YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Representatives of Mahoning Valley organizations and agencies that receive federal money are waiting to learn how a presidential order that would pause such grants and loans could affect them and the people they serve.
“It deeply affects a lot of the companies we support,” said Rick Stockburger, president and CEO of Brite Energy Innovators, an energy incubator based in downtown Warren. “But not Brite specifically at the moment.”
Stockburger was interviewed by The Business Journal a few hours before a federal judge temporarily blocked the presidential order, which would have taken effect at 5 p.m. Tuesday.
Brite helps firms that are involved in the development and commercialization of new energy technologies. Many of these companies have received federal grants or loans, although Stockburger declined to be specific as to which ones. But these companies could be included as part of President Donald Trump’s efforts to target organizations that receive federal funds for Green New Deal projects.
This could also include companies operating in the electric vehicle space, as several have secured billions of dollars in federal loans and grants.
Ultium Cells LLC, a joint venture between General Motors Co. and Korea-based LG Energy Solution, in 2022 received a $2.5 billion loan from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan program. Ultium constructed a $2.3 billion manufacturing plant in Lordstown that today employs more than 2,000 workers, and recently began production at a second facility in Spring Hill, Tenn. The plants manufacture electric vehicle battery cells for GM EVs.
Ultium did not reply to a request seeking comment.
BlueOval SK, a joint venture between Ford Motor Co. and Korea-based SK On, was awarded late last year a $9.63 billion loan from DOE that is intended to help fund three manufacturing plants in Tennessee and Kentucky to produce batteries for Ford EVs.
Mallory Cooke, a spokeswoman for BlueOval, said she could not provide any further details of the loan, citing “confidential business information.”
Nevertheless, Cooke said production is on schedule to begin at BlueOval’s first Kentucky plant this year, while production in Tennessee is on track to start in late 2025.
Meanwhile, the company said it would “monitor changes made by the current administration and adapt as needed. However, our vision of electrification remains a key part of the future. We will continue to work with local, state and federal agencies to achieve that mission.”
In an executive order Monday evening, Trump paused federal grants, loans and other assistance.
“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,” a Monday memo from the Office of Management and Budget stated.
The memo requires federal agencies to identify and review all federal financial assistance programs and supporting activities to determine if they are consistent with the president’s policies and requirements.
Eastgate Regional Council of Governments receives and administers federal funding for transportation and other projects. Jim Kinnick, its executive director, isn’t sure what the pause would mean for the organization. He awaits a Wednesday conference call with the association of which Eastgate is a member to learn more.
‘Worry Is With the Timeline’
The United Way of Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley is waiting too. The agency received $1.5 million in fiscal year 2022 through former U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown’s office for the United Way’s volunteer resource center. That center opened last year on Market Street in Boardman.
United Way President Bob Hannon said the organization has a signed contract with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
“We’re at the final stage with HUD where we send in our receipts, and then we expect to get multiple payments that will eventually get us to $1.5 million,” Hannon said.
And $1.5 million is a lot of money to United Way, which has received federal funding only once before, in 2010 to launch its Success By Six program.
“We have a binding contract,” Hannon said. “We have an agreement with HUD. Those are our dollars. I think what concerns us is, will this go on for weeks, months, years. Will there be lawsuits? Will it be a tug-of-war with legislative and executive branches of the government?”
Still, he believes United Way will get its money.
“I think the worry is with the timeline,” Hannon said.
United Way is sound financially, he said, and a delay in receiving the money won’t affect programs.
“If it takes a long period of time, we can wait because we do have money in the bank and the building is paid for,” Hannon said. “We certainly need that reimbursed at some point.”
Testing Limits
Two area political science professors said they believe the president is testing limits.
Eric Matthews, a political science professor at Thiel College in Greenville, Pa., thinks Trump’s latest executive order demonstrates that the president is exercising what he believes to be his mandate.
Trump “ran on abolishing and eliminating some of these programs, and the easiest way for him to do it in his mind” is to cut funding, he said.
Likewise, Paul Sracic, chairman of Youngstown State University’s department of political and international relations, said part of what Trump is doing is “testing the boundaries of executive power.”
“Clearly, most people don’t think the president has the power to unilaterally do this without notifying Congress first,” he continued. He sees a similar situation with Trump’s recent firing of several inspectors general, which others have argued he doesn’t have the power to do under law.
Trump may think some of the restrictions are unconstitutional and wants to see them tested in court, Sracic said. The president also has very narrow majorities in both houses of Congress. So what he will be able to do there is limited.
The larger picture is the $30 billion-plus budget deficit, and the notion that federal spending needs to be brought under control, a promise Sracic said Trump and Vice President JD Vance campaigned on. He also noted that Trump imposed a “pause” on the spending but did not say the money wouldn’t be spent.
“The idea is to step back and see what we’re spending money on,” he said. “Particularly, they’re aiming at things like diversity, equity and inclusion programs and grants that are funded by this.”
One of the interesting things that Trump is going to run into is having to face the Supreme Court, Sracic said. Even though he has appointed several Supreme Court justices, the court in recent years has been “reigning in executive power,” as with the overturning of the Chevron decision, for example.
“The court seems to be moving in a direction of limiting executive discretion,” he said. “So I think he’s pushing back against that to kind of see where exactly the lines are right now.”
In a Holding Pattern
Other Mahoning and Shenango organizations, institutions and agencies that receive federal funding or deal with others that do, remain in a holding pattern.
Rebecca Rose, a YSU spokeswoman, said the university doesn’t know how the pause would affect it. The university receives grants from the National Science Foundation and other federal agencies to fund research.
“Everything is being reviewed,” she said.
Stacy Quinones, a spokeswoman for the Youngstown City School District, echoed that.
“There’s still a lot we don’t know,” she said in an email.
Katie Seminara-DeToro, executive director of Oh Wow! The Roger & Gloria Jones Children’s Center for Science & Technology in Youngstown, said Tuesday afternoon it wasn’t yet clear what funding would be frozen.
Last year, Congress approved $1.4 million to increase Oh Wow’s capacity to provide more advanced science, technology, engineering and mathematics programming, education and workforce development to learners of all ages, she said.
Although the Second Harvest Food Bank of the Mahoning Valley doesn’t receive any federal grants, Michael Iberis, executive director, said the organization receives meat, produce and canned goods through the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The government pays farmers for surplus food produced and provides it to 200 Feeding America Food Banks such as Second Harvest and to schools.
“We’re still looking at that to see how that’s going to affect us, and all 12 of us in Ohio are looking at that,” Iberis said. “It’s really too soon for us to tell. We have no indication at this point that we’re going to see any kind of a slowdown of any type. … We’ll wait and see.”
The Community Foundation of Western Pennsylvania and Eastern Ohio doesn’t receive federal money, but its executive director said agencies that do faced something similar about 10 years ago with a state budget impasse.
“We always try to make sure local organizations know, in an emergency, please reach out [to the foundation] and we will help,” said Kyle English, executive director.
Uncertainty
Casey Krell, president of the Community Foundation of the Mahoning Valley, said “there is a lot of uncertainty surrounding the memo.” The CFMV has been keeping a close eye on the administration’s actions and connecting with others involved in philanthropy as they all determine what the implications could be.
“We are talking and listening to nonprofit partners in the Mahoning Valley and considering how this might impact their current and committed federal financial resources,” Krell said.
Additionally, she indicated the foundation has been following the ongoing analysis by the National Council of Nonprofits, which has a chart detailing potential impacts of the executive actions since Trump took office.
Susan Carfano, spokesperson for The Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown, said Tuesday the museum hadn’t heard anything about funding. “I guess we all have to wait and see,” she said.
The Butler receives some federal grants and also funding from the Ohio Arts Council, which doles out federal money, Carfano said.
Diane Yentel, president and CEO of the National Council of Nonprofits, issued a statement on behalf of her organization Tuesday about how the pause could affect federal grants and loan disbursements to organizations within their network.
“This order is a potential five-alarm fire for nonprofit organizations and the people and communities they serve,” Yentel said. “From pausing research on cures for childhood cancer to halting food assistance, safety from domestic violence and closing suicide hotlines, the impact of even a short pause in funding could be devastating and cost lives. This order could decimate thousands of organizations and leave neighbors without the services they need.”
According to its website, the National Council of Nonprofits connects 30,000 nonprofits across the country, advocates for charitable nonprofits and provides tools and research to strengthen the nonprofit sector.
“In pursuit of a more civil and just society, we embed diversity, equity and inclusion throughout our organization and the ways we carry out our mission, purposefully and tangibly applying these principles in our internal operations, programs, policies and leadership,” the website says.
Thiel College’s Matthews, who noted that he wasn’t speaking for the college, said if you look at what’s listed in the memo – diversity, equity and inclusion; woke gender ideology; the Green New Deal – all were Biden initiatives. Trump wants to curb those.
“And it could be both retaliation, because Biden did the same thing to him four years ago,” the Thiel professor said.
And Trump ran on the platform that he was going to address these issues, he added.
Matthews said the president has executive power and can issue executive orders. The question is how many of those orders can Trump issue before they’re called into question.