Greg Berman, NY Daily News - It is hard to keep track of the steady stream of executive orders and announcements coming out of the Trump administration — almost every day seems to bring a new provocation. But one released last week definitely got the attention of nonprofits around the country. That’s because, in a two-paragraph memorandum, President Trump essentially declared war on them.
Trump’s memo flatly states that many American nongovernment organizations are “engaged in actions that actively undermine the security, prosperity, and safety of the American people.” In order to “stop funding NGOs that undermine the national interest,” the president directs federal agencies to review all of the funding they provide to nonprofits to ensure that these organizations are aligned with the goals and priorities of the new administration.
How will federal agencies interpret the president’s directive? A granular look at each of the thousands of nonprofits that are currently receiving grants from the federal government would almost certainly take months, and perhaps years, to complete. Does even the fiercest MAGA supporter think that the Trump administration will have the attention span necessary to undertake this kind of effort? Far more likely is a blunderbuss approach, with administrators directed to search for terms like “diversity” and “equity” in proposals and reports and then using their discovery as a pretext for cancelling grants.
There is little doubt that a fishing expedition like this will turn up grist for the online outrage mills — grants to support underwater basketweaving by Native American lesbians and the like.
But the likelihood of valuable programs that the vast majority of Americans find unobjectionable getting caught up in the net is also very, very high. In short order there would be dozens, then hundreds, of stories of the government having pulled the plug on programs that provide care to the elderly, housing to veterans, and food to children. More
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