President Donald Trump signed executive orders to ban foreign aid workers from offering information about abortion and federal funding for abortions. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Gov. Jeff Landry and other Republican state officials are trying to prepare for potential cuts to Louisiana’s federal funding, despite confusion over how far President Donald Trump’s attempt to halt support to state and local governments will go.
A legal challenge has temporarily blocked Trump’s federal funding freeze from going into effect. A ruling Tuesday afternoon from U.S. District Judge Loren L. Alikhan in Washington D.C. prevented Trump’s sweeping pause on federal funding from going live minutes before it was supposed to go into effect.
Congress is in charge of putting together the federal budget, and Democrats sued the federal government over Trump’s order, saying the president cannot unilaterally hold up program payments without Congressional approval.
Still, in Louisiana, the governor, Treasurer John Fleming, Senate President Cameron Henry and House Speaker Philip DeVillier, all Republicans, issued a joint statement saying they were “seeking clarity” about the impact of Trump’s declaration.
“Our administration is thoroughly evaluating President Trump’s new order and seeking clarity as to the depth of this action,” the joint statement said. “We urge [the federal Office of Management and Budget] to develop a responsible runway to untangle us from any unnecessary and egregious policies without jeopardizing the financial stability of the state.”
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Louisiana’s Republican leadership also preemptively moved around state funding to cover any shortfalls Trump’s order leaves in the short term.
“We believe that we are placing adequate resources in the state coffers to ensure stability for the time being,” the statement said.
Under the president’s direction, the federal Office of Management and Budget issued a vague and broad memo Monday seeking to halt a wide swath of federal aid until at least mid-February. The Trump administration said it wanted to conduct a far-reaching review of federal assistance to see if the president would continue to support all the spending.
In an interview Tuesday, Henry said Louisiana officials will spend the next several days sorting through what programs might be affected by the order. State officials back Trump’s efforts to rein in federal spending, he said, even if they aren’t sure what they might mean for the state.
“Everyone supports what the president is trying to do,” Henry said.
Louisiana relies more on federal support than almost all other states because it is poor and disaster prone. Each year, the federal government gives the state several billion dollars for road projects, emergency food assistance, disaster recovery, flood control, crime victim services, domestic violence prevention, agriculture projects, K-12 education and health care, among other programs.
The state government should have more clarity about the impacts of Trump’s order next week after its departments and agencies are able to pinpoint what grants and federal funding have been stalled, Henry said. Until then, Louisiana will use state funds to replace federal money and make sure programs aren’t left short of support.
Across the country, Trump’s memo led to chaotic situations, as local elected officials and nonprofits scrambled to figure out what programs would be affected.
A big source of confusion Tuesday was uncertainty about the impact to the Medicaid program, which provides health insurance to 20% of Americans and more than 40% of Louisiana’s population. In Louisiana alone, Medicaid covers the cost for over 60% of all baby deliveries.
Of the 1.6 million Louisianians enrolled in Medicaid, 252,000 are children. The program covers bills from health care providers who treat low-income residents, people with disabilities and those who are pregnant.
As with many other states, the Louisiana Department of Health was locked out of the federal Medicaid portal Tuesday morning, calling into question whether it would receive the tens of millions of dollars it disperses each week. By Tuesday afternoon, access to the Medicaid money was expected to be restored and payments were expected to go out on time, Henry said.
The Trump administration was not initially clear about whether the Medicaid program would be affected by the federal funding freeze. But White House Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday they expected Medicaid payments to go out to states as regularly scheduled.
“The White House is aware of the Medicaid website portal outage,” Leavitt wrote on X. “We have confirmed no payments have been affected — they are still being processed and sent. We expect the portal to be back online shortly.”
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