ve already made our budget for the year based on what we were already promised. Those things still exist even if the federal funding just goes away,” Mitchell said.
If federal funding ended, Mitchell said HealthLinc could continue as is for a few months, but then the administration would have to start looking at letting staff go and ending programs.
“We do really good work, and we serve people and we save communities money,” Mitchell said. “We serve people that deserve to be taken care of.”
While the freeze has been rescinded, Mitchell said HealthLinc doesn’t look at the decision as “being completely resolved.”
“I anticipate that there will be more intricate investigations happening, and we’ll need to continue to be prepared for what it might look like if our funding drastically changes,” Mitchell said.
