CNN
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President Donald Trump’s bid to remake the federal government has already been on vulnerable US groups, according to nonprofits and healthcare providers working to slow changes to federal funding, new rules and guidance. It’s affecting it.
For example, a 19-year-old West Virginia resident with intellectual disability failed to start his job with good intentions on Monday because he had not received the federal grants requested last week by a nonprofit that promotes employment. .
This was the result of one of the broadest and most head-driving moves of the early days of the second Trump administration. It is a sweeping office of management and budget memos that order trillions of suspensions in federal grants, loans and financial aid.
It was quickly revoked by the administration, and a federal judge prevented the funding from taking effect. However, some organizations say they still have no access to fundraising despite the court’s ruling. And the administrative attorney also effectively gave federal agencies a green light to cut their own payments.
Due to delays in receiving the federal fund, Appalachia’s Independent Living Center fires an employment training specialist, one of five staff members, and halts employment services. Independent living centers have been forced. .
Centres that help West Virginians with disabilities live in their homes initially had to fire transport coordinators and independent living skills trainers, but after receiving funds from state grants, they I was able to bring back the The injection will allow the centre to continue serving more customers, including taking an 86-year-old woman for dialysis treatment this week.
Still, the center could only run for another two months without using federal funds, Meredith Pride, the executive director, said the state has the highest share of residents with disabilities. Ta. The centre had already had to cancel the February order due to general financial uncertainty.
“We are in the miserable strait,” she said. The center said it checks its bank accounts at least every 30 minutes to see if federal funds are deposited. “Our biggest concern is that consumers don’t want to be homeless if they don’t receive our services, their institutionalized settings, their group homes, and even worse. ”
Late Wednesday afternoon, Pride said the money had not been deposited. She said she spoke to the Department of Health and Human Services grant payment portal and staff on Monday.
In a statement to CNN, HHS acknowledged that some users of its payment system “may be experiencing delays due to the large amount of requests.” The department said it is working to “help to drive solutions as quickly as possible.”
Pride is confident that the centre will receive the funds, but hopes it will be done by the end of the week to alleviate financial uncertainty.
Administrative lawyers noted in a court filed Monday morning that a federal agency led by Trump’s appointees would oppose the court’s order. And Elon Musk, the billionaire who directs a new division where Trump is tasked with deep, novel spending across the federal government, has said that his government’s efficiency has led to government payments that he considers illegal. It was closed and revealed on social media over the weekend.
Trump campaigns on a massive promise of chaos, with voters giving him a Republican-led home and the Senate, which appears to be lined up primarily. But localized effects, big and small, also serve as the earliest concrete effect that many Americans feel Trump’s second term.
Multiple Head Start programs were temporarily denied access to federal funds shortly after the Trump administration announced a fundraising freeze. Many people were able to log in on the same day, but not all.
About 40 Head Start programs in around 20 states have not regained access to funding and are forcing at least two to shut down, according to Tommy Sheridan, assistant director of the National Head Start Association, on CNN on Tuesday. He spoke to.
Others could remain open by accessing state, local or other funds or seeking loans or credit lines. But at least one program told Sheridan there was only enough money to keep the rest of the week open.
The association reaches out to HHS, who oversees Head Start, oversees payment portals and other agencies operate on the issue, but have not yet received responses, Sheridan said. HeadStart serves nearly 800,000 low-income people and their families, from birth to age 5.
“Funds need to be on the move, or the child or family member must be injured,” Sheridan said.
It’s not just delaying access to funds that will affect services available to Americans.
Hospitals in several major US cities, including what once considered a shelter for gender-preserving care, assessed Trump’s executive order blocking federal support for the treatment of trans people under the age of 19 In doing so, treatment for transgender youth was suspended. .
In part, the order provides federal agencies with healthcare providers receiving federal grant funding to trans youth with adolescent blockers, hormone therapy, or surgery to help them transition into gender. Instructs us to ensure that there is no. It also directs the Department of Justice to help draft laws that will allow providers to be sued by providing gender-affirming care and prioritizing investigations of parents seeking care for their children.
Denver Health in Colorado said it was in compliance with executive orders and pointed out that it said the impact of federal funding was affecting the violation, but he said it was “19 years old.” “We are deeply concerned about the health and safety of patients of less than gender-specific gender.”
In a statement, Children’s Hospital in Washington, D.C., has suspended prescriptions for all adolescent blockers and hormone therapy for trans youth patients, but will continue to provide mental health counseling. Like many healthcare providers, hospitals do not offer transminers sex-affirming surgeries.
Similarly, VCU Children’s Hospital in Richmond, Virginia announced it has stopped gender-affirming medications and surgical procedures for people under the age of 19.
Among gender-maintaining care practices, medical and surgical interventions are usually reserved for adults. International guidelines do not recommend medical or surgical interventions before transgender children reach adolescence. Surgery is relatively rare even in teens and adults, studies show.
The administration’s suspension of most foreign aid, which is intensifying humanitarian crises around the world, is also felt at home.
The global shelter that helps refugees resettle in the United States said that in late January the State Department was told to stop work as part of its freeze. Timothy Young, a spokesman for a nonprofit previously known as Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services, said it remains from less than 6,000 newly arrived refugees from Afghanistan, which was in weeks. He said he has not received a refund for services from the department. Ukraine, Venezuela, etc.
Global Refuge is working with church groups, civic organizations and volunteers to fill the gap and support new residents. The State Department did not respond to requests for comment on CNN’s payments.
Global Refuge also said it struggled to access additional funds from the HHS for services it provides to refugees beyond its first 90-day resettlement window. This assistance includes helping to secure housing for refugees, connect with healthcare and English lessons, and helping them find work and other aid.
“There is so much confusion that it is unclear when or if we will continue to receive federal funds that are important to the well-being of refugee children and families,” Young said.
Global Refuge was one of the organizations included in X’s post from Michael Flynn last week. Michael Flynn briefly served as Trump’s national security adviser in his first term. In the post, Flynn acknowledged the group that received it, accused money laundering and questioned who benefited from taxpayer funds.
Musk responded to Flynn and declared, “The @doge team is rapidly closing these illegal payments.”
The nonprofit has issued a statement denounced “false accusations against our humanitarian work on the strongest possible terms.”
Much of the uncertainty of nonprofits is about whether funding can be suspended in the future.
The Trump administration said that even after the OMB freeze was blocked in court, federal employees spending the freeze at agencies could still be made.
“The agency exercises its own authority to suspend an award or obligation purely at its own discretion, not as a result of an OMB memo or a presidential executive order, but purely at its own discretion. You may and must be subject to the suspension complying with all notice and procedural requirements. Any awards, contracts or other means associated with such suspension will be subject to the administration on Monday morning. Read the compliance notification you sent to the agency.
The fight over federal fund spending – and whether Trump and his top representatives, including Musk, can choose what the government receives rewards, is one of the most precarious legal situations ever for the new administration. It is.
So far, the two courts have told the administration that outbound payments cannot be frozen following the OMB announcement.
However, masks and others still seem interested in doing so. With the world’s wealthiest man making an announcement on social media over the weekend, he wanted to be obligated by the federal government if he thought they were illegal.
Potential future cuts in federal funding are potential groups like groups like Hope Door in Hawthorne, New York, providing services, shelters and support to victims of domestic violence I’m doing it. The group relies on more than half of its annual budget of more than $3.5 million, much of which is spent on staffing 24-hour operations.
“If they do what they say they want to do, people can die,” executive director Carla Horton told CNN. “Our job is hard enough. We’re trying to keep people alive. It’s a dishonorable to be distracted by the chaos coming out of Washington.”
