Chaos ruled from coast to coast in the wake of President Trump’s order yesterday to freeze more than $3 trillion in funding designed to end quote “wokeness and the weaponization of the government.”
That’s language from Monday night’s U.S. Office of Management and Budget memorandum targeting federal grants, loans, and other financial assistance programs.
The offices of New Mexico’s five members of congress and scores of organizations in this state and beyond were scrambling to deal with a torrent of confusion and phone calls.
Yesterday afternoon, the state’s two U.S. senators and three representatives held a virtual press conference.
Senator Ben Ray Lujan listed some of the initiatives his constituents asked him about.
“What I'm hearing is that people are worried about cancer treatments or basic access to healthcare, school lunch programs," said Lujan.
"Whether there's going to be lunch at school later on this week or this month. For workers across the state, funding for police departments for these cops grants, water projects that are in the Eastern part of New Mexico, in Clovis and in Portales—there's a question about funding there.”
Those individuals and groups appear to have received a temporary reprieve, after a federal judge blocked the order yesterday afternoon, just before it was to go into effect.
Rep. Melanie Stansbury said during the press conference that New Mexico’s Department of Justice had earlier joined a lawsuit that compelled the judge’s decision.
But the upheaval isn’t necessarily over yet. The administrative stay placed on the federal order lasts only until next Monday afternoon.
Among the other concerns the New Mexican delegation raised during the day was federal funding for disaster relief.
Sen. Martin Heinrich said he tried without success to get answers from FEMA about what could be the fate of federal relief already earmarked for the Hermits Peak Calf Canyon Fire.
Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez didn’t hide her anger while explaining what she said is part of a larger plan from the new administration.
“Trump is attacking federal funding to families, to small businesses, to farmers, to rural cooperatives, so that he could then turn around and pass massive tax cuts and breaks to the billionaires, “ said Leger Fernandez.
Some organizations already paused activities due to the federal order. The National Science Foundation postponed this week’s panels for reviewing grant applications.
