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Several organizations and agencies that depend on the federal health department for funds say they’ve been locked out of an online system for tracking and depositing money amid President Donald Trump’s funding freeze.
On Monday (January 27), the White House said it was ordering a freeze on federal funding for activities that could conflict with Trump’s conservative agenda, which has been outlined in a series of executive orders he’s issued since entering office.
It was not immediately clear which organizations and agencies would be affected but officials said the freeze wouldn’t affect Medicare and Social Security.
However, state Medicaid programs cited Tuesday (January 28) that they were unable to log into the Payment Management Services (PMS) web portal, which is run by the Department of Health and Human Services, per CBS News.
The website states that due "to Executive Orders regarding potentially unallowable grant payments, PMS is taking additional measures to process payments. Reviews of applicable programs and payments will result in delays and/or rejections of payments."
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt insisted Tuesday that Medicaid recipients would continue to receive funding.
"We have confirmed no payments have been affected — they are still being processed and sent. We expect the portal will be back online shortly," Leavitt said in a post on X.
Head Start early childhood education programs and community health centers also reported that they were locked out of the federal payment system.
"My staff has confirmed reports that Medicaid portals are down in all 50 states following last night's federal funding freeze. This is a blatant attempt to rip away health care from millions of Americans overnight and will get people killed," Oregon Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden said in a statement on X.
"Multiple states locked out of Medicaid portal," Sen. Brian Schatz, a Democrat from Hawaii, tweeted. "This is a Trump shutdown, except this time it's unlawful."
According to a memo sent on Monday, the pause on federal funding aims to allow “time to review agency programs and determine the best uses of the funding for those programs consistent with the law and the President’s priorities.”
The National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association warned that health centers could face "significant disruption" to operations even with the "temporary funding pause."
"For many patients, Title X-funded health centers serve as their sole source of health care. The Title X family planning program is already chronically underfunded, and this executive action risks destabilizing a health provider network that is already operating under immense strain," Clare Coleman, president and CEO of the association, said in a statement.
The future of other programs that rely on federal funding including the National School Lunch Program, which reimburses schools for meals they serve children, and Meals on Wheels, a nonprofit organization that delivers roughly 250 million meals to seniors each year, could also be in danger due to the freeze.
"If in fact this order includes the Older Americans Act, this would presumably halt service to millions of vulnerable seniors who have no other means of purchasing or preparing meals," a Meals on Wheels spokesperson said in a statement. "And the lack of clarity and uncertainty right now is creating chaos for local Meals on Wheels providers not knowing for sure whether they should be serving meals today, which unfortunately means seniors will panic not knowing where their next meals will come from."
The freeze is already facing legal challenges from a coalition including the National Council of Nonprofits and the American Public Health Association. They have requested a federal judge issue an emergency order to block the federal funding pause. Several Democratic state attorneys also announced Tuesday that they will sue the Trump administration over Monday's memo about the freeze.
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