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Rural Northwest organizations search for clarity about their federal grants

Pictured is a project built by Northwest Renewables, a partner to Zero Emissions Northwest (ZEN). David Funk, founder and president of ZEN, helps run the business and provides energy services to small town companies and agricultural producers.
Courtesy of David Funk
Pictured is a project built by Northwest Renewables, a partner to Zero Emissions Northwest (ZEN). David Funk, founder and president of ZEN, helps run the business and provides energy services to small town companies and agricultural producers.

Northwest organizations whose federal funding is in question due to the freeze on some grants imposed by the Trump administration are trying to determine their next steps.

A new development on Wednesday added to the confusion.

On Monday, President Trump paused federal funding so his administration could conduct an across-the-board ideological review to identify progressive initiatives. A federal judge blocked the president’s order that same day. Wednesday, the White House Office of Management and Budget rescinded its memo after widespread confusion around the country, but this doesn’t rescind the president’s executive order, according to White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt,.

In the Northwest, businesses and non-profits are trying to determine how to go about their work without the federal grants.

David Funk, president of Zero Emissions Northwest (ZEN), said he was on his way to an Idaho agricultural conference with his team, when they checked their email at 9 p.m. Monday evening and found out about the suspension.

“If we can't trust that those projects are now financially viable, not only ours, but every single other component in our society that's just going to come crashing down. I think that this will have a huge freeze in businesses … We crave stability, and we're certainly not getting that from this administration at all,” Funk said Tuesday afternoon.

Funk said ZEN has a contract with the USDA to provide energy services to small town companies and agricultural producers. A phone call with federal officials on Wednesday morning confirmed that their federal funds are still in jeopardy.

In the last 15 months, he said ZEN has received 67 grants, which cost the federal government $3.7 million. Most of their projects are located in the Fourth and Fifth Congressional districts, with a handful in western Washington and some in Idaho.

“At this point, we still have not received any sort of payment for the work that we've done in the last quarter, and I'm still advising our farming partners to be cautious about where they spend money,” Funk said.

He said that over the last 24 hours, he has spoken with multiple farmers and customers who didn’t know how they would be impacted and that he has been the first person to give them up-to-date information.

“That could be because they've got up and they didn't look at the news and they went right to their shop and started working on maintenance. Or it's just that other news organizations aren't reporting on it, but it's been a weird dichotomy that this has rocked my world so significantly and is completely invisible to others,” Funk said.

He emphasized that because of this, he also plans to furlough his organization’s employees unless something changes.

“With some of my employees this morning, we were talking about what we are going to do with our kids in daycare, what other payments we can shift around,” Funk said. “We're a small business and we're not paying ourselves billions of dollars and golden parachutes at this point.”

Other rural organizations in eastern Washington are also trying to figure out what’s next.

Jody Opheim, executive director at Partners for Rural Washington, said they have been working on launching multi-project efforts in six rural communities across Washington as part of their work with the Northwest Rural Investment Strategy.

She said that as long as the various federal grant programs continue accepting applications, it should not hamper their efforts.

“Except now, moving forward, there will be underlying doubt and distrust that the funds, once awarded, may not be rock solid,” Opheim said.

She added that the immediate need is to have the federal payment processing system back in operation and the backlogs cleared so entities and people can get paid.

However, depending on how long this situation drags on, she said it will severely limit the funding options for these projects and dozens of others across the state.

“This will have a cascading negative effect that will impact people living in rural communities. You cannot pull this much money from the economy overnight and not suffer devastating, far-reaching effects,” Opheim said.

Bryan Raines, CEO of Rural Resources Community Action, said in a news release he’s not sure how this will affect their organization. The statements says a few programs that it administers, like Head Start and rental assistance, have been listed as programs that will not be paused.

However, it's not clear yet how other federally-funded programs will fare.

“This is an unsettling moment for our employees, not to mention our thousands of clients across eastern Washington who benefit from our services like meal deliveries, housing support, energy assistance and weatherization, domestic violence intervention, and more,” Raines said in the news release.

“Even a short pause in funding could cause significant harm to families, seniors, children, and other vulnerable households in our communities.”

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Editor's Note: David Funk is a member of the board of directors for Spokane Public Radio.

Monica Carrillo-Casas joined SPR in July 2024 as a rural reporter through the WSU College of Communication’s Murrow Fellows program. Monica focuses on rural issues in northeast Washington for both the Spokesman-Review and SPR.

Before joining SPR’s news team, Monica Carrillo-Casas was the Hispanic life and affairs reporter at the Times-News in Twin Falls, Idaho. Carrillo-Casas interned and worked as a part-time reporter at the Moscow-Pullman Daily News, through Voces Internship of Idaho, where she covered the University of Idaho tragic quadruple homicide. She was also one of 16 students chosen for the 2023 POLITICO Journalism Institute — a selective 10-day program for undergraduate and graduate students that offers training and workshops to sharpen reporting skills.