"Nonprofits operate on small margins. And any delay in being able to access federal resources that they have a contract for will just continue to make it very difficult for them to have resources to get supplies that they need to provide services to communities all over Michigan," said Kuhn.
MPRN | By Rick Pluta, Isabel Gil
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel joined 22 other states and Washington D.C. Tuesday in a federal lawsuit seeking to permanently halt a freeze on disbursing some federal funds to states while the Trump administration decides whether the spending matches its priorities.
A judge quickly put a hold on the freeze pending a review, but the administration’s actions aimed at rolling back existing diversity, environmental, and energy policies left groups rushing to interpret the potential impacts.
“This freeze is affecting programs that millions of Michiganders depend on for their daily survival,” Nessel said in a video released by her office.
Local governments, schools, colleges, universities, and not-for-profit organizations in Michigan were also looking at what a freeze might mean.
Kelley Kuhn, the president and CEO of the Michigan Nonprofit Association, said the impacts of the funding freeze were immediate, even if the court-ordered stay delayed its implementation.
“Nonprofits operate on small margins. And any delay in being able to access federal resources that they have a contract for will just continue to make it very difficult for them to have resources to get supplies that they need to provide services to communities all over Michigan," said Kuhn.
And Portia Roberson, CEO of the Detroit nonprofit Focus: Hope, said while the stay allows their work to continue, it's not clear how long that will last.