Ernst, Grassley, Miller-Meeks, Hinson, Feenstra, and Reynolds Own Trump’s Chaos

Efforts to Save Money are Costing Americans Dearly

Robert Leonard

and

Matt Russell

Jan 29, 2025

Left to right at Trump’s inauguration—Miller-Meeks, Reynolds, Nunn, Ernst, and Feenstra. Missing Grassley and Hinson.

This column is written with Matt Russell, who most recently served in the Biden administration as the State Executive Director of the Farm Service Agency in Iowa. Matt and I have been friends for years, and we have written together for the New York Times, TIME, the Des Moines Register, the Kansas City Star, Civil Eats, and more. Expect more from us. We both live in rural Marion County, Iowa. Now that Matt is no longer in the Biden administration, we can write together, and Matt has started his own Substack newsletter, Growing New Leaders; Perspectives from Coyote Run Farm. When we write together, our work will be published both here and on Matt’s Substack. We will publish our independent work on our own substacks. Thanks for subscribing to Deep Midwest; Politics and Culture, and I encourage you to subscribe to Growing New Leaders; Perspectives from Coyote Run Farm as well. You won’t regret it.

On Monday the White House’s Office of Management and Budget issued a memo ordering a temporary halt to “all federal financial assistance,” paralyzing a vast swath of federal programs, including grants and loans. Read the memo here.

A federal judge in the District of Columbia temporarily blocked the order on Tuesday afternoon. But with no additional guidance from Republicans, it’s still unclear what will remain of the order and what might be ultimately disregarded.

According to the New York Times, “the directive threatened to upend funds that course throughout the American economy: Hundreds of billions of dollars in grants to state, local and tribal governments. Disaster relief aid. Education and transportation funding. Loans to small businesses.”

The Washington Post reports, “among the government programs facing an immediate cutoff: Meals on Wheels, Head Start, school lunches, child-care help, student loans, disaster relief, crime-fighting assistance and Medicaid, which provides health care to 82 million Americans.”

According to the Times, the online portal where state Medicaid departments receive federal funding in some states stopped working hours after the memo was released. Funding for some Head Start Programs have been halted. “Federal health researchers, nonprofit aid organizations and programs for early childhood education also reported interruptions in federal support, raising alarms about whether the order meant people would lose access to jobs, health care services, reduced-price meals and more.

Chris Clayton from DTN did his best to unpack what the pause could mean for USDA funding and support for farmers, ranchers, and rural communities. “DTN repeatedly sought clarification from USDA on Tuesday regarding which programs are affected, but the department did not respond.” He listed billions of USDA programs that, based on the language of the memorandum, could be interpreted as qualifying for the pause. It’s still unclear whether they are also at risk of elimination.

Matthew J. Vaeth, the acting director of the Office of Management and Budget wrote in the memo for federal agencies to “temporarily pause all activities related to obligation or disbursement of all federal financial assistance,” and any other programs that included “D.E.I., woke gender ideology and the Green New Deal.”

The Green New Deal doesn’t exist. It appears the use of “woke gender ideology” is used to provide the grounds for wide interpretation based on Republican ideology rather than anything grounded in previous policy, guidance, or scientific study.

The White House has no concerns about firing off confusing, inaccurate, and unconstitutional memorandums compelling federal agencies and public servants to pause the disbursement of trillions of dollars authorized by Congress. These obligated funds have been committed to Americans in every jurisdiction in the country. The chaos is intentional.

Lives and livelihoods will be lost in Iowa and around the world. Trump’s withdrawal of foreign aid around the world will be back-filled by China and other non-democratic states, another disaster of epic proportions.

We heard from Iowans yesterday. Some wondered if their son on Medicaid would have access to health insurance. Non-profits were wondering if they needed to lay off employees because grant funding was potentially ending. A county wondered if the funding for a road project would be affected. Farmers ready to have their Marketing Assistance Loans disbursed were left wondering when that might happen. The ability to make those payments was paused. Maybe. Or maybe not.

We've taken calls from the press and worked with local and state organizations putting federal grant dollars to work. We have communicated with city and hospital administrators. One city official tells us that a COPS grant award for community policing is now on hold. A local hospital CEO says that he sees no impact yet, but the impact on research at the University of Iowa, for example, will likely be great, as they received 190 million dollars in funding just from NIH last year. Iowa State University received over 18 million dollars. A local official wonders how the freeze will impact the multi-million dollar infrastructure project federal grant he recently submitted.

Republican efforts to cut government spending and “drain the swamp” are costing Americans a lot of time and money. State and local governments spent the entire day trying to figure out what they needed to do to comply with ever-changing directions and will likely be responding in the future.

Thousands of families across the state spent time trying to figure out what it meant when Republicans said “Federal agencies must temporarily pause all activities related to obligation or disbursement of all Federal financial assistance…” Many are still left wondering what the hell is going on.

As of this writing, there were no official statements from Senator Ernst, or Representatives Miller-Meeks, Nunn, Feenstra, or Hinson forthcoming. None of our members of Congress had anything to say about the fact that the President and leader of their party announced a pause on federal funding referencing “more than $3 trillion was Federal financial assistance, such as grants and loans.”

KCCI was able to reach Senator Grassley for a comment:

“It’s important for Iowans to know this is a temporary pause that does not impact individual assistance or public benefit programs like Medicaid, SNAP, student aid and Social Security. Iowans’ needs will continue to be taken care of, while President Trump delivers on the job voters elected him to do – grow our economy and ensure tax dollars are used wisely.”

KCCI also reached out to several nonprofit leaders before the judge issued the ruling:

"We will not be able to make our next payroll, which means 140 people are going to probably be without jobs, not be able to have money to buy food, not be able to have money to pay their child care expenses," says Kimberly Grandstaff, the CFO of the Institute for Community Alliances.

Grassley’s statement is disingenuous. He’s blowing off the disastrous memo by listing programs that he says won’t be impacted, ignoring the other programs that will. And Grassley is wrong-- Medicaid portals were frozen at least temporarily. This is a simple misdirection. Grassley thinks his constituents are easily misled.

There was also nothing from Republican Governor Kim Reynolds or Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig. Iowa government receives hundreds of million dollars a year in federal support. But no word from any Republican elected leaders other than Grassley about what this sweeping and unprecedented action by their party meant for the people of Iowa. And Grassley’s statement is worthless.

That Iowa Republican leaders offered no opinion or guidance to provide to Iowans dealing with this chaos, confusion, and frustration provides a shocking truth. The chaos, confusion, and frustration is the point.

Hypocritically, Republicans are calling for government accountability and reining in wasteful spending but their actions on Tuesday probably just cost our nation more lost productivity and wasted time in one day than any single action a President has taken in decades.

Republicans claim to have a mandate to provide better efficiency of taxpayer funds. Senator Ernst speaks almost daily about the need to “Drain the Swamp” and curtail wasteful spending. Tuesday proved that Republicans are more interested in simply tearing down government than making it smarter, more effective, and efficient. The fact that Iowa Republicans have little comment on this fiasco is proof that they are either all in on the tearing down or too spineless to speak up. Either way, the costs to Iowans and to our nation by the way they choose to follow instead of lead are piling up. We expect more misleading statements from them similar to Grassley’s later today and beyond.

We are nearing a constitutional crisis as Trump appears to be seizing the power of the purse from Congress.

This is not the time to feel disheartened--it’s time to fight. The Democratic National Convention is electing leadership on Saturday. This is a perfect opportunity for those running to demonstrate their ability to hold Republicans accountable. And for the rest of us to judge them accordingly.

Fight for smart, constitutional government as you talk and act in your communities. Make sure you’ve registered your outrage with Senators Grassley and Ernst and your member of Congress. Call Governor Reynolds’ office. Join groups that are engaging in moving America forward and work hand in hand with them. They stand ready to help you put your shoulder to the wheel. If you have the financial means, please consider a donation to these groups. And let the Iowa Democratic Party know that you expect them to be swinging at Republicans as their party intentionally wreaks havoc on ordinary Iowans.

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