Maricela Ramirez attended an education conference held in Washington, DC at the end of January, when she and other attendees heard the surprising news: Early learning and nutrition support for low-income children across the country Federal Funding Frozen for the Head Start Programme to be provided.
Ramirez, the chief education officer for the Los Angeles County Department of Education, quickly contacted a colleague and realized that it was the truth. They attempted a routine multi-million dollar withdrawal with the previous day’s fundraising, but as expected, they had not arrived overnight.
Ramirez said “stress and panic” began to quickly set up both in her office and in the meeting attendees around her.
“Our team must assess whether Laku needs to decide where they can find funds to pay employees if the program is closed and the system continues to go down. That’s what it was,” Ramirez wrote in a recent legal submission. A federal funding suspension could disrupt mental health services, counseling, health screenings and nutrition support for up to 8,000 children, she added.
Ramirez’s explanation of fallout and continued fear, sparked by the Trump administration’s sudden decision to suspend billions in federal financial aid last month, has been a result of multiple state lawsuits challenging the US district’s freeze. It was one of more than 125 declarations of harm filed as part of the article. court. At least 16 declarations came from California.
The declaration paints pictures of alarms and chaos hours and days after the White House Budget Office announced the freeze in a memo on January 27, with the Trump administration continuing to fight for such budgetary powers Therefore, it has announced that it will prolong fear and uncertainty. court.
The administration retracted its management and budget memo two days after it was issued amid the mass fuss, but some funds remained frozen for the next few days. And in response to the state’s lawsuit, the Trump administration argued that Trump and the OMB “evidently have the power to direct agencies to fully implement the presidential agenda.”
US District Judge John J. McConnell Jr. ordered the freeze to be temporarily lifted while the lawsuit was underway on Jan. 31. He further blocked it partially to the strength of the declaration on February 10th. The administration’s “categorical and sweep freeze” is “unconstitutional and continues to cause irreparable harm to a vast portion of the country.”
The Trump administration accused McConnell of “an inbearable judicial overreach,” but retreated the appeal as the lawsuit continued.
In one declaration, Mary Halterman, assistant program budget manager for the California Department of Treasury, wrote that federal funding “usually includes about a third of the state’s budget.” For fiscal year 2024-25, the state’s $500 billion budget expects $168 billion in federal funding, which does not include funding for the state’s public universities and university systems.
Halterman is for payments for the largest chunk, roughly $107.5 billion, of Medicaid versions of California’s Medicaid version of Medi-Cal.
This includes around 5 million children. More than half of the state’s children.
Congress has also allocated California $63 billion under the Inflation Investment and Employment Act of 2021 and nearly $5 billion under the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. Halterman wrote.
Halterman writes that the Management and Budget Funding Freeze Memo quickly created “confusion and doubt” regarding California’s ability to continue such services. And the uncertainty was “ongoing,” she wrote.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) protested the policies of President Trump and Elon Musk at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday.
(Jose Luis Magana/Applications)
“Unless you know whether federal dollars will be paid, state agencies are unable to hold back these funds, which could lead to immediate suspensions or potential termination of government services in some sectors.” Halterman writes.
Freeze has raised a similar alarm bell among state officials overseeing Medi-Cal and other federally funded health programs, particularly after realising that $200 million payments had not been received on Jan. 28. writes Lindy Harrington, assistant director of Medicaid.
The department “mandated to continue operations” that day, but “we didn’t have enough funds to fulfill our future financial obligations,” she wrote, and she now has a longer, turbulent ” They are afraid of budget confusion. It will be dramatically reduced or completely stopped. ”
California officials oversee other public health and safety programs. Similar concerns after being locked out of funding for various environmental and infrastructure projects, including cleaning contaminated industrial sites, monitoring air quality in low-income and disadvantaged communities, and risky and potentially potentially reduced. has increased. Fatal pollution along the busy cargo corridor between Los Angeles and the Inland Empire.
Eric Lau, deputy director of the Department of Management Services for the California Water Resources Management Board, said that his agency since 2021 has been federal grants for projects related to safe drinking water and overflow and stormwater management. He said he has received hundreds of millions of dollars in gold.
At about 8am on January 28th, LAU staff discovered that only 31 of the board’s 45 grants were listed in the federal payment system, and when searching for 14 people, they found that “error 839 “No matching criteria found” created an incredible message.
It took several days for some accounts to return online, Lau wrote, warning that longer confusion could be devastating.
“The design, construction and maintenance of critical water facilities will stagnate and put continued water pollution, and serious threats to the public health and the environment,” he writes. “In the end, the right for Californians to safe, clean, affordable and accessible water is threatened.”
Additionally, researchers, homeowners and contractors at California State University and University of California campuses have been temporarily blocked to make homes more energy efficient, workplace safety violations and job hunting support , a statewide development center with dozens of people overseeing career services and training programs, with regulators working with local workforce.
State and local authorities have been carefully considered and not clarified by the legislature in advance – giving the region time to create new budgets is deeply unwise and unwise. It warned that it was dangerous.
California Supt. Public Leader Tony Thurmond writes that the state receives $7.9 billion in annual funding from the U.S. Department of Education, which supports 5.8 million students. The temporary freeze in fundraising last month did not disrupt school programs as the state didn’t have a major draw in scheduled federal funds.
However, interference in these advances in funding “provokes immeasurable harm” to educators and students, particularly low-income and students with disabilities, he wrote.
For the current grade, the state receives $1.5 billion in direct funding to special education students, Thurmond writes. Additionally, public schools do a huge amount of medical activities per year, millions of dollars a year to provide additional treatment and mental and physical health services, Thurmond writes.
Schools in California also receive a huge amount of federal funding under the Success Act for All Students. This year, California has been allocated $2 billion in ESSA funds to meet the needs of some of the most vulnerable students and meet certain proficiency standards, particularly for the education of “immigrant children.” $120 million, $232 million to strengthen the quality and effectiveness of school staff, $157 million for English acquisition and expansion programs, 15200 for improvements in school conditions and technology Million dollars have been allocated. Thurmond wrote.
California schools also spend between $40 million and $50 million in federal funds per week to feed their students through nutrition programs.
Another freeze “can cause layoffs, suspension of services for poor students, and disruption in student learning support,” Thurmond wrote.
He wrote that state programs that are completely unrelated to education are also at risk. Many education programs are mandatory under state and federal laws, and whatever states will be forced to shuffle their resources to provide them.
Mason Matthews, chief budget and financial officer at Fesia Davenport’s Office, LA County CEO, shared these broad budgetary concerns. The county has the most populous population in the country with approximately 10 million residents and a budget of around $49 billion, with an estimated $5.3 billion in federal funds.
Matthews writes that the “precise impact” of the “stay unknown” of the recent suspension on federal funding is at a high risk of being brought about by another freeze. [county] Residents, including, but not limited to, healthcare, public safety work, public benefits, workforce development, foster parents, child support, housing, and emergency management. ”
One of the affected groups is poor families who receive cash assistance, employment services and childcare through the state’s Calworks program, with the county receiving more than $2 billion in federal funds each year, Matthews writes. Additionally, the county’s Department of Children and Family Services relies on $604.5 million in federal funds annually to investigate abuse and negligence and provide “supportive and therapeutic services” to such children. , he writes that children will be abused.
More widely, federal funds amount to about 10% of the county’s budget, so another freeze will cause “critical budgets and management burdens” for counties, and “any re-recovery of daily life for all county residents. It does more harm than it is,” Matthews wrote. That’s especially true, considering that budget tensions have already been felt from the devastating wildfires that incinerated parts of the county last month.
“Withholding federal funds is ambiguous and uncertain about which funds will be withheld, how long, how long, and how long, risk irreparable harm and critical response and recovery efforts. Coupled with sex.” “The county will take appropriate measures to respond to LA County fires, but without reimbursement from federal funds, other county key programs, such as housing options for homeless families and veterans, are not eligible for reimbursements. It could be affected.”
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