>> Sam Sylvia Ortiz Vélez, thanks very much.
>> Thank you. >> It has been a head spinning
week at the national level and here at home, Wisconsin smacked
with the potential loss of more than $28 billion in federal
grants and loans following a Trump administration pause on
trillions of U.S. Funding. A federal judge temporarily
blocked the freeze, and quickly thereafter, the administration
rescinded most of it. But for grant and loan recipients,
everything from Meals on Wheels to Head Start to farm and
housing programs. The chaotic week has left uncertainty and
anxiety in its wake. The women's community in Wausau reports that
federal grant dollars make up about 20% of that agency's total
budget. Executive Director Jane Graham Jennings joins us for a
firsthand look at what those grants deliver. And thanks very
much for being here. Thank you. So at this hour, is it still
confusing about what's happening with the federal grants freeze?
>> It is confusing. So our federal funds come through state
organizations. So the state filters those funds, and when
the initial freeze came out, even our state administrators
weren't sure of what was happening. So then when it was
rescinded, we still don't know. And we haven't heard from our
state administrators whether there is an actual freeze or or
not. So basically, we're just continuing with business as
usual. Because, you know, that's just kind of where we are. But
we're still very unclear about what that means for our future.
>> Does your agency have access to those funds?
>> We do it on a reimbursement. So that's the way the grants
operate. So we have to send in the reports to the state
administrators, and then they reimburse. So we do that every
month. So we don't have direct access until after we have put
our reports in. >> Okay. And so you say that it
is about 20% of your total budget. What amount is that.
>> So we did some calculations and the percentage would be
about $26,000 a. >> Month.
>> For our agency. >> What are the services that
your agency provides and what would happen to those services
without that money? >> The most what we feel the
most devastating impact, one of the grants that we provide is
called domestic violence Housing First. And it's a pilot project
that gives us the ability to actually pay rent for survivors
of abuse who are able to get out of an unsafe environment and
maintain a safe environment because we can pay their rent
for up to a year. So we actually have someone in that program
right now that we have promised a year of her rent that we're
not sure we can now follow through with. We have several
other people that we are assisting with rent for three
and six months, and we're not sure we can follow through with
those promises. Because they are relying on that to be able to
maintain a safe home. So they are back in a situation that
they have to choose between homelessness or returning to a
violent home. So that is the particular funds we're most
concerned about. And then for our staffing, it would mean we
would have to end our abuse in later life program. So we have
advocates that work specifically with victims 60 and older. And
those funds would mean we wouldn't be able to support
those advocates in our sexual assault program. We have two
advocates that are funded by federal dollars that we would
have to cut our sexual assault services in half. And then in
our shelter program, we would have to reconfigure how we do
that, because it would eliminate funding for a number of our
weekend and after hours advocates. So we'd have to
figure out how we could maintain our shelter services.
>> Big, big impacts there for you locally. Now, the aim of the
freeze was to ferret out wasteful spending. What would
you say to people who might think your agency or others
shouldn't get this? >> That we shouldn't get the
funding? >> Yeah.
>> I always say, if you want to know how to really pay attention
to your dollars, go talk to a nonprofit agency. Nonprofits.
You know, we're kind of given a business plan that no actual
business would ever think to utilize. We are given the idea
that you have to do all of these things with nothing. And so we
know how to squeeze to the last penny to be as efficient and use
every dollar in the most responsible way. So I would say
when you're getting federal funds to a nonprofit
organization, that's not wasteful spending, people are on
the ground helping other humans in a way that they utilize every
cent, because we have to report several reports on every penny
that we spend. So we have to turn in all of our reimbursement
forms. We have to prove that we are using the funds. As we said
we would, and we have to back all of that up with
documentation. So it is certainly not wasteful spending.
It is being used to help people. >> Jane Graham Jennings, thanks