Substance use services are among the many social programs that receive federal funding in New Hampshire. (Paul Cuno-Booth /NHPR)


This story was updated at 2:15 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 29. 

New Hampshire nonprofits breathed a sigh of relief Tuesday, after a federal judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s move to freeze grants, loans and other federal financial assistance through early next week. By Wednesday afternoon, the administration rescinded its executive order.

The pace of changes around the funding freeze order created confusion and anxiety for many New Hampshire nonprofits, which rely on federal funds to provide addiction treatment and recovery programs, medical care in underserved areas, support for homeless youth, home care for seniors and a vast array of other social services.

Some New Hampshire nonprofits couldn’t get into the online portal used for federal grant payments Tuesday, according to Kathleen Reardon, who leads the New Hampshire Center for Nonprofits

“We're not talking about future-looking [funding],” she said before the order was rescinded. “We're looking at things that have already been awarded. Employees are in place. So it's created a lot of anxiety and chaos.”

The National Council of Nonprofits, of which her organization is a member, was one of the groups that sued to block the funding freeze.

Before the court-ordered stay Tuesday afternoon, several New Hampshire nonprofit leaders said they were unsure whether they would still be able to access the funds needed to keep essential programs going. Some said the impacts could have been felt within weeks.

The New Hampshire-based social services agency Waypoint gets about 70% of its budget directly or indirectly from federal grants. Borja Alvarez de Toledo, the organization’s president and CEO, said that pays for housing assistance for youth experiencing homelessness, early childhood programs and services for young children with developmental disabilities, among other programs.

Speaking Tuesday, before the freeze was rescinded, he said Waypoint had no immediate plans to discontinue any services. But he said a prolonged interruption in funding would have been unsustainable.

“If our funding is reduced by 70% for a month, I'm not sure how long I can sort of keep paying people with a promise that maybe we'll get some funding,” he said.

“I don't want to be an alarmist,” he added. “But certainly the way it was conveyed, the shutdown and the freeze, is very alarmist.”

Cutting off federal funds could also have threatened the financial stability of community health centers in New Hampshire. Federal grants make up more than a quarter of the budget at Lamprey Healthcare, a safety-net provider for some 17,000 patients in Nashua, Newmarket and Raymond, said CEO Gregory White.

Many of those patients are uninsured, don’t speak English or live in communities without other options for primary care. White said the organization could run for a bit on cash reserves in the event funding was interrupted, but that wouldn’t be sustainable for long.

The White House said it ordered the pause to make sure federal spending conformed to its views on DEI, “woke gender ideology” and other topics addressed in a raft of recent executive orders. Federal officials said they weren’t stopping programs that provide direct assistance to individuals, like Medicare and Social Security, but offered little clarity on thousands of other programs.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Wednesday that agencies will continue with that review, even with the funding freeze lifted.

A spreadsheet circulated with the White House’s directive to halt funding late Monday lists around 2,600 federal spending programs under review, according to the New York Times. That includes the state opioid response grants that help pay for New Hampshire’s network of substance use treatment and recovery services, including its Doorways system.

In a statement Tuesday, Republican Gov. Kelly Ayotte said that while she supported a “commonsense review of federal spending,” it could not be allowed to interrupt critical services that people rely on.

“My office has been in communication with the White House to ensure that our citizens are not negatively impacted by any unintended impacts and that critical services continue without interruption,” she said.

The move to withhold funding was criticized by Congressman Chris Pappas and U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, both Democrats, who said it would harm vulnerable people who rely on federally funded programs.

“A wholesale freeze on these bipartisan programs will hurt local fire and police departments, small business loans, addiction treatment, domestic violence prevention, Meals on Wheels, housing support, and services for veterans,” Pappas said in a statement Tuesday, calling the decision “incredibly reckless.”

Reardon says her organization will continue to monitor the issue and how related executive orders will affect the state’s nonprofit sector

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