Donald Trump at a MAGA rally in Rome, Georgia on March 9, 2024 (Phil Mistry/Shutterstock.com)
The Trump administration is stalling funding to crucial programs like Meals on Wheels, and it's not returning calls on how many of these lifesaving services for the disabled will continue.
“Everybody is on edge. We can’t tell them anything because we don’t know anything yet,” National Council on Independent Living Executive Director Theo W. Braddy told the New York Times.
The White House is dismantling Meals on Wheels “as part of the Trump administration’s overhaul of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.” Nearly half the program’s staff has already been laid off and all of its 10 regional offices are closed, according to former employees.
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The shutdown is part of a greater effort by the Trump administration to downsize the Administration for Community Living as the administration ferrets out savings to sustain Trump’s 2017 tax cuts. The Times reports funding for some programs could continue through September, and agency heads have called some employees back temporarily. However, uncertainty remains as groups responsible for feeding and public care report funding delays.
“There’s a lot of confusion,” said Becky Yanni, the executive director of the Council on Aging in St. Johns County in Florida, who added that funding for local Meals on Wheels programs and other services might be late.
In January the administration removed the accessibility page as well as all ASL content from the White House website. The White House fired its interpreters and multiple federal agencies found their accommodations divisions dismantled under Trump’s anti-DEIA orders. Words like “accessibility” and “disability” have also been listed as grounds to flag or reject grant applications at the National Science Foundation. Even the Department of Justice removed what it called “outdated” and “unnecessary” red tape for businesses to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), despite the DOJ being charged with enforcing ADA.
“Meals on Wheels is a godsend for me,” said Richard Beatty, a 70-year-old with poor vision and limited mobility living in Baltimore. Beatty receives deliveries four times a week and isn’t sure how he would manage without the program.
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Read the entire New York Times report here.