DOVER – As the federal government begins enforcing President Donald Trump’s newest executive orders while rescinding parts of others like the federal funding freeze, Delaware leaders are grappling at how to handle the situation at the state level.
In a press call Feb. 3, U.S. Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) called Trump’s series of executive orders a “fairly dizzying array” of news that changes by the hour.
He joined, U.S. Sen. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.), U.S. Rep. Sarah McBride (D-Del.), Delaware Governor Matt Meyer and Attorney General Kathy Jennings in hosting the call to talk about the freeze on domestic spending grants Trump ordered through an Office of Management and Budget memorandum within days of returning to the White House.
The federal delegation each took a moment to identify areas in which ways Delawareans could feel the pinch in the coming days if the federal freeze continues, including day cares, senior centers, school districts, health care centers and fire departments, among other entities.
But before the true cost of the federal order comes to light, state officials estimates cite about $4 billion of federal funding works to support Delaware programs like Medicaid and housing programs. However, state officials told the Delaware Business Times earlier that was a conservative number.
A spokesperson for the office of the governor in the First State said much of the federal funding that reaches Delaware doesn’t impact the state budget, rather the bond bill, grant-in-aid and other sources. Delawareans and groups impacted by federal dollars are asked to fill out the online form now available at de.gov/federalfunding to help with tracking efforts.
The White House rescinded the memo on the funding freeze after several states and nonprofits filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, resulting in a federal judge to block the order. Delaware was part of that lawsuit
As of press time, a federal judge had issued a temporary restraining order against the federal government, calling the action unconstitutional.
“We are team Delaware and there is nothing we can’t do when we work together. We have been fighting for the last several days in a lawsuit . . . to protect the federal funding that’s coming into the state of Delaware and that the Office of Management and Budget memo indicated was going to be cut off immediately,” Jennings said on the call.
“Threatening to cut off that funding indefinitely is not only bad policy, it is indifferent to the lives that of millions of Americans in our country, including millions of Trump voters. And to put a strong point on this, it’s also downright blatantly illegal,” she added. “That’s why people across this country stood up and said no. It’s why we took the Trump administration to court and it’s why we are winning.”
A federal judge also recently issued a similar order to block Trump’s order seeking to end birthright citizenship.
In the meantime, the changing tides at the federal level are making planning moves by Delaware’s new governor and his administration difficult while the federal delegation and Jennings work things out on their ends in hopes of keeping things moving.
From his current seat as newly-minted governor, Meyer said leaders must remain vigilant because the coast is still unclear.
“You can imagine some of the challenges as we’re under a time crunch pressure to present a budget to our state legislature,” Meyer said. “Joint Finance Committee meetings start tomorrow and how do you do that between tariffs and federal funding freezes. It’s hard to predict anything about the world tomorrow, next week or next month, let alone what our revenue is going to look like in the next year.”
The governor called for Delawareans to come together and “to fight for what is right across our country.”
As the call went on to highlight the work of Jennings and other attorneys general to stay the federal funding for the benefit of Americans across the country, Coons proudly mentioned that United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which financially supports programs across the world, would remain intact as changes to that federal program must legally be approved by Congress.
But, just as Coons had mentioned things changing hour by hour earlier in the call, news started breaking during the press call of the potential closure of the USAID office in Washington, D.C. during the call after the entity’s website had already been down for two days.
The Associated Press reported that staffers “. . . were instructed to stay out of the agency’s Washington headquarters, and officers blocked the lawmakers from entering the lobby Monday, after Musk announced President Donald Trump had agreed with him to shut the agency.”
USAID has been known to financially impact the bottom-line for some groups, like Delaware State University when the two signed the first-ever memorandum of understanding between USAID and a Historically Black College and University in 2021. The agreement sought to connect the pair on the USAID’s “Feed the Future” Research Initiative.
Lawmakers in Delaware will start formally discussing the state budget during the Joint Finance Committee meetings which begin this week.