Gov. Josh Shapiro called President Donald Trump’s memo freezing federal spending “worrisome” after creating chaos for state and local officials. Pennsylvania lost access to Medicaid, CareerLink and Head Start programs.
State and local officials throughout Pennsylvania were left scrambling and dealing with the chaos after President Donald Trump’s administration ordered a pause on the disbursement of all federal grants and loans.
The Office of Management and Budget issued a two-page memo late on Monday instructing all federal agencies to halt federal spending in order to perform a comprehensive analysis to make sure all grant and loan programs are in line with Trump’s executive orders that rollback diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) protections and environmental standards.
However, a federal judge temporarily blocked Trump’s funding freeze until 5 p.m. on Monday.
According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, Pennsylvania received roughly $49 billion from the federal government this current fiscal year. That funding makes up half of the commonwealth’s annual spending and it is often used by state or local governments to pay for essential services.
“That [memo] was incredibly worrisome to our team, to our secretaries, to the budget secretary,” Gov. Josh Shapiro told reporters at the Pennsylvania Capitol on Tuesday. “We spent a good bit of last night and into today trying to understand exactly what the White House proposes to do here.”
Government officials lost access to important portals such as CareerLink, Medicaid and Head Start, and were unable to access the payment systems and computer systems used to run their daily operations.
“These executive orders, the manner in which they’re coming, are creating some chaos and wreaking havoc on our communities,” Shapiro said. “We’ve got non-profits in Erie who are wondering whether they can serve our fellow Pennsylvanians with their critical services.”
“I think as [Trump] goes forth and pursues his agenda he should strive to do this in a way that doesn’t harm the people of Pennsylvania. It doesn’t harm the American people, but tries to lift everyone up.”
This story was updated to include a federal judge temporarily blocking the spending freeze.
