AP PHOTO Bloomington and Eden Prairie Meals on Wheels Executive Director Wendy Vossen delivers meals for Barbara Teed and her adult son Ryan, who has Down syndrome, on Wednesday, in Bloomington, Minn.

The previous 48 hours were confusing for many government and nonprofit officials.

The confusion began Monday when the federal Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued a memo calling for a freeze on federal grants. The aid money was supposed to stop being sent to programs, agencies and departments at 4 p.m. Tuesday. Before the deadline, the freeze was stayed until Monday by U.S. District Judge Loren L. AliKhan. Then yesterday, OMB acting director Matthew Vaeth issued a memo rescinding Monday’s memo.

Before yesterday’s memo was released, officials with some Marshalltown entities were waiting to learn whether or not they would be affected. Marshalltown Community School District and Marshalltown Community College officials were waiting to learn more. Monday’s memo did not provide a lot of details as to which programs would be impacted.

Marshalltown City Administrator Carol Webb said the city had numerous federal grants:

Housing and Urban Development Section 8 Housing Grant, which funds payments to landlords for rent, utility payments for tenants, staff wages and benefits and other costs to administer the program. Webb was notified the rental assistance program was not going to be frozen;

Housing and Urban Development Lead Grant, which funds payments to contractors to remove lead from houses, staff wages and benefits and additional costs;

Department of Justice grants which fund equipment, police staff wages and benefits and other costs;

Department of Transportation Airport Grant to help cover airport construction costs;

Department of Transportation Transit Grant, which is based on ridership and miles driven;

Environmental Protection Agency Brownfield Community Wide Assessment, which funds payments for environmental specialists, project managers, staff wages and benefits and additional costs;

Community Development Block Grant Downtown Revitalization Grant, which provides funds for downtown façade improvements and grant management;

Community Development Block Grant Downtown Housing Project Grants and;

Destination Iowa Grants for reimbursement of expenses for Destination Iowa (Linn Creek) projects.

“City staff are waiting to hear from various agencies within the state and federal government that administer these grants to determine the impact of pausing federal assistance on these grant programs,” she said.

Marshall County Iowa State University Extension Director Amy Pieper said everything is in question, but her office does utilize federal grants.

Several United States Department of Agriculture federal grants, some which could impact the ISU Extension and additional agriculture entities such as the Farm Service Agency, are included in a list released by the OMB. The list comes with instructions that federal agencies must provide information about the grant programs by Feb. 7 for federal assistance analysis.

Yesterday, Child, Adolescent and Parent Support (CAPS) Executive Director Linda Havelka said she was waiting to hear if CAPS was going to be impacted. The agency was using a federal grant, but it ended Sept. 30.

Marshall County Auditor Nan Benson said the county is fortunate to not be working with a lot of federal money and was not sure which of the services would be hit.

“I know of one program in [county attorney’s] Jordan Gaffney’s office, which may be frozen, and he was being proactive in covering that,” she said. “I would think the Mid-Iowa Drug Task Force would be safe. I don’t see any logic in this administration getting rid of that. We are not sitting too bad off, and Jordan had a plan. We are fortunate we do not have a lot of things that may be impacted. There might be a couple things in the air, but it’s not a huge amount.”

Previous federal money Marshall County received, such as the $2.2 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds, would not be affected as Benson said it was already spent.

Marshall County Sheriff Joel Phillips said whether or not his office was going to be impacted was a difficult question to answer without getting additional details.

“Federal grant disbursements the sheriff’s office participates in are generally on a quarterly basis,” he said. “These include bullet proof vest grants BPV, drug task force grants, training programs and a few state grants that are in-part funded by federal dollars. If the funding freeze includes Department of Justice programs this will affect the vast majority of law enforcement agencies.”

Due to the lack of details in Monday’s memo, there was a lot of speculation about what would be cut. Some clarification was provided by the White House, stating programs directly benefiting citizens were not going to be impacted.

Central Iowa Residential Services, Inc. Executive Director Jeff Vance said it was his understanding that Medicaid was exempt.

“We are 100 percent funded by Medicaid, so if Medicaid’s exemption status were to change, it would be disastrous for the people we serve,” he said.

Some other Marshalltown nonprofits, such as Iowa River Hospice, Al Exito and Hear of Iowa Big Brothers Big Sisters, do not rely on federal funding or are not aware of any possible impact.

“If we had federal funding and were relying on that funding to pay our staff, it would be difficult to pay staff,” BBBS Executive Director Lynne Carroll said. “For some nonprofits it could put them in a financial bind that they could not recover from, that’s if the freeze goes for a lengthy period of time.”

Contact Lana Bradstream at 641-753-6611 ext. 210 or lbradstream@timesrepublican.com.