Federal Grant Pause Announcement Sparks Concern For Local Nonprofit

AUSTIN (KXAN) — The Trump administration announced that they are temporarily pausing most federal financial assistance programs Monday night and its potential impact has sparked concerns.

In a turn of events, a federal judge temporarily blocked the push to pause federal funding Tuesday afternoon.

A memo sent by Matthew J. Vaeth, acting director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, said "federal agencies must temporarily pause all activities related to obligation or disbursement of all Federal financial assistance, and other relevant agency activities that may be implicated by the executive orders, including, but not limited to, financial assistance for foreign aid, nongovernmental organizations, DEI, woke gender ideology, and the green new deal."

"I was very blindsided," said Bradley Hargis, the Executive Director of Capital Area Private Defender Service (CAPDS). CAPDS is a non-profit organization in Austin that assists people in need of lawyers.

Hargis said he found out about the announcement of the pause from an email sent from the Department of Justice to CAPDS. He says the grants are important to help fund cases.

"You'd be looking at tens of thousands of dollars in attorney fees—which almost no incarcerated client has," Hargis said.

The memo stated the pause is aimed to provide time to figure out "the best uses of the funding" that are "consistent with the law and president's priorities."

"I certainly understood that the [Trump] administration may have different priorities for future grants they might award," Hargis said. "But I've never seen an administration, break a commitment for grants that have already been awarded are already being funded and—in many cases—the work has already been done and needs to be paid for."

KXAN reached out to several other nonprofit organizations asking what the potential impact could be.

Family Eldercare, a nonprofit organization that helps assist older adults and people with disabilities in Central Texas, said they are in "continuous communication with other nonprofit organizations" to see how this unfolds in the days ahead.

KXAN also reached out to leadership at Travis County who said "from purchasing equipment for our sheriff's deputies to funding attorneys for the Public Defender’s office, federal grants play an important role in our ability to serve our community. We will work with our federal representatives to determine how this will affect our operations and affect the community we all serve."

Austin City Manager T.C. Broadnax said in a statement "federal grant funds and the services they help us provide are vitally important to all communities. They support things like housing needs, nutrition programs for children, safe streets and roads, and basic medical care for low-income seniors. This is a critical issue precisely because it impacts so many basic services. We will continue monitoring this evolving situation and make necessary adjustments as we gain more insight on the specific impacts."

Hargis worries for the future of CAPDS, as well as other nonprofit organizations.

"It left a lot of organizations unclear on what to do," Hargis said. "These grants support fundamental and essential positions, and even a short pause will represent the need to move those staff to other programs. If you can't support that, I think you are having to look at laying off staff."