For Immediate Release
January 28, 2025
Washington, D.C. – On January 27, 2025, the White House issued a “Temporary Pause on Agency Grants, Loans and other Financial Assistance Programs,” representing a dangerous and unnecessary disruption to critical resources for people with disabilities. This action jeopardizes the ability of states, communities, and nonprofit organizations like Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (DREDF) to ensure the livelihood and safety of people with disabilities, address public health emergencies, and the affordable housing and homelessness crisis. Compounding the harm, reports indicate that Medicaid-funded services may also face delays, further worsening risks for people with disabilities who rely on Medicaid for healthcare, long-term services, and community-based supports.
“This funding freeze is a double blow to people with disabilities,” said Nicole Bohn, Executive Director of DREDF. “It jeopardizes critical Medicaid-funded services, educational supports, and housing assistance that enable people with disabilities to live independently and avoid institutionalization. This decision threatens the safety, dignity, and future of people with disabilities, particularly disabled people who are Black, Indigenous, and people of color.”
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued a memorandum mandating that all federal departments and agencies halt financial assistance programs and supporting activities, effective January 28, 2025, at 5 p.m. Eastern. The memorandum explicitly indicates that Medicare and Social Security payments will not be stopped, but does not issue the same assurance for Medicaid. While described as “temporary,” the freeze lacks a clear timeline or assurance of when funds will be released. “This freeze is a direct threat to the rights and well-being of people with disabilities,” Bohn continued. “Housing and healthcare are interconnected. When Medicaid services are disrupted, people with disabilities face an increased risk of losing their homes, being institutionalized, or suffering from preventable health crises. The administration must act immediately to reverse this harmful decision and restore funding.”
More Information
How You Can Help & Take Action
Organizations have set up ways to take action. We encourage our supporters to join in coalition efforts to tell this Administration to stop this pause:
- Act Now: Stop the Federal Funding Freeze from Hurting Older Americans | Justice in Aging
- Stop Freeze of Federal Funds | National Low Income Housing Coalition <
- Protect Independent Living Funding | National Council on Independent Living
- School House Connection | Tell Your Member of Congress to Unfreeze Federal Funding NOW
Groups such as Democracy Forward, the National Council of Nonprofits, the American Public Health Association, Main Street Alliance, and SAGE are bringing a legal challenge and seeking a temporary restraining order against the freeze. Additional lawsuits against the freeze are expected.
Update: U.S. District Judge Loren L. AliKhan granted a “brief administrative stay” that orders federal disbursements to be preserved at least until Monday, February 3, 2025.
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Tina Pinedo
Communications Director
Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund
510-225-7726
media@dredf.org
Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (DREDF) is a leading national civil rights law and policy center directed by individuals with disabilities and parents who have children with disabilities. Founded in 1979, DREDF works to advance the civil and human rights of people with disabilities through legal advocacy, training, education, and public policy and legislative development. Learn more at dredf.org.