Amo visits Head Start provider affected by Trump administration funding freeze

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) — Congressman Gabe Amo spent Thursday morning at Children’s Friend; a nonprofit Head Start provider in Providence devastated by the aftershocks of the federal funding freeze.

The freeze, issued under president Trump’s executive order, froze federal loans and grants across the country.

Programs like Medicaid and Head Start were also impacted by what the White House called an outage from the online systems responsible for drawing down federal funding.

Even though the freeze has been rescinded, members of Children’s Friend said the damage is still being felt.

“It is important to make sure that we are reducing those funds so that we can in turn give services to the children, families of our community and so when those services are frozen or cut short, it is very difficult to ensure that we are going to be able to meet the needs of the community,” said Pamela Verklan, Chief of Philanthropy at Children’s Friend.

On Monday, Children’s Friend attempted to withdraw federal funds to make payroll, but staff were locked out of the system, unable to access the money they needed to pay employees.

“We’re not sure when we’re going to receive the funds we’re not sure what these temporary supposedly temporary pauses will mean and what would ultimately be is uncertainty for families who have their kids in Head Start, uncertainty for seniors, uncertainty for veterans, uncertainty for (the) police department, who funding the impact is immeasurable,” said Rhode Island Congressman Gabe Amo.

The funding freeze was ended two days after it was put into effect after the White House rescinded the memo on Wednesday.

The short order, legal pause and eventual cancellation left organizations like Children’s Friend confused and worried about what might be next.

Now, Congressman Amo is pushing for additional support to help organizations like Children’s Friend get back on their feet.

The visit Thursday focused on early childhood education and the continued need to provide resources for these vital programs.