Federal Funding Freeze: What’s the Latest?

In a tumultuous week for the federal/state/local partnership, a proposed “pause” of a wide range of federal grant and loan programs created a stir across many services delivered by state and local governments, with federal support as an essential pillar.

A flurry of memoranda and legal filings have yielded a short-term stalemate (with the “pause” itself now on pause). A longer-term resolution likely coming in the weeks ahead.

A brief narrative of this week’s fast-moving timetable:

Tuesday: a message from the Executive Branch of the federal government stated (memorandum from the Office of Management and Budget) that nearly all federal grant and loan programs would be put on hold while they are examined for effects or motivations that promoted certain ideological goals contrary to the new Administration’s priorities.

See Conduit Street coverage from Tuesday. We profiled the initial announcement and a scheduled NACo webinar designed to help guide local leaders.

Wednesday: following a series of modification memoranda seeking to clarify the initial memorandum, and an initial lawsuit filed by multiple states invoking a temporary stay of the order, the Administration formally withdrew its memorandum, and seemingly the entire initial effort (though media coverage of what exactly was withdrawn reached conflicting conclusions)

From coverage on The Hill:

The Trump administration’s Office of Management and Budget released a new memo Wednesday rescinding a controversial memo issued late Monday that froze a wide swath of federal financial assistance, which had paralyzed many federal programs and caused a huge uproar on Capitol Hill.

The decision came amid strong behind-the-scenes pushback from Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill, according to a GOP senator who was apprised of the decision to reverse Monday’s budget memo.

Thursday: during an evening remote call-in meeting with county leaders (the second such meeting of the week organized by the Moore Administration), Attorney General Anthony Brown updated local leaders on the process ahead. Maryland is among multiple states filing in federal court in Rhode Island to challenge the order. Additionally, those states received a “favorable” initial reception and a request to prepare a desired order. One possibility forward with that case is a temporary order, typically lasting 14 days, to allow further legal considerations.

Resources for the weeks ahead:

 

 

Michael Sanderson

Executive Director Maryland Association of Counties