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School districts, local governments, non-profits and the thousands of other organizations that rely on federal funding scrambled to figure out a plan after President Donald Trump pushed to freeze many federal grants and loans via an unexpected order that was announced on social media late Monday, only to be rescinded this morning. 

The order threw local organizations into chaos. Here in Humboldt, as in the rest of the country, those institutions struggled to learn what it meant for them and if their funding would be frozen.

Connie Beck, director of the Humboldt County Department of Health and Human Services, said in a note to employees on Tuesday that they were communicating with their legislative representatives to learn more about what the freeze meant for them.

“In the meantime,” Beck wrote, “continue to do good work and offer support to each other.”

Melissa Hutsell from Cal Poly Humboldt’s communications department said they, too, were working to understand what the freeze would have done to their existing programs. The California State University announced yesterday that it would support the Attorney General Rob Bonta’s participation in a suit challenging the federal government’s aid freeze. 

An email sent by the university to students last night said Pell grants and federal work-study aid would continue unabated, at least until the federal judiciary ruled on the legality of the freeze. A federal judge temporarily blocked the order on Tuesday.

“News of these potentially sweeping changes is causing considerable anxiety and confusion, and rightly so, for Cal Poly Humboldt’s campus community members, especially our students—a significant number of whom rely on federal funding to pursue their education at Humboldt,” reads the email in part. 

First 5 Humboldt, a local organization that funds child-focused health programs, said in a press release that the freeze could have affected many important programs that benefit hundreds of local families. 

Mary Ann Hansen, executive director of First 5 Humboldt, said, “We are deeply concerned about a pause on any services that provide direct or indirect benefits to young children and their families. Dozens of agencies and non-profits in Humboldt County provide critical supports, grounded in federal grants, to our youngest residents at the most vulnerable time in their development. We urge our federal representatives to take action to reduce uncertainty and keep services and supports intact, and we encourage the community to make their voices heard.”

According to the New York Times, Matthew J. Vaeth, the acting director for the Office of Management and Budget, notified federal agencies this morning that the Trump administration’s memo freezing aid had been “rescinded.”