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Trump’s federal funding pause put about $45M in jeopardy for Summit County projects, including child care, health and food programs

The Summit County government says that nearly every one of its departments would have been impacted by the pause to federal funds the Trump Administration ordered last week

Robert Tann/Summit Daily News
The Summit County Courthouse building is pictured in Breckenridge on Oct. 10, 2023.
Robert Tann/Summit Daily News

What was at stake in Summit County when President Donald Trump last week ordered a pause on certain federal funding?

Summit County Commissioner Tamara Pogue said the proposed pause would have affected, “every facet of the things everyone in Summit County cares about, from our roads, to housing, to the childcare centers our kids attend, from the buses people ride on to services for behavioral health.”

Trump issued the order to pause “all federal financial assistance” in a White House Office of Management and Budget memo Tuesday, Jan. 28, as his administration seeks to end funding for diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, transgender rights, climate initiatives and more.



“The use of Federal resources to advance Marxist equity, transgenderism, and green new deal social engineering policies is a waste of taxpayer dollars that does not improve the day-to-day lives of those we serve,” the memo states.

While Trump later rescinded the order, it stoked chaos in Colorado and across the country last Tuesday as local, state and federal leaders scrambled to try to understand the potential impacts. Many officials remain concerned that Trump could attempt to carry through with his plans in the future.



In Summit County, communications director Adrienne Saia Isaac said that local child care programs, emergency preparedness projects, criminal justice early intervention programs, mental and behavioral health training programs, food assistance programs and road maintenance projects could have been impacted by the pause.

“It’s been absolute whiplash these last couple of days, given the executive order and subsequent judicial review of that order,” Isaac said in an email Wednesday, Jan. 29.

Summit County finance director David Reynolds estimated during a Summit Board of County Commissioners meeting last week that the county receives about $10 million in federal grants annually. That doesn’t include a grant the federal government recently awarded the county to help with the construction of a new transportation center.

A long pause or revocation of all federal dollars would impact nearly every department in Summit County, Isaac said. The county’s health and human services department, for example, would have been “greatly impacted” because it receives a lot of its funding from the federal government, she said.

The Summit County government is reviewing what programs could have been impacted by the pause to understand what could be impacted if the Trump Administration attempts to issue another pause, Isaac said.

“We’re not panicking, but we’re getting prepared by taking inventory of what programs and services would be significantly reduced or lost completely if these grants go away so folks can better understand the wide-reaching effects of this order,” Isaac said.

One of the biggest grants that could have been impacted is a roughly $35 million grant awarded to Summit County through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Federal Transit Administration that was earmarked for the electrification of the free Summit Stage bus system, Isaac said. Those federal funds were meant to help the Summit County government complete the construction of a new transportation center.

The federal government has also awarded the county a $500,000 grant toward the construction of the Summit County Search and Rescue headquarters, Isaac said. These funds also could have been impacted by the pause, she said.

For both these federal grants, the majority of disbursements will be made in 2025 and future years, so even though the grant has been awarded to the county and included in the county’s budget, Isaac said that the county doesn’t have access to the funds up front.

“These federally-funded programs are part of critical services utilized by many citizens of Summit County, irrespective of who you voted for or race, gender, or any other characteristic,” Isaac said. “You’d be hard pressed to find someone who isn’t impacted in some way by federal grant dollars. If we lose access to funds that have already been contracted with the County and allocated to for County projects, then the projects likely don’t happen.”


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