Confusion reigns over US grant freeze
HIGH POINT — High Point-area nonprofit representatives, like their counterparts across the country, are struggling to figure out how a possible freeze on federal grants will affect them and the services they provide to people in need.
Among them is Ryan Ross, executive director for Open Door Ministries, who said a federal grant freeze could affect $300,000 allocated annually for a program that offers long-term housing to homeless people with chronic mental health issues or physical disabilities. Open Door Ministries currently has 25 people in the program supported by federal funding through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Amid the confusion, the administration of President Donald Trump on Wednesday offered conflicting messages on the proposal to freeze most federal grants loans, including grants to nonprofit organizations.
At the first of the week, the administration announced the freeze so that federal administrators could review programs for liberal or politically correct biases that run askew of Trump's recent barrage of executive orders.
The order meant that no money provided by federal grants of any kind could be spent, potentially shutting down many services. Organizations such as Meals on Wheels, which receives federal money to deliver food to the elderly, were worried about getting cut off. Even temporary interruptions in funding could cause layoffs or delays in services.
A federal judge late Tuesday afternoon issued a minute stay on the grant freeze and scheduled a hearing for this coming Monday.
The White House faced a backlash across the country from advocates for nonprofits and pressure from elected officials besieged by upset constituents, The Associated Press reports, and on Wednesday formally rescinded the memorandum that ordered the freeze.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Wednesday that the reviews of spending will go ahead in any case in all agencies and departments.
A statement from the legislative office of state Rep. Cecil Brockman, D-Guilford, who works regularly with nonprofit groups locally, said the consequences of a federal grant freeze could be dire.
'We will be working with local stakeholders and other entities to ensure continued service to our vulnerable communities until this crisis is resolved, and we call upon our GOP colleagues to demand an end to this crisis at once,' the statement said.
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