BRATTLEBORO-After days of uncertainty and mixed messages from federal agencies implementing the orders of President Donald J. Trump, area nonprofits want to assure the community that all services will continue as usual and not add to any anxiety.
But organizations that provide critical services in Windham County faced grim uncertainty for hours last week, as an ambiguous federal funding freeze threatened to take effect and the nonprofits found themselves with no notice cut off from access to federal funding that they had been awarded.
News of an executive memorandum, released the evening of Jan. 27 by Matthew Vaeth, acting director of the Office of Management and Budget, quickly spread through media outlets.
As the country grappled to interpret the subject line of the memo - "Temporary Pause of Agency Grant, Loan, and Other Financial Assistance Programs" - many nonprofits in Windham County receiving federal funding knew all too well the gravity of the situation.
"It created a lot of fear and, quite frankly, chaos internally," said Josh Davis, executive director of Southeastern Vermont Community Action (SEVCA).
SEVCA, which served 2,051 households in Windham and Windsor counties in fiscal year 2023, provides services ranging from heating assistance and weatherization to personal finance resources and food access. The anti-poverty agency also oversees Head Start programs in Windsor County.
Although the full impact of the federal funding freeze would take time to assess, the immediate implications were alarming.
"We rely significantly on state and federal funds," said Davis. "Most of our federal funds come through the state and are braided with other funds."
Like many nonprofit organizations in the area, Jan. 28 was consumed by efforts to address the disruption. As Davis and his team worked to quell concerns among those they serve, they formed a strategy and reached out to state partners for answers.
"Our state partners were unaware of what this meant; other agencies didn't know, either," Davis recalled. "It was a really murky day."
A freeze in the system
For many nonprofits, federal grant funds are reimbursed either monthly or quarterly.
"The guidance was to draw down funds as quickly as possible," said Davis, conveying the urgency to access the Payment Management Services, an online federal government platform that processed over $853 billion in 2024 alone.
"That [system] was down as of Tuesday morning, even before the freeze was scheduled to go into effect at 5 o'clock Tuesday afternoon," Davis said.
SEVCA was far from the only organization left without access to expected funds during the 24-hour period.
Debra Gass, executive director of Early Education Services, which oversees 136 federally funded Head Start and Early Head Start child care placements across the Windham Southeast School District, spoke about the challenges her organization faced on that Tuesday.
"Of course, this was at the end of the month when we typically draw down our funds, so we were unable to do that," said Gass.
The show must go on
For Early Education Services, the impact of the sudden loss of service would be impossible to ignore. The agency serves approximately 400 families with a variety of federally and state-funded parental support programs.
"These services are critical to the American economy," Gass noted. "With interruptions such as this, people can lose their jobs." Without federal support, the ripple effect of losing child care would be felt throughout the community, she said.
Gass also emphasized the harm even a temporary gap in services would have on the children they care for.
"Children would lose critically important, quality child care that research tells us is essential during those first formative years of life [as they develop] high-level executive functioning skills - it's a huge impact."
After what was for many an exhausting day, news of a federal judge's intervention to temporarily pause the executive obstruction came at 5 p.m.
In response to a lawsuit filed by the National Council of Nonprofits against the Office of Management and Budget, Judge Loren L. AliKha issued an administrative stay of the funding freeze pending a hearing on Feb. 3.
And on Jan. 31, John J. McConnell Jr., chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island, issued a temporary restraining order in response to a lawsuit filed by the attorneys general of 21 states, including Vermont, and the District of Columbia.
McConnell's ruling means that the federal government is prohibited from enacting a funding freeze, at least for now, in New York, California, Illinois, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, North Carolina, New Mexico, Oregon, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin.
Until McConnell lifts the restraining order, the Trump administration may not "pause, freeze, impede, block, cancel, or terminate Defendants' compliance with awards and obligations to provide federal financial assistance to the States, and Defendants shall not impede the States' access to such awards and obligations, except on the basis of the applicable authorizing statutes, regulations, and terms" in those states and in the nation's capital.
The real work lies ahead
After suddenly halting brownfield work - the cleanup and reuse of environmentally hazardous sites - across the region, the Windham Regional Commission (WRC) was able to resume federally funded contracts by the morning.
"We've since lifted [the pause], so it was only in place for about 12 hours," said Executive Director Chris Campany.
Campany is responsible for "maintaining the health and viability" of an organization that acts in the absence of a county government for 27 towns, mostly in Windham County.
That also meant that he had the job of deciphering the true meaning behind the two pages of the memo and determining what the WRC would have to do to comply.
"Financial assistance should be dedicated to advancing Administration priorities, focusing taxpayer dollars to advance a stronger and safer America, eliminating the financial burden of inflation for citizens, unleashing American energy and manufacturing, ending 'wokeness' and the weaponization of government, promoting efficiency in government, and Making America Healthy Again," the memo said.
Campany acknowledged the challenge of interpreting the text objectively.
"There's no policy definition of what is 'woke,'" he said. "I can't sit down and go, OK, which of our funds support Marxist activity, which of our funds support the Green New Deal, because that was never passed."
The Green New Deal, a proposed policy framework aimed at addressing climate change and economic inequality, was introduced as a congressional resolution in 2019 by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Ed Markey. The nonbinding resolution was introduced in three sessions of Congress from 2019 to 2023, but never made it as far as becoming a bill, much less being enacted into law.
Regardless of ideology, public policy that lacks clear criteria risks becoming politically charged rhetoric, Campany observed.
"There are a lot of questions about almost all aspects of how they're going to move forward, just because of this larger political discussion that's going to be happening in D.C.," Campany commented. "But we can't stop our work just because there's uncertainty."
Business as usual - for now
Carrie Stahler, government and public affairs officer for the Vermont Foodbank, emphasized that the funding freeze would not immediately impact food distribution, reassuring the public of continued service.
"We work with a relatively decent lead time to make sure that food gets out to our network partners in all 14 counties in the state," Stahler said. "So any change in federal funding would not, and has not, had an immediate impact on the way that we are able to operate and the amount of food that's available to people."
Of the many programs they operate to provide food to Vermonters, three receive direct federal funding through the state: The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP), the Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP), and 3SquaresVT Application Assistance, which helps individuals and families apply for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
"Those are the direct spaces that, if federal funding was frozen, we would have to look at what that meant," Stahler said. "That's the work that we're doing now - trying to analyze what that would mean."
The conversations no one wants to have
For Early Education Services, the freeze triggered many difficult conversations.
"My fiscal manager and I were putting our heads together about coming up with some kind of a plan to make sure that we would be able to pay people," said Gass, reflecting on contingency planning for the worst-case scenario.
Even with the temporary block on the executive memorandum, uncertainty about the future remained.
"Families are asking, 'Do we need to be looking for another child care program?' Employees are wondering, 'Will I be losing my job?'" Gass said, emphasizing the strain these uncertainties place on the stability and quality of care these programs provide.
For many organizations, this difficult work was just beginning when, on the afternoon of Jan. 30, in a two-sentence memo, the funding freeze memo was officially rescinded.
In an email, Stahler shared the Vermont Foodbank's approach: "We have chosen to continue to analyze how the impacts of a potential federal funding freeze could affect our work, so we can be more prepared with detailed impacts should this occur again in the future."
For now, this is all many organizations can do - plan for an uncertain future.
A battle won - for now - but the fight continues
Expressing gratitude for the "exceptionally strong advocacy and legislative support group who went to bat for us," Gass assured the community that their ability to provide care would not be immediately affected.
"But I still remain concerned because Head Start is a very comprehensive program, heavily regulated," she said.
Gass went on to explain that, as part of the Head Start program, her agency receives ongoing technical support and training to remain compliant. Additionally, their funding depends on the approval of a grant application every five years, which Early Education Services submitted on Jan. 6.
Now, her concern has turned to the funding "going to - or lack of funding going to - those agencies" that oversee the administrative approval and allocation of funds.
The example Gass provided demonstrated only one consequence in a vast sea of uncertainty about what the future holds as the Trump administration continues to reveal its political agenda.
"We're only on day 10," said Rep. Emilie Kornheiser, D-Brattleboro, during the monthly legislative delegation forum at Brooks Memorial Library on Feb. 1.
Addressing a group gathered to discuss Gov. Phil Scott's proposed education reform, Kornheiser first turned to the federal funding freeze.
"What we saw in the last week was a complete defunding of the states," Kornheiser said. "And it's not clear if that was designed to just cause chaos, or if it was designed towards a specific end, but the reality is that it caused both chaos and fear."
The federal government's power was made starkly clear in the wake of its threat to cut funding across a vast network of agencies - each one essential to the daily lives of Vermonters.
From childcare and healthcare services to nutrition assistance and housing or heating support, the impact would reach human services in every corner of the state.
In Windham County, many of these essential services are provided by some of the 452 nonprofit organizations, according to a Common Good Vermont data analysis.
Addressing the federal funds provided to the state of Vermont, Kornheiser noted, "all those resources are flowing again because of court orders."
"But there's a lot to do to prepare for that happening again," said Kornheiser.
Part of that work involves assessing how federal funds are interwoven into the state budget and where they are allocated. Kornheiser noted that the Vermont Treasurer's Office has established a special task force to monitor the federal administrative transition.
In the meantime, Kornheiser echoed a sentiment deeply ingrained in the nonprofit sector across Windham County and Vermont.
Speaking beyond the work to be done in Montpelier, she concluded the topic with how she faces the looming instability.
"Stay curious, stay connected, and take care of neighbors," Kornheiser said.
This News item by Devan Monette was written for The Commons.