Quick Take
Santa Cruz County officials and nonprofit leaders were rushing Tuesday to understand the local implications of President Donald Trump's federal funding freeze. Millions of dollars for local programs are under threat from the pause, which has been temporarily blocked by a judge.
Editor’s note: On Wednesday, several media outlets were reporting that the Trump administration had rescinded the Office of Management and Budget memo freezing federal funding.
Government officials and CEOs from several nonprofits in Santa Cruz County said President Donald Trump’s federal funding freeze, which has been temporarily halted by a federal judge, caused significant concern and confusion Tuesday and they’re continuing to assess what services and programs could be affected.
Erica Padilla-Chavez, Second Harvest Food Bank CEO, told Lookout that the potential impact on the food bank could be millions. She said $5 to $6 million, or 28%, of Second Harvest’s budget is federal funding.
“We don’t have clarity as to which programs [could lose funding] and the why behind those programs,” she said. “There’s so many questions.”
The now-paused freeze of potentially trillions in federal assistance came hours after Trump issued an executive order late Monday night with an aim to eliminate “woke” ideology from the government. In a memo from the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, the acting director wrote that all federal agencies were required to review programs and activities they fund to identify areas that don’t align with Trump’s policies and executive orders. The memo says they have to submit a review to the office by Feb. 10.
In the meantime, the order requires federal agencies to temporarily stop disbursing federal funds that might be going toward activities including “foreign aid, nongovernmental organizations, DEI [diversity, equity and inclusion], woke gender ideology, and the green new deal.”
However, a Washington, D.C., federal judge on Tuesday temporarily blocked the order after a progressive organization, Democracy Forward, filed a lawsuit against it. U.S. District Judge Loren AliKhan said she would make a final decision on Monday.
By the time the judge’s decision was publicized, Santa Cruz County community organizations, government officials and local leaders had already spent hours Tuesday trying to understand how they would be affected. None of them told Lookout that they had seen any funds or services that were impacted because of the freeze as of Tuesday.
County spokesperson Jason Hoppin said he spent the entire day Tuesday scrambling to get clarity on the broad-reaching order.
“This is something that affects every jurisdiction in the country,” he said.
Hoppin, like many Lookout spoke to Tuesday, said county officials still don’t understand what programs and community members could be affected. County budget manager Marcus Pimentel told Lookout via text message in December that about half of the county’s budget comes from federally sourced dollars, including federal money that flows through the state to local governments.
“It’s hard for us to say what will be withheld or not until we go [for a federal reimbursement] on programs that we’ve spent money on,” he said. “It’s a huge level of uncertainty about what services we’re going to be able to provide and the county’s cash flow.”
Hoppin said there are no impacts on services right now, just on the staff who are trying to figure out what the executive orders and Office of Management and Budget memo mean.
Lookout sought an interview with officials from the City of Santa Cruz but spokesperson Erika Smart didn’t make anyone from the city available for an interview. She didn’t respond to questions via email about the impacts on federal funds the city receives, or how much the city gets from the federal government.
“The City is currently monitoring the federal funding pause and ongoing information that is coming out about this topic,” she wrote via email.
Local nonprofits and school leaders told Lookout they’re also trying to understand what the federal government’s funding freeze could potentially mean for the services they provide.
Raymon Cancino, CEO of social services nonprofit Community Bridges, said the organization is not sure yet what services could be impacted. About 82% of the organization’s budget, or about $14 to $15 million, comes from federal sources. Community Bridges runs a range of programs such as Meals on Wheels and the special nutrition program, and operates resource centers from the Santa Cruz Mountains to Watsonville.
Cancino said the organization receives an additional $4 million from the federal government that goes to the Child and Adult Care Food Program. The federal program offers reimbursements for nutritious food to people enrolled in the program and who are receiving care at eligible care centers and homes.
“At this moment, we’re still just in the fact-finding portion of this,” said Community Bridges spokesperson Tony Nuñez. “Obviously we had a lot of concerns.”
Nuñez said the organization doesn’t believe that its core programs like the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) will be impacted. The nutrition program provides free health food and breastfeeding support to people who qualify for assistance.
Cancino added that he believes the Trump administration’s funding freeze is part of a strategy to cause fear. “The majority of this is really about the chilling effect,” he said. “Let’s freak you all out, and then when I make small cuts, you’re not going to be up in arms.”
Yvette Brooks, the incoming CEO of United Way of Santa Cruz County, told Lookout she’s not certain how much, if any, federal funds go to the organization and said she’s looking into it.
The Santa Cruz County Office of Education is also still trying to understand how the funding freeze would affect public schools in the county, according to spokesperson Nick Ibarra.
“We are assessing … and are concerned about any potential disruption to students’ services that could impact their education, care, and wellbeing,” he wrote to Lookout. “At this point, however, it is not clear what if any federal funding received by the COE or Santa Cruz County schools would be affected by this order.”
While funding amounts vary year to year, Ibarra told Lookout the COE office received about 11% of its funding from federal sources as of last year.
The UC Santa Cruz Office of Research wrote on a webpage about the federal funding updates that people with existing grants should continue working “unless you are notified directly by the agency or” the university’s Office of Sponsored Projects.
“Do not stop work only on the basis of rumor or internal agency guidance,” the message reads. “Agencies are required to notify us directly if there will be changes to your funding once the contract is in place.”
UCSC spokesperson Scott Hernandez-Jason told Lookout that “UC Office of the President is handling inquiries about research funding.” He didn’t respond to a request for a comment on other federal funding impacts to UCSC not related to research.
Christopher Neely contributed reporting to this story.
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FOR THE RECORD: This story has been updated with additional information from UC Santa Cruz.
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