President Donald Trump’s orders to cut federal funding for a wide range of programs and nonprofit organizations has set off chaos and confusion in Hawaii and around the country.
All of Trump’s orders to halt federal funding for multiple programs sent Hawaii officials scrambling Tuesday to pinpoint which programs and services may be at risk.
Hawaii departments and agencies rely on 2,600 different federal “accounts,” acting Gov. Sylvia Luke told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.
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But state officials do not know whether the list of 2,600 federal accounts used by various state agencies — including the state departments of Health and Human Services and the University of Hawaii — was complete, including how many state workers’ salaries are funded by the federal government, Luke said.
She asked anyone who hears about or experiences disruptions in programs to contact their state legislator so the state can get a better picture of the situation.
Luke hopes state legislators provide more funding for critical programs that rely on federal funding to continue services across Hawaii.
But of the state’s $17 billion budget, Luke said half comes from special and federal dollars.
“We don’t have the funds to supplant all of the federal funds that can be lost,” she said.
In a statement Tuesday, state Senate President Ron Kouchi (D, Kauai-Niihau), said, “These programs — spanning healthcare, education, infrastructure, housing, and more — are lifelines for our Hawai‘i residents as well as millions of Americans, and the temporary suspension of these funds will only exacerbate challenges that are already straining our communities.”
House Speaker Nadine Nakamura (D, Hanalei-Princeville-Kapaa) issued a statement saying, “This freeze is deeply concerning as it could jeopardize critical services that Hawai‘i’s communities depend on, including education, healthcare, social services, wildfire recovery, and essential federally funded programs. Furthermore, it undermines the progress we have made in ensuring representation and support for our Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander communities.”
The Hawaii Alliance of Nonprofit Organizations said in a statement that Trump’s call for a “temporary” pause on all agency federal grants and loans “will have immediate and devastating impacts to nonprofits that receive federal funding and for our communities at large. The shock waves of this unprecedented action are reverberating throughout the country and our local communities. HANO joins in your concerns and your fears, and we believe this unilateral action taken by President Trump is unconstitutional.”
Luke said that in her 10 years as House finance chair before being elected lieutenant governor in 2022, “We have never seen this type of directive out of the White House.”
Even more concerning, she said, Trump’s actions are aimed, in particular, at critical issues for Hawaii, including addressing climate change, embracing diversity, culture and inclusion — and at specific communities such as immigrants like herself, various ethnicities, lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgenders.
“They have an agenda,” she said of the Trump administration and his supporters.
Luke hopes Trump’s threats to dismantle the Federal Emergency Management Agency do not jeopardize future federal funding to rebuild Maui after the Aug. 8, 2023, wildfires, which killed 102 people and all but wiped out Lahaina.
And she also worries that Trump might target the Compact of Free Association, which gives residents from the Federated States of Micronesia, Republic of the Marshall Islands and the Republic of Palau access to the full range of federal benefits available to lawful U.S. residents, including food aid from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and Temporary Aid for Needy Families.
The agreements were made after U.S. nuclear weapons tests killed, maimed and caused health issues for the people of their islands.
On Monday the U.S. Office of Management and Budget issued a directive to federal agencies to pause “all activities related to obligation or disbursement of all federal financial assistance” starting Tuesday to conduct a review of whether government spending “aligns with Trump’s agenda,” Schatz told his Senate colleagues Tuesday.
The OMB later clarified that programs would be spared from review that provide direct benefits to people who receive Medicaid, SNAP or Social Security benefits.
Gov. Josh Green said in a statement that Trump’s directives have “caused a great deal of chaos, confusion and uncertainty.”
“The presidential order seeks to prevent the people of Hawaii from receiving crucial services funded by the millions of dollars they pay to the federal government each year,” Green said. “This cannot stand. My administration is currently assessing the impact of this pause on essential state programs and services, including education, health care, social services, and wildfire recovery.”
The immediate aftermath of Trump’s flurry of directives will equally effect Republican and Democratic states, U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz and U.S. Rep. Jill Tokuda said separately Tuesday.
Schatz rose on the floor of the U.S. Senate and said: “I also would like to select the federal funding, which I agree with and fund that, and select the funding that I disagree with and defund that. But I’m not a monarch and neither is Donald Trump.
“We’re hearing from so many constituents across the country, and I had a bit of a time delay because it’s earlier in Hawaii, but all of my colleagues were getting incoming texts and calls and panicked people,” Schatz said. “This isn’t about some arcane government program. This is, like, basic stuff.”
Schatz, Tokuda and others including the Hawaii Alliance of Nonprofit Organizations called Trump’s “temporary” pause on all agency federal grants and loans unconstitutional, chaotic and creating confusion across the country, including in red states.
Tokuda said Trump “decided in his head that he was just going to do it. And that’s resulted in an onslaught of executive orders. He was just going to put out his mandates, throw noodles to the wall and see what would stick, to see if Republicans in Congress would bow down to him, ultimately making this a government of one and removing the separation of powers that protects all Americans.”
Just as the cuts were to take effect Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Loren AliKhan ordered the Trump administration not to block funding to existing programs until Monday after nonprofit and public health organizations filed lawsuits.
AliKhan has scheduled a hearing in Washington, D.C., for Monday.
However the judge rules, it remains to be seen whether the losing side will appeal — or Trump will simply ignore a decision against his directives, claiming they are the result of executive orders, Luke said.
“We really don’t know,” she said. “We won’t know if this will continue a week from now, a month from now, a year from now. But we have an obligation to be ready for the worst-case scenario.”
