WASHINGTON — Elected officials across the country sounded the alarm that Medicaid reimbursement systems — which provide health coverage to more than 72 million low-income Americans, pregnant women, elderly people and people with disabilities — were inaccessible by health officials, with one senator saying the systems were down in all 50 states.

The shutdowns came as the Trump administration had ordered a temporary pause of thousands of federal programs to ensure they were in line with President Donald Trump’s policies beginning at 5 p.m. EST on Tuesday. Local, state and federal officials were scrambling Tuesday to figure out which programs were included in the impending freeze, and the White House offered little clarity, saying aid programs that reach individuals directly would not be affected, but repeatedly declining to get into specifics. 

A federal judge temporarily blocked the freeze through Monday, ruling just minutes before the freeze was intended to go into effect. 

Democrats warned the funding freeze would throw the country into chaos, with trillions of dollars in government funds potentially being frozen. Senate Democrats said at a news conference Tuesday that the situation was a “constitutional crisis.” Maine Sen. Angus King, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, said Trump attempting to halt congressionally mandated funds from being distributed was “the most direct assault on the authority of Congress” in U.S. history.”

After being unable to clarify whether Medicaid payments would be cut off during the first press briefing of the new administration, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the White House “is aware of the Medicaid website portal outage,” but that they “confirmed no payments have been affected - they are still being processed and sent” and that the portals would be back online “shortly.”

A social media "rapid response" account operated by the White House additionally said Medicaid would be unaffected, pointing to an order from the Office of Management and Budget that said "any program that provides direct benefits to Americans is explicitly excluded from the pause and exempted from the review process." But Medicaid payments do not go directly to individuals. The program sends funds in the form of grants to state programs, which in turn pay providers for the health care of enrolled individuals. 

Earlier, officials reported Medicaid payment programs were inaccessible across the country. Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden said his staff confirmed Medicaid portals were down in all 50 states. Officials elsewhere confirmed other programs, including those funding education, food, and health research, were experiencing disruptions.

“Senators’ phones have been ringing off the hook with nonstop calls from hospitals, police departments, volunteer firefighters, food pantries, drug treatment centers, on and on and on,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York said. “Americans are in panic mode trying to figure out how Trump’s lawless, destructive, cruel order to halt virtually all federal assistance affects them.”

Democratic attorneys general and nonprofits that rely on federal funds launched separate lawsuits on Tuesday to halt the freeze as it remained unclear what impacts it would have on daily American life. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said Tuesday afternoon that her government was still working to find what the freeze would entail for the $93 billion the state receives from the federal government. 

“This administration has unleashed mayhem with its latest illegal action, affecting kids who rely on federal funds for their next meal, seniors on Medicaid, and law enforcement fighting drug and gun crime,” New York state Attorney General Letitia James said on social media. “These chaos cuts jeopardize resources that millions of Americans rely on.”

The order for the freeze came from Matthew Vaeth, the acting director of the Office of Management and Budget, in a memo on Monday outlining the administration’s plan to review thousands of programs to ensure they aren’t using “federal resources to advance Marxist equity, transgenderism, and green new deal social engineering policies.” 

A second OMB memo sent out on Tuesday and obtained by a variety of outlets, including The Washington Post, attempted to clarify that programs exempted from the freeze include SNAP benefits, Social Security, Medicare, Pell grants, Head Start funding for early childhood education, rental assistance and certain funds for small businesses and farmers.

Meals on Wheels, the nonprofit that delivers hundreds of millions of meals to millions of seniors each year, said through a spokesperson that they believe their funds “could be tied up in this freeze.” Leavitt repeatedly deflected questions about funding for the program at the White House briefing Tuesday.

At least some Republicans were expressing concerns about the freeze. Despite planning to “whole heartedly embrace” Trump’s fiscal policies, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry and Republican leaders in his state issued a statement that they were “seeking clarity as to the depth of this action” and urged the federal government to move forward “without jeopardizing the financial stability of the state.”