Will Trump's Spending Freeze Affect the Morongo Basin?
Court places a hold on the order until February 3 (updated Jan 29)
Update, Wednesday, January 29, 12:20 PST: The OMB memo has been rescinded but the executive orders regarding DEI, “woke” ideology, transgender people and green energy remain in place. What that means is that funding will continue to flow while the different agencies are reviewed for compliance with the executive orders. In other words, the immediate freeze is lifted, but the intent behind the freeze remains and will still be implemented as agencies are reviewed.
In a whiplash 24-hour scramble on Monday evening, January 27, the Office of Budget and Management (OMB) issued an memo pausing federal financial assistance, which was halted by a federal judge mere minutes before it was scheduled to take effect at 5 pm Eastern time on Tuesday, January 29.
The memo targeted “all activities related to obligation or disbursement of all Federal financial assistance, and other relevant agency activities that may be implicated by [President Trump’s] executive orders, including, but not limited to, financial assistance for foreign aid, nongovernmental organizations, DEI, woke gender ideology, and the green new deal.” This included new awards as well as disbursements of funds under existing federal contracts.
Several states and agencies sued, with a case brought by the National Council of Nonprofits as lead plaintiff for a coalition of organizations being the first heard, resulting with a temporary stay of the OMB memo by Judge Loren AliKhan of the Washington D.C. district court. The case will return to her court on February 3.
You may wonder, how does all of this affect the Morongo Basin? Several areas of the Basin are classified as disadvantaged and rely on federal funding received directly through grants or indirectly disbursed through State, County, and City agencies to meet the basic needs of residents.
Desert Trumpet reached out to representatives from the City of Twentynine Palms, the Town of Yucca Valley, San Bernardino County, the Morongo Unified School District1, Copper Mountain College, the Morongo Basin Health District and Reach Out Morongo Basin to ask how Morongo Basin residents might be affected.
Curtis Yakimow, Yucca Valley Town Manager, responded,
We are reviewing the recent executive order(s) and reconciling the order(s) with our various funding sources and projects. The impact of the order will likely depend on the process of implementation and the associated rules and regulations, which are not known at this time. Federal funding is used for American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding and Community Development Block Grants. At this point, the Town expects minimal impacts from the order but will continue to evaluate daily until such time as additional details are known.
Robin Schlosser, Executive Director of Reach Out Morongo Basin, was less sanguine:
It’s the trickle down and unfortunately we’re at the bottom. It definitely affects us. It’s too soon to tell but if they freeze, then everything gets frozen — it affects everything.
When I mentioned that Defense funding might not be affected, Schlosser pointed out that military spouses use their services, so in that respect the Marine Base is impacted by the cuts.
The reply from David Wert, Public Information Officer for San Bernardino County, also reflected the overwhelming nature of the OMB order for the largest County in the Country:
We are looking into this and will get back to you. Yes, there are federal funds involved in many county programs across many county departments, as is the case with all counties and other local government agencies.
Daren M. Otten, Ed.D, Superintendent/President of Copper Mountain College, sent a memo to the “CMC family,” which put forward two questions for clarification:
Q: Is this a freeze on all Federal financial assistance?
A: No, the pause does not apply across-the-board. It is expressly limited to programs, projects, and activities implicated by the President’s Executive Orders.
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. Funds for small businesses, farmers, Pell grants, Head Start, rental assistance, and other similar programs will not be paused.
While on-going funding for Medicaid and SNAP was confirmed in a second OMB memo, there were several reports of disruptions in Medicaid and SNAP access on Tuesday. A sizable proportion of San Bernardino County residents, 28.8%, rely on Medicaid for healthcare.2
Also the use of “American” in this context is interesting, as Trump’s executive orders appear to be redefining what constitutes an “American” worthy of federal support: not an immigrant, not transgender, not a believer in diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) or green energy and apparently not an organization seeking to advocate for those people or policies.
This is perhaps where the OMB memo veers into the issue of protected free speech as pointed out in the National Council of Nonprofits et al. complaint:
The Memo fails to explain the source of OMB’s purported legal authority to gut every grant program in the federal government; it fails to consider the reliance interest of the many grant recipients, including those to whom money had already been promised; and it announces a policy of targeting grant recipients based in part on those recipients’ First Amendment rights and with no bearing on the recipients’ eligibility to receive federal funds.
Karen Graley, Board Clerk for the Morongo Basin Healthcare District confirmed that the district receives federal funding from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) for the operation of our Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHC). She forwarded a statement from Cindy Schmall, CEO, Morongo Basin Healthcare District3:
In 2024 the healthcare district served approximately 8,800 people through our Morongo Basin Community Health Centers. At this time, we do not know the long-term impact recent federal actions may have on our delivery of healthcare to the community. In the future, we may have to reevaluate health center services.
Twentynine Palms City Manager Stone James addressed the freeze during the City Manager’s report at Tuesday’s City Council meeting noting two recently submitted grants are in a “hold” status:
One of them was the EPA grant. Keith [Community Development Director Keith Gardner] and I spent an awful lot of time preparing for that. That would have been a $20 million grant, $13 million that we'd identified for the multi-modal pathway. Multi-modal just means you could bike, walk, run, use a scooter, electric, you know, little electric cart. And then also wrote in $7 million for a community center somewhere in our downtown. Also we had submitted for an active transportation infrastructure investment program grant. That was another opportunity to see if we can get that multi level pathway funded.
And so as of Monday, was still in a hold status. Don't know if that probably is…not too promising. But then, of course, as everyone's probably aware, President Trump has paused funding of all kind of major programs while his administration evaluates the efficacy and also the financial feasibility of them.
It’s possible that City Manager James was too busy preparing for the meeting to read the OMB order, but it clearly states that programs are being evaluated for partisan alignment with the “President’s priorities,” not for financial efficacy or feasibility. In many cases Congress, which per Article 1 of the Constitution, controls federal spending, has already allocated funding for these programs. And as the complaint outlined above states, “Although the Trump Administration is at liberty to “advanc[e] [its] priorities,” it must do so within the confines of the law. It has not.”
As the quotes from local representatives indicate, the memo was so broad that interpretation was challenging and specifics hard to ascertain. How will scientists research diseases that are more prominent in some groups more than others such as sickle cell anemia? Should local government buildings avoid solar power or risk losing federal funding? Are all nonprofit/nongovernment agencies defunded or just some? If a local government building or a school or a nonprofit has gender-neutral restrooms will federal funding be pulled? When does DEI diverge from disadvantaged — will the MUSD school lunch program be defunded?
The one word practically every news outlet used to describe the panic caused by the OMB memo was “chaos.” But as Robin Schlosser indicated, it might be awhile for that chaos to “trickle down” to the local level, but it’s likely heading our way if the memo is reinstated.
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Jene Estrada, Public Information Officer for MUSD replied after the OMB order was rescinded on Wednesday, January 29, “We do not anticipate any disruptions to our operations. If any changes arise, we will promptly inform our families.”
Morongo Basin Heallthcare District comment added on Wednesday, January 29, after publication.
THANK YOU for covering how this will affect the Morongo Basin! And, thank you for being so quick to get the info out. Much appreciated!