The Monday order from the Trump administration to pause delivery of federal grants and loans sent some Central Oregon agencies into chaos and confusion about funding for programs delivering everything from infrastructure to food access — only to find out Wednesday the order had been rescinded.

Despite the White House walking back the sweeping freeze of funding, the ordeal cast a cloud of uncertainty over the future of federally funded services in Central Oregon and across the country, and has some government leaders thinking more diligently about how to be more prepared for a potential cutoff.

Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley, ranking member of the senate’s budget committee, slammed Trump’s actions in a statement Wednesday morning (before the administration nixed the order), citing “huge” impacts to infrastructure projects, wildfire funding, tribal communities and clean air and public land.

“During the chaos caused by Trump’s constitutional crisis, Oregonians called my office after being shut out of their federal reimbursement systems and cut off from funding for their work to provide affordable housing, Head Start programs, and health care at federally qualified health centers. I’ll keep fighting to block these illegal cuts.”

The freeze order, which was sent to federal agencies in a memo on Monday from the Office of Management and Budget, sought to align federal funding with a wave of executive orders the president signed in his first week, ending diversity, equity and inclusion, pulling out of climate agreements, halting foreign aid and attacking gender ideology and abortion access, among others.

The administration had asked federal agencies to report back by Feb. 10 about whether programs were aligned with Trump’s priorities.

“The use of Federal resources to advance Marxist equity, transgenderism, and green new deal social engineering policies is a waste of taxpayer dollars that does not improve the day-to-day lives of those we serve,” the memo said.

Bend City Councilor Megan Perkins said she is concerned actions from Trump’s first week will disrupt the city’s work to make Bend more equitable.

“It’s incredibly troubling,” she said.

Access cut off

The order to freeze funding quickly faced legal challenges, including from a group of about two dozen states including Oregon. On Tuesday a federal judge blocked the order, prohibiting the administration from suspending federal funds at least until Feb. 3.

The judge’s decision came shortly before the freeze was set to take effect at 5 p.m. Eastern time Tuesday. The freeze order had left nonprofits and agencies that rely on reimbursements from federal programs scrambling to tally up recent expenses and submit them before Tuesday’s deadline.

But some found they had already been cut off from access to the online portal that allows them to do so.

That was the case for the Central Oregon Intergovernmental Council, which administers federally-funded transportation projects, workforce and economic development programs, wildfire prevention programs and others.

Because agencies like the council “float” funds from the federal government for programs, any freeze or government shutdown could mean they wouldn’t get paid back for spending that’s already been approved, in addition to potentially cutting off future spending, said Director Tammy Baney.

Baney said her agency was able to access the reimbursement portal Wednesday and their request for federal funds appeared to be processing as usual.

But this week’s whirlwind of events gave a “window into what we might want to anticipate,” which means increasing the agency’s reserve funds — as opposed to those being spent on programs — in case of a freeze.

Organizations have experience dealing with threats of shutdowns and funding freezes, said Scott Cooper, executive director of NeighborImpact, a social services nonprofit. He said the freeze could have disrupted people’s ability to pay rent, energy assistance, childcare, food for the food bank, weatherization jobs and Head Start preschool.

Cooper wrote to The Bulletin before the order was rescinded: “We urge the President and Congress to resolve their political and policy differences and resume a regular system of predictable payments before extensive damage is inflicted on people who only want to eat, stay warm, stay housed or raise their families in safety and security.”

The Homeless Leadership Coalition, which administers federal funds for homelessness in Central Oregon, sent out an urgent email Tuesday telling nonprofits to quickly submit expense requests for rent and other programs before the deadline, and linked to a call to action organized by the National Alliance to End Homelessness.

Directors of Head Start, the early childhood education program, across the country reported they were also locked out of the federal reimbursement portal on Tuesday. Guidance issued by Trump’s budget office that same day said any program providing direct benefits to Americans wouldn’t be paused, including Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, food stamps, funds for small businesses, farmers, Pell grants, Head Start and rent assistance.

City and county governments were watching the news closely during Tuesday’s chaos, but didn’t change operations as a result, according to spokespeople with the city of Bend and Deschutes County.

Jacob Larsen, a city of Bend spokesperson, said the city is moving forward with work on transportation projects linked with federal funding, including the Hawthorne Overcrossing, which received a $20 million grant in 2023 and the Reed Market Railroad Crossing Project, which received $32 million from the Federal Rail Administration earlier this month.

Deschutes County had been monitoring and gathering information on how the freeze could impact county programs and services, but there were no changes to daily operations or services since the announcement, said Kim Katchur, Deschutes County public information officer.

Health care

About 7% of Mosaic Community Health’s annual budget comes from federal grants, said Elaine Knobbs-Seasholtz, Mosaic Community Health strategy officer. The nonprofit, community-based organization spent the start of the week evaluating what projects and capital investments would potentially need to be stalled, impacting its ability to catch up with growing regional healthcare needs.

“In the short-term, core patient services that we offer throughout Central Oregon would not be affected,” Knobbs-Seasholtz said.

Kat Mastrangelo, executive director of Volunteers in Medicine, which runs a health clinic for low-income adults in Central Oregon, said the program was mostly supported by private funds.

“We do receive a small grant from the city’s Community Development Block Grand program,” Mastrangelo said. “We do not have any direction on what will happen to this funding cycle this year.”

But the larger concern lurked over how a federal funding freeze would affect programs like the Oregon Health Plan, she said. If federal dollars stopped, many people would be left without health insurance, which could “impact the entire health care community, including our partners like St. Charles (Health System) and private practices.

Nutrition programs

The High Desert Food and Farm Alliance has two active U.S. Department of Agriculture grants, which fund agricultural support work and the produce program VeggieRx, which provides locally-sourced produce to those experiencing food insecurity and diseases that may be helped by a change in diet, such as diabetes.

“Our 2025 budget is counting on $337,133 between those two grants,” wrote Sharon Maier-Kennelly, executive director, in an email. “When we woke up on Tuesday to the news of the Federal Memo announcing a pause at 5 p.m. Eastern that day, we reviewed our recent expenses and tried to submit for reimbursement at 12:30 p.m. Pacific time (90 minutes before the cutoff) to find we could not access our accounts. The access for reimbursement was closed; colleagues from around the country have said they had a similar experience even earlier in the day.”

The Council on Aging of Central Oregon, which oversees Meals on Wheels in Central Oregon does receive federal funding, said Emma Fried-Cassorla, director of communications and programs. As the news filtered out of Washington D.C. Wednesday, the agency was still culling through its finances to “parse through all of the information to understand if there will be any effects.”

Irrigation districts

The eight irrigation districts in Central Oregon have been aggressively piping their open canals in recent years to conserve water for farms and comply with environmental regulations set up to protect threatened species. These canal piping projects heavily rely on federal funding, which are granted through the Watershed Protection and Flood Prevention program, also known as PL-566.

Officials from irrigation districts told The Bulletin they received notice that the Trump administration temporarily paused all activities related to the obligation or disbursement of federal financial assistance.

“This pause does include some canal piping projects under review,” Craig Horrell, general manager for Central Oregon Irrigation District, told The Bulletin Tuesday prior to Trump rescinding the order. “At this time, no federal funding has been cut off or taken away from these projects.”

Kate Fitzpatrick, the executive director of the Deschutes River Conservancy, a non-profit that is working to rehabilitate the Deschutes River ecosystem, initially responded to Trump’s federal freeze with concern.

“We would have been affected by the funding pause, impacting multiple grants that are helping improve water supply for farmers and restoring flows instream,” Fitzpatrick said.

Fitzpatrick says her organization recently received $25 million from the Natural Resources Conservation Service for piping with the Central Oregon Irrigation District.

“Other federal funds over the years invested across irrigation districts probably exceeded $100 million, with very significant outcomes for protected water in rivers and agricultural water supply,” said Fitzpatrick. “This investment has supported the collaboration here in the Deschutes and has helped the basin avoid the kind of water conflict seen in other basins.”

Reporters Michael Kohn, Noemi Arellano-Summer, Suzanne Roig and Janay Wright contributed to this report.