The news that the North Dakota Center for Persons with Disabilities was terminating 23 employees due to federal funding cuts sent a shockwave through Minot and the state.

NDCPD Director Lori Garnes stressed that the employees were not being let go due to job performance but as a result of storm clouds of uncertainty borne from President Donald Trump’s executive order to cease all federal grants and major cuts levied against the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Education by the Department of Government Efficiency, which were the primary sources of federal funding for the center.

While the President’s order is currently locked up in federal court, Garnes highlighted the reality that future funding for a number of the grants coming up on their respective renewal years was in question.

“I have to say, every single person, all 23 who got a letter, are good solid employees. None of them have done anything that would warrant being dismissed from their position. This is not a matter of people not doing their work,” Garnes said.

Garnes expressed hope that the 23 employees could return to work if the funding for the grants the center depends on is secured.

“In the letters that employees got, it said if funding does come through, then you will be offered to have this job back. Our intent is not to go find new people but to not actually terminate the folks that are in the positions,” Garnes said. “Every day, things are changing. It’s hard to say what’s going to happen between now and three months from now.”

Rather, Garnes said the decision to cut staff was more due to the difficulty in planning for the future that the uncertainty in Washington, D.C., has created for future funding. Garnes said established lines of communication with the staff of federal agencies has been shaken up, and those who remain haven’t been able to provide any clarity around the fate of the funding.

“The people in those offices don’t know what’s going to happen. Some of the people that we’ve come to rely on aren’t there anymore, and others that are there don’t know what to expect,” Garnes said. “We’ve got notice that the intent is to cut all these extra funds, but then there’s very little communication about what the thinking is. If somebody would say, ‘Look, these grants are gone. It’s not even remotely possible these are coming back, and this is what you need to deal with,’ then we could at least plan a direction to move forward.”

The NDCPD operates under a five-year funding cycle and is currently in the midst of a fiscal year ending in 2027. The center receives about $13 million in federal grants and contracts each year, or about 45% of its total funding. The remainder comes from state or local contracts.

Information provided by Garnes indicates that three federal grants are expected to continue uninterrupted. However, eight grants funding various programs – including the ASTEP program, the Transition and Diversion Services Pilot Project, and the Community Staff Training Program – are in question. A further five grants are expected to be defunded or paused either in August or at the beginning of the new fiscal year on July 1.

One is a $1 million grant from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ Navigator program, a federal program to assist people in accessing health care and insurance. Two grants from the State Council of Developmental Disabilities used to aid child care providers and employers in working with children and people with disabilities are valued together at $60,000. The remainder include funding for the hearing detection and intervention services, which will not be renewed.

Garnes said despite the staff reductions, the remaining 49 staff are meeting all of the center’s contractual commitments while preparing for the potential loss of specific federal projects. That said, Garnes said she and her staff were still grappling with actions and decisions which seem indiscriminate.

“This is so hard. All of us are in favor of eliminating waste, fraud and abuse. We want our government to be good stewards of our tax dollars and use them in ways that benefit the entire country. We’re not sad they’re looking into how to eliminate fraud, waste and abuse. We’re sad that in the process, programs that are counted on and really necessary for people, people with disabilities in our case, are being eliminated with the overall cuts,” Garnes said.