Washington-A steep freezing of almost all federal subsidies and loans announced Monday night by the administration of President Donald Trump has created a generalized confusion throughout the government, congress, state programs and non-profit organizations that They depend on federal financing.
The Office of Administration and Budget sent a two -page memorandum vaguely drafted to all federal agencies on Monday night, ordering them to “temporarily pause all activities related to the obligation or disbursement of all federal financial assistance.”
The agency also sent a spreadsheet of 836 pages, obtained by NBC News, asking federal agencies to provide financial assistance to obtain details about a variety of programs, which include:
- The Federal Pell subsidy program
- School meals for low -income students
- The WIC nutrition program for pregnant women and babies
- Preparation of forest fires for the Department of Interior
- Medicare’s registration assistance program
- USAID foreign assistance
- Minas inspections
- A reintegration program for homeless veterans
OPM requested that the information be presented before February 7.
In Capitol Hill, legislators rushed to discover what the freezing of funds would mean.
“The scope of what it is ordering is impressive, unprecedented and will have devastating consequences throughout the country,” democratic leaders of the Chamber and the Senate-RE aids Committees. Rosa Delauro, D-Conn., And Senator Patty Murray, D-Wash. – He wrote to OMB, going to say that the pause is unconstitutional and illegal.
At a press conference on Tuesday morning, Murray said the Senate Assignments Committee had been trying to contact the agencies to completely understand the impacts.
“This is a dagger in the heart of the average American family, in the red states, in the blue states, in the cities, in the suburbs, in rural areas. It is simply scandalous, ”said the Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., to journalists at a press conference on Tuesday morning.
The groups that represent non -profit organizations and small businesses achieved by NBC News said they were also struggling to discover what could be the implications for their members, such as those who provide medical attention, housing and education in early childhood.
“While we understand that this is an evolving story, this interruption, at best, will stop the capacity of the initial agencies to pay hundreds of thousands of employees, contractors and small businesses that support Head Start operations in All corners of the country, “Yasmina Vinci, executive director of the National Association of Head Start, he said. “In the worst case, this means that hundreds of thousands of families may not depend on critical services and probably cannot work.”
The National Low Income Housing Coalition urged its members to call Congress members to “retreat against the extreme order of the Trump administration to retain federal investments.”
The OMB memorandum sent Monday night said that the financing review would be related to “activities that may be involved by executive orders, including, among others, financial assistance for foreign aid, non -governmental organizations, Dei, Awaken gender ideology and gender ideology and New Deal Green. “
A republican agent said that stopping a large part of this federal assistance had long been an objective of the party, but the fact that Trump was taking everything at once was remarkable.
“Some of these things have only been spoken in cocktails in the Heritage Foundation in Jest,” said a Republican operation. “And they are really doing everything.”
In an interview at the Chamber Republican Affairs Conference in Trump, the President of the Assignments of the House of Representatives, Tom Cole, R-OKLA., Defend Trump’s freezing to help, arguing that it is a way for that the Republicans stop spending immediately.
“I think they are doing the right thing. They are obtaining control of the situation, “he said.” There is a lot of money that moves at the end of the Biden administration. That is, you know, quite typical. So I think they want to obtain control of that and make sure that nothing progresses with which they disagree. And they are inside their prerogative to do that. “
It was not clear if freezing would also affect the financing of the 72 million people who received their health insurance through Medicaid, according to legislators and policy analysts. The Federal Government sends Medicaid funds directly to the states, which then manage the program and pay doctors and hospitals for the attention they provide.
“The memorandum is vague: Medicaid could be included,” said Brian Riedl, the main member of the Manhattan Institute who has worked on budgetary issues for Republican legislators. “But it is more likely that OMB will focus on competitive subsidies, loans and contracts to private organizations, companies and perhaps local governments, instead of formula subsidies to the states where the recipients are eliminated from the Washington controls.”
The memorandum said that Social Security, Medicare and direct payments to people would not be included in freezing.
Small businesses were not clear about what the freezing for loans administered by the administration of small businesses would mean.
“We are listening to concerned and insecure members of how this could affect existing loans or loans that are already in process,” said Todd McCracken, president of the National Association of small businesses.