‘We faced the unimaginable’: Michiganders sound the alarm on Trump’s funding freeze

Early childhood educators, health care leaders, and small business advocates say President Trump’s federal funding freeze nearly forced them to close their doors—and the uncertainty isn’t over.

LANSING—Chanda Hillman was sitting in a conference hall surrounded by hundreds of fellow child care professionals, when her phone started buzzing with panicked calls from her staff.

In January, the federal payment management system for Head Start childhood learning centers was locked by President Donald Trump’s administration. No funding. No warning. No way to pay staff.

By the time Hillman pulled together an emergency call with her team in Michigan, the grim reality had set in: Without federal funding flowing in, Flowers Early Learning—which provides Head Start services across three Michigan counties—was on the brink of shutting down.

That afternoon, Hillman had to break the news to her 200 employees. 

One of them, a Head Start parent named Kaylee, sat on the Zoom call in silent tears—her mind racing not about budgets or politics, but about her child’s future, Hillman told Michigan lawmakers during a Senate Oversight Committee hearing on Wednesday morning.

“We had no choice. Without access to our funding, and without knowledge of when we would get funding, we were unable to keep staff working,” Hillman said. “For the first time in our 53-year history, we faced the unimaginable. We had to prepare to close our doors.”

Hillman was among a dozen early childhood education leaders, health care providers, and small business advocates who testified before the state Senate committee this week, which convened to examine the impact of the Trump administration’s abrupt attempt to freeze previously-approved federal funding.

While federal courts have since stepped in to temporarily block the freeze, the chaos it caused has not disappeared. Some Michigan organizations said they were left in limbo for weeks, unable to pay their employees. Others had to dip into emergency reserves to stay afloat. 

And some still don’t know if all their promised federal funding will ever be restored.

Head Start programs on the brink

Flowers Early Learning Center has since regained access to its federal funds—though like other Head Start providers, it’s still reportedly facing processing delays from the Trump administration.

But for Hillman, Trump’s funding freeze wasn’t just about a budget line. It’s about the nearly 600 children who rely on Flowers Early Learning for preschool, meals, and health screenings, which would all quickly disappear without a consistent stream of federal funding, she said.

“If funding goes away, children will lose their early education opportunities, staff members will lose their job, and entire communities will feel the ripple effect,” Hillman told lawmakers on Wednesday. “It’s a workforce issue, a public health issue, and a future-of-Michigan issue.”

MaDonna Princer, executive director of Head Start for Kent County, also said her program, which serves more than 1,000 preschoolers across 13 sites, was also affected by the freeze—namely in the form of delays from the federal payment management system.

“In the 25 years that I’ve been here, I’ve never seen anything like this,” Princer said. “The payment management system has always been something that just takes 24 hours to draw down. So, it was unprecedented and definitely left us with much uncertainty about what to do.”

Princer’s biggest fear? That more disruptions at the federal level would force Michigan parents to lose access to child care and preschool programs they rely on to keep their families afloat.

“Our families depend on those services,” Princer told lawmakers. “Our parents depend on them to go to school, to go to work, and for emergency needs that pop up like housing, food, clothing, connections to their health care needs. We also provide them with two-thirds of their daily nutrition. This would be devastating to the 1,200 families that we serve and my 400 staff.”

Health centers pushed to the edge

Health care providers also sounded the alarm about what the federal funding freeze meant for Michigan’s federally qualified community health centers—which provide everything from primary care to substance abuse treatment for those with limited access to health care.

Debbie Brinson, the CEO of Honor Community Health Center in Pontiac, told lawmakers that her clinic was just days away from being unable to make payroll when federal funding stopped.

“In the last 30 years, I have never experienced a situation like this,” she said. “Incredibly scary, incredibly scary to not know what’s going on within two days of being able to make payroll.”

Brinson said her health center had to tap into emergency reserves (twice) just to keep the doors open. But even now, some federal grants still remain frozen—leaving the future of her organization and its 30,000 patients in a state of uncertainty, she testified.

“It’s still six weeks out and we’ve not heard any indication from the help desk, because there’s no help desk for us to check in with,” Brinson told lawmakers on Wednesday. “Long term, there will be impacts. I am seriously looking at consolidating sites. I don’t have a choice.”

Like other community health clinics, Honor Community Health Center relies on federal grants to cover payroll. With no federal grants, there’s no paychecks to distribute to its 180 employees. 

And Brinson said a sustained funding freeze could quickly become a life-or-death issue.

“If we were to close, the first thing that would happen is those patients would end up two places: One, in the emergency room, or in jail,” Brinson explained to state lawmakers.

Megan Erskine, CEO of Catherine’s Health Center in Kent County, also shared similar concerns. Her organization had planned to expand its street medicine team to provide care for Michigan’s homeless population—but uncertainty tied to Trump’s funding freeze forced her to rethink plans.

“I do not feel comfortable hiring brand new full time care teams, because I’m not even sure there’s going to be a second year of funding for the grant,” she said. “It’s a disgrace and it’s sad and it’s a tragedy for our community. … We are shrinking, we are not growing.”

Erskine said uncertainty tied to federal funding for community health centers has also made it more difficult to attract qualified employees in a market that already faces staff shortages.

“I’ve spent the last six weeks meeting with staff who are concerned about their jobs,” she said. ”I’ve lost two candidates for medical providers that found out that we are federally funded and declined jobs. It is already really hard to get people to work in a [federally qualified health center] because it’s really hard work. It’s mission-oriented work, but it’s really, really hard work.”

Small businesses and disability services at risk

Beyond childcare and access to health care, Trump’s funding freeze sent shockwaves through Michigan’s small business community, Richard Trent, executive director of Main Street Alliance, told lawmakers during the state Senate Oversight Committee on Wednesday.

Under Trump’s directive, federal agencies—including the Small Business Administration (SBA)—temporarily stopped issuing payments for government contracts and halted applications and payments for billions of dollars in loans that are provided to small businesses nationwide.

Many small businesses across Michigan are already struggling to deal with rising costs. And some of them depend on those federal contracts or loans in order to survive, Trent said.

“When federal agencies stopped issuing payments, thousands of small businesses that depend on government contracts were thrown into crisis,” Trent said. “Entrepreneurs looking to access capital had nowhere to turn, except to big banks and predatory lenders charging much higher interest rates. … At a time when small businesses needed certainty, they got chaos.”

For Michiganders with disabilities, the consequences of a sustained federal funding freeze could also be devastating, according to Teri Langley, executive director of Disability Network Michigan.

Langley warned lawmakers that any cuts to federal funding could force some independent living centers in Michigan to close, especially in rural, underserved areas like the Upper Peninsula. And without them, many people with disabilities would have no way to access essential care.

“Our centers provide voices for them to advocate for their rights, and that voice will be extinguished if this funding is cut or eliminated,” Langley told the committee on Wednesday. 

What happens next?

A federal judge has temporarily blocked Trump’s funding freeze, calling the economic fallout “catastrophic.” But Michigan lawmakers who heard testimony on Wednesday say the uncertainty is far from over as legal battles continue. As Congress approaches a March 14 deadline to avoid a partial government shutdown, advocates also warn that funding for early childhood education, health care, disability services, and small businesses could still be at risk.

READ MORE: 6 ways Michiganders will pay the price for Trump’s funding freeze 

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