A temporary pause on federal funding that had recipients — including nonprofits and organizations that provide childhood education, family services, housing and food for seniors — concerned about future operations in the community has been blocked by a federal judge.

Judge Loren AliKhan, a federal judge in the District of Columbia, blocked the Trump administration’s plan shortly after it was set to take effect at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 28.

A memorandum issued on Monday, Jan. 27, by the federal Office of Management and Budget, under the executive office of the president, announced the pause to agencies. 

A clarifying memo from OMB obtained by The Reporting Project on Tuesday said 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,” the second memo said. 

The first OMB memo said that “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,” according to the memorandum

The memo said federal agencies should use this pause to assess spending and review current contracts to ensure federal dollars would not be used to “advance Marxist equity, transgenderism and green new deal social engineering policies.” 

Federal grants and payments to Licking County local governments, agencies and projects amount to about $251 million for fiscal years 2024 and 2025, according to a government website that tracks the funding. The deadline for the federal budget reviews is Feb. 10, so it appears funding could be held up for at least two weeks.

Guidance in the original memo was vague, leaving many Licking County agencies unsure of what happens next. 

Confusion over whether this pause would impact programs like SNAP — the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — and Medicaid caused major concern in Licking County, where nearly 11% of residents relied on SNAP to afford food in December 2024, according to data from the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services. Even more Licking Countians — nearly 40,000 — are on Medicaid, according to the Ohio Department of Medicaid

“Everybody, on all levels, is still trying to figure out what this means,” said Nathan Keirns, CEO of LEADS in Licking County. “We’re all in the same boat about what does it mean, how long is it going to last, and what programs are ultimately going to be impacted.” 

LEADS, a Newark-based organization, supports “economically disadvantaged” residents in Licking County, according to its website. It manages programs like Head Start — the most successful, longest-running national school readiness program in the United States — and provides assistance through programs related to home repair, low-income and senior housing, utility bills and access to food. 

“I think a lot of programs are just looking at how many days of cash they have on hand to determine how to operate,” Keirns said. 

Keirns said the payment management system where grantees and partners can access funds online was shut down before noon on Tuesday — meaning organizations could not access any additional dollars that had already been granted to them but not disbursed prior to the 5 p.m. freeze. 

The Licking County Coalition for Housing, which provides rental assistance for low-income and unsheltered families across the county, said they could not access websites they use to withdraw funds for most of Tuesday, though LCCH Executive Director Trina Woods said those websites came back online in the early evening.

“This affects us, because we pay people’s rent, and without that cash flow, I cannot pay their rent,” Woods said Tuesday night. “We’re going to do everything we can to serve the clients currently enrolled, and make sure that their housing is secure.”

Woods said the funds the organization uses for expenses like payroll and rent were allocated in fiscal year 2023, and that the organization spends an average of $165,000 per month on rental assistance for 215 households across their service area.

“We serve veterans. We serve people, families with minor children. We serve people that have mental illness, that struggle with addiction,” Woods said. “We have so many different programs, and to put a halt on rental assistance will have a huge effect on the populations we serve.”

As with other local agencies, the Licking County Board of Developmental Disabilities is unsure how the funding pause might affect the agency’s grants, said Anna Jeffries, public information officer.

She said the board receives about $430,000 in federal grants for its early intervention program, which supports families with children from birth to age 3. But that program is also supported with local funds, which make up the bulk of the agency’s funding, Jeffries said.

“Our families will still get the support they need,” she said. 

The Food Pantry Network in Licking County, which operates nearly two dozen volunteer-run pantries in Licking County, shared similar sentiments. 

“It’s moments like these that make it necessary for us to be here,” said FPN Development Director Alyssa Shepherd. 

April Foster, director of the Licking County Veterans Services Commission, said on Jan. 29 that the office is locally funded and that its services would not be affected by a funding freeze. She said the 12,000 veterans in the county will continue to receive benefits and services.

Seth Roy, communication coordinator for Newark City Schools, said the district treasurer’s assessment Tuesday is that it appears the funding freeze won’t affect reading programs, for which the district receives federal funds, or food-service programs. 

It’s possible that the freeze could affect two competitive federal grants, Roy said. He said the “21st Century Grant” is $800,000 for after-school programs for up to 50 students in each school. The students attend the program Monday through Thursday, when they receive help with homework, receive snacks, participate in other activities, such as doing artwork and taking field trips. Because of the grant, the program is free to low-income families. 

The other grant is the “Stronger Connections Grant,” which is supposed to provide $208,000 for physical and mental health programs for students and anti-bullying programs.

“We received some of that already, but we don’t know the actual impact at this point,” Roy said.

Across the state, agencies are scrambling to figure out how this will impact their ability to serve Ohio residents. 

“Nearly 30% of Ohio’s revenue necessary to fund the state operating budget comes from these federal grants,” according to State Rep. Allison Russo, D-Upper Arlington, and house minority leader. “A review of spending is fine, but a blanket pause in spending is just grossly irresponsible and has real consequences for people, especially children and older Ohioans.”

This story was updated at 6:05 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 28 to include additional information about the temporary freeze and its impact on Licking County service providers. And it was updated at 12:30 p.m. on Jan. 29 to include Veterans Services information.

Julia Lerner, Alan Miller, Ellie Owen and Andrew Theophilus contributed to this story. They write for TheReportingProject.org, the nonprofit news organization of Denison University’s Journalism program, which is supported by generous donations from readers. Sign up for The Reporting Project newsletter here.