Trump freezes federal aid: How are Oklahomans affected? What to know
Trump freezes federal aid: How are Oklahomans affected? What to know
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Hundreds protest proposed Oklahoma immigration rules during OSBE meeting
The year's first Oklahoma State Board of Education meeting was held simultaneously, led by Ryan Walters who has proposed several immigration-related rules.
The federal government's pause on funding and grants is almost guaranteed to affect Oklahomans and some programs administered by the state government, but the ultimate effect is unclear.
During his first week in office, President Donald Trump issued a flurry of executive orders to reshape the federal government by, among other things, shuttering diversity programs, reversing environmental protection policies, ending the government's recognition of transgender Americans and rejecting an earlier presidential order that included abortion in the government's definition of "reproductive health care services."
As his orders are filtered down through the executive branch, federal agencies have now been told this week to "pause all activities related to obligation or disbursement of all federal financial assistance" that could be affected by Trump's executive orders, according to a memo from the White House's Office of Management and Budget.
More: 'Catastrophic': Trump's pause in federal grants prompts lawsuits from 6 states, nonprofits
Agencies now have to review programs and then notify OMB by Feb. 10 on how they responded to the executive orders.
What does the 'pause' memo do?
The memo put out by Trump's OMB requires a temporary pause on federal financial assistance, which is a term that includes grants, cooperative agreements, surplus donations, loans and interest subsidies. It applies to both foreign aid and money either spent domestically by the federal government or distributed to states.
More than two dozen agencies make grants, including the Department of Education, the Department of Transportation, and the Department of Defense, according to Grants.gov. The pause in federal grant disbursement could likely impact the payroll of some individuals working under grant-funded programs.
The "pause" memo exempts financial assistance distributed directly to individuals, which includes Medicare and Social Security benefits. Medicare pays health care costs for the elderly and some disabled Americans. In a follow-up memo, OMB clarified Tuesday that the pause also will not affect domestic food programs.
"Funds for small businesses, farmers, Pell grants, Head Start, rental assistance, and other similar programs will not be paused,' the updated memo said. 'If agencies are concerned that these programs may implicate the President's Executive Orders, they should consult OMB to begin to unwind these objectionable policies without a pause in the payments.'
Medicaid, however, which is a health care program run by states and funded by the federal government, appears to be affected by the pause. Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden said Tuesday that his office discovered that Medicaid portals were down in all 50 states.
The Oklahoma Health Care Authority, which manages the state's Medicaid program SoonerCare, confirmed there was a temporary outage in the system used to process federal grant payments.
"The SoonerCare member and provider portals are operating as normal. OHCA is evaluating the impact of the executive order and does not expect significant changes to eligibility or benefits based on recent guidance from the White House." the agency said. "OHCA remains dedicated to delivering quality health care to Oklahomans and will provide direct communication to members and providers if any changes arise."
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt posted Tuesday afternoon that the portals would be available to state agencies again soon.
The White House is aware of the Medicaid website portal outage.
We have confirmed no payments have been affected — they are still being processed and sent.
We expect the portal will be back online shortly. — Karoline Leavitt (@PressSec) January 28, 2025
What programs are affected?
The memo references an executive order Trump signed on Jan. 20, which ordered department and agency heads to immediately pause new programs and disbursements of development assistance to foreign countries.
Within the United States, the federal government awards grants for everything from road building to scientific research. It is unclear which categories will be affected. While the directive is broad, including all federal financial assistance, the memo also includes a caveat that this can only affect federal assistance 'to the extent permissible under applicable law.'
It may take days or weeks to fully realize the impact of the funding pause. A spokeswoman with the Oklahoma Department of Transportation said Tuesday that the agency was conducting business as usual so far.
The Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation declined to comment. OMRF receives $30 million in competitive research grants each year from sources like the federal government's National Institutes of Health.
Read the Trump Administration's 'pause' memo
Contributing: USA Today reporter Erin Mansfield
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