Update Regarding Federal Funding Freeze
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RCPA continues its efforts to update members on the White House funding freeze while partnering with the National Council for Mental Wellbeing and ANCOR in examining the implications stemming from the White House Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) January 27 memorandum temporarily freezing federal disbursements to many federal programs.
The National Council has provided the following update:
Federal agencies have been directed to fill out a spreadsheet as part of an analysis by Feb. 7 to ensure compliance with the president’s most recent executive orders. This is a breakdown of which health programs are included in this latest action.
Notably, we recognize conflicting guidance has been issued. While the above report identifies Medicaid programs, a Q&A document from the administration notes that Medicaid will continue without pause. As of Tuesday morning, all 50 states reported outages of their Medicaid online portals, and the Trump administration has stated they are aware of the outages and expect the portals to be back online shortly.
Also, several groups have taken action to block this funding freeze. As of this writing, several Democratic state attorneys general said they would ask a court to block the freeze from taking effect. Several groups representing nonprofits, public health professionals and small businesses have already filed suit in D.C. asking the court to prevent the freeze from continuing. On Tuesday evening, U.S. District Court Judge Loren L. AliKhan issued a temporary stay on the funding freeze until Feb. 3 at 5:00 pm ET.
The funding freeze may lead to project delays or cancellations, resulting in layoffs of workers involved in these programs, and may ultimately increase the unemployment rate, making it vital lawmakers understand the impact of this freeze on communities across the country.
Most notable are the concerns with the intersects of Medicaid funding though the information that has been released. The Q&A document states:
Q: Is this a freeze on benefits to Americans like SNAP or student loans?
A: No, any program that provides direct benefits to Americans is explicitly excluded from the pause and exempted from this review process. In addition to Social Security and Medicare, already explicitly excluded in the guidance, mandatory programs like Medicaid and SNAP will continue without pause.
RCPA will continue to communicate new developments with members as they emerge. If you have any questions, please contact your RCPA Policy Director.