City News, SCHOOLS

Salem agencies unclear if federal money spigot is off

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A Trump administration memo freezing trillions of dollars in federal grants late Monday sent Salem preschool providers, government agencies and nonprofits scrambling to understand what would happen to the money they rely on to feed lunch to students, run city buses and pay rent for formerly homeless people.

A federal judge on Tuesday afternoon issued an order blocking the freeze until Monday, Feb. 3, the Washington Post reported. That came after a group of nonprofits and organizations represented by left-leaning group Democracy Forward sued, challenging the order’s constitutionality.

Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield on Tuesday joined other attorneys general across the U.S. to sue the administration over the order.

Federal money is a major part of the budgets of most public agencies and many nonprofits. The memo said the pause was intended to stop federal spending on “Marxist equity, transgenderism and green new deal social engineering policies.”

But Oregon providers reported more sweeping impacts, with federal payment portals for Medicaid and other programs inaccessible.

Many organizations in Salem pulled leaders into meetings Tuesday to discuss what was ahead and how best to respond.

Officials with the Salem-Keizer School District, city of Salem, Cherriots and Willamette University said they were still trying to understand what the pause meant as they continued normal operations.

“All public institutions – including schools – are in a state of confusion. Salem-Keizer isn’t going to feed anxiety through uninformed speculation. We are focused on teaching, learning, and keeping students safe. And when we know more about the real implications of federal changes, we will plan and act,” Superintendent Andrea Castañeda said in a statement.

The Marion County Board of Commissioners and county department heads briefly addressed the funding confusion during a meeting, expressing little concern about the impact on county projects. County officials said three public works plans are funded by federal grants but will not be affected by the pause, and didn’t identify any impact on other county departments. 

County officials said they expect the Trump administration to complete its review of federal grant spending in around three months. 

School, housing programs impacted

The confusion over the order triggered chaos and confusion across Salem institutions Tuesday as people saw federal electronic funding portals shut down. They said they received conflicting information about how the order would impact their work.

“It’s a mess,” said Lisa Harnisch, executive director of the Marion Polk Early Learning Hub, which coordinates local childcare and preschool programs.

Providers of Head Start, a federal program for free preschool for low-income families, found for a time that they couldn’t access a grant portal where federal money is disbursed. Access was restored later Tuesday, said Eva Pignotti, chief program officer of early learning and child care for the Mid-Willamette Valley Community Action Agency.

She said the agency is committed to staying open and serving families.

Uncertainty over the future of access to federal money has caused some early childhood organizations to cancel planned family nights, Harnisch said.

“Because of this debacle,” Harnisch said, one local agency stopped 17 employees from attending a bilingual training the Hub is offering this week on building stronger relationships with families because it was unclear if it would be able to pay them.

In local schools, federal grants pay the salaries of about 66 employees providing extra help to low-income students, and covers breakfasts and lunches for thousands of kids.

The school district expects to receive about $80 million in such federal grants this year, according to its budget.

Chemeketa Community College gets about 10% of its budget, or $31 million, from federal grants, which include support for agricultural programs, apprenticeships and programs for students who would otherwise struggle to access college.

“We are actively seeking clarification on what this pause means, particularly as legal challenges to the decision are unfolding. If the pause were to result in a loss of funding, the consequences would be severe – not only for the students who rely on direct program support, but also for the employees whose positions are fully funded by these grants,” said Marie Hulett, Chemeketa Community College’s executive director for institutional advancement.

She said the college was preparing contingency plans to address a funding loss.

Rental assistance and public housing programs, like those run by the Salem Housing Authority, also rely on federal money. The agency will distribute more than $43 million in rental assistance to Salem families this year.

“If these payments pause, we have reserves we can tap into for a few months. At that point, we would notify landlords and work with them to talk about when funding may be resumed. For our own units, we may operate in a deficit,” according to an email from Sarah Murray, spokeswoman for the housing authority.

The agency received a clarifying email from the federal Office of Management and Budget Tuesday afternoon saying “funds for small businesses, farmers, Pell grants, Head Start, rental assistance, and other similar programs will not be paused.”

Any prolonged funding pause could disrupt services local agencies provide to homeless people in and around Salem. Such money is distributed through the Mid-Willamette Valley Homeless Alliance, which gets about 15% of its money from federal sources.

“The order was made without clear rationale and with seemingly little awareness of impacts to homeless veterans, children, women and seniors,” said Jeremy Gordon, chair of the Homeless Alliance board and a Polk County commissioner in an email.

A funding pause would also jeopardize health care for some of Salem’s most vulnerable residents treated at Northwest Human Services clinics. The agency is a federally qualified health care center that provides medical and dental care, regardless of ability to pay, to about 12,000 people each year in Salem.

“We are gravely disappointed by this news as Northwest Human Services does receive 20% of our funding from federal grants.  We are being vigilant in taking a very close look at what this pause could mean for the care that we provide to our community,” said Kristin Kuenz-Barber, the agency’s strategic partnerships manager, in an email.

State and federal reactions

The order on Tuesday drew swift condemnation from Gov. Tina Kotek, U.S. Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, and U.S. Rep. Andrea Salinas, all Democrats.

“I strongly condemn this illegal theft of taxpayer dollars and call on the Administration to immediately reverse course. If they fail to do so, I am prepared to fight back – and I will do everything in my power to ensure that the hardworking people of Oregon’s Sixth District get the support and funding they deserve,” Salinas said in a statement. Her district, Oregon’s sixth, includes most of Salem.

Salinas’ office set up a form for Sixth District organizations and residents to report impacts from the freeze.

Merkley sits on the Senate Budget Committee and said the freeze would have sweeping impacts on infrastructure, food and public safety.

“The President is not a king, and the laws Congress passes are not suggestions. The Trump administration must follow the law and immediately reverse this shameful order,” he said in a statement.

Reporters Abbey McDonald, Madeleine Moore, Joe Siess, Ardeshir Tabrizian and Alan Cohen contributed.

This story was updated to clarify what Chemeketa’s federal grants cover.

Contact reporter Rachel Alexander: [email protected] or 503-575-1241.

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Rachel Alexander is Salem Reporter’s managing editor. She joined Salem Reporter when it was founded in 2018 and covers city news, education, nonprofits and a little bit of everything else. She’s been a journalist in Oregon and Washington for a decade. Outside of work, she’s a skater and board member with Salem’s Cherry City Roller Derby and can often be found with her nose buried in a book.