An abrupt halt on federal grants and loans by the Trump administration has created widespread confusion across the government, Congress, state programs, and nonprofit organizations that rely on that funding.

“First of all when I first heard about it I was so scared because I'm thinking medicaid, I’m thinking snap, I'm thinking public housing and all of that,” said Governor Lou Leon Guerrero. 

The Office Of Management and Budget sent a vaguely worded two-page memo to all federal agencies directing them to “temporarily pause all activities related to obligation or disbursement of all federal financial assistance" that could conflict with President Donald Trump's agenda.

Leon Guerrero called her cabinet in for a meeting on Wednesday. 

“We are going to talk about what we need to do and what is affected by this memo in their agencies,” added Leon Guerrero. 

CNMI Governor Arnold Palacios also carefully reviewed the memo stating, “We are assessing the directive to determine its impacts on current and anticipated federal grant funding.” 

“We will ensure that the public is kept informed as we work closely with our federal partners to seek clarification and collaborate to safeguard the cnmi’s interests,” Palacios added. 

But in a blow to the Trump administration, a federal judge temporarily blocked the President's attempt at another government shake-up.

The White House said individual federal assistance would not be paused or reviewed under its plan, adding social security benefits, medicare benefits, food stamps, welfare benefits, assistance that is going directly to individuals will not be impacted by this pause.

“It means no more funding for illegal DEI programs. It means no more funding for the green new scam that has cost American taxpayers tens of billions of dollars. It means no more funding for transgenderism and wokeness across our federal bureaucracy and agencies. President Trump is looking out for you by issuing this pause, because he is being a good steward of your taxpayer dollars,” said White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.

Guam Delegate James Moylan also stated, “the VA has determined that all 44 of its financial assistance programs will continue uninterrupted and that all VA programs and operations will continue uninterrupted.”

While the court’s stay provides a temporary pause on the President’s actions, Guam's Governor continues to monitor the situation closely and remains in contact with federal agencies. 

KUAM asked, “The Trump administration has a lot of executive orders that he's getting right to since day one. Any concerns?”

“It's so hard. I can't keep track of all of them. I was just talking to Admiral Huffman because of the whole thing about the freeze for the federal government in hiring and he told me that DoD is exempted from that. So they are still hiring for DoD and fire and police. So we are tracking this very closely,” said Leon Guerrero.