#DefendTheSpend
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enchantedllc.bsky.social
enchantedllc.substack.com/p/federal-pr... #FederalPrograms #K12Education #GrantManagement #EducationPolicy #SchoolFunding #DefendTheSpend #TitleI #ERate #DistrictLeadership #PublicEducation
Federal Programs Weekly Brief
Week of October 5–11, 2026 · Issue 30
enchantedllc.substack.com
October 12, 2026 at 3:01 PM
enchantedllc.bsky.social
enchantedllc.net/indiana-fede... #FederalPrograms #K12Education #IndianaBrief #TitleI #IDEA #ERate #DefendTheSpend #EducationFreedomTaxCredit #ESSA #IndianaEd #EnchantEDLLC #DistrictLeadership #FederalPolicy #SchoolFunding #EdPolicy #TitleII #EnchantEDllc
Indiana Federal Programs Weekly Brief — Issue 25 — October 4-11, 2026 - EnchantED LLC
Federal Programs Weekly Brief — Issue 25 — October 5–11, 2026 Indiana K–12 Federal Program Administrators Issue 25 Federal ProgramsWeekly Brief Curated intelligence for district federal program leads ...
enchantedllc.net
October 12, 2026 at 3:34 PM
wnctimes.bsky.social
$575K Approved by FEMA Now Under DOGE Defend the Spend Review wnctimes.com/article/575k... #FEMA #DOGE #defendthespend #kristinoem #wnc #nc #helene #helenerecovery #northcarolina #northcarolinanews #ncnews #localnews #asheville #avl #avlnews #wncmountains #wncnews
September 17, 2025 at 8:55 PM
megancarolan.bsky.social
Among the very long list of documented misdeed, this one made me say "wow": DOGE asks for justification for payments beyond "payroll," providers ask HHS if it's real, HHS says it's spam and don't click THEN comes back and says it's real.

www.aclu.org/documents/co...

#HeadStart #earlyed
Screenshot of legal complaint. Text has been shortened in alt-text and reads "On April 7, 2025, using the e-mail address “defendthespend@hhs.gov,” DOGE began responding to Head Start providers request to draw down their money through the “Payment Management Services” (“PMS”) for routine requests e.g. “payroll.”... Previous justifications, such as “salaries” or “payroll” were deemed insufficient and required additional clarification, including “what the award is for, what the funds will be used for, and why it is necessary.” …Seeing this surprise requirement from an unknown e-mail address, Head Start agencies immediately reached out to contacts in HHS to find out if it was a spam e-mail. HHS responded: “Please report the email as a phishing email, do not click the link and do not respond.” Several hours later, programs were then contacted verbally by OHS and told that, in fact, it was not a phishing e-mail and programs must respond in order to draw down their money. “
April 29, 2025 at 2:37 PM
chasingmicrobes.bsky.social
2/2

NIH approved my company's latest drawdown the day after submission. It's been stalled at the new defendthespend step for days. These delays that didn't exist before 2025 make it unnecessarily difficult to run a startup off SBIR while complying with CFR.
January 10, 2026 at 12:33 PM
meghancahill3.bsky.social
Hey so this is ridiculous! "DefendTheSpend"? Y'all are the federal government. Be so serious 🫠🫠

(At least we're still getting updates, better than the comms blackout other institutions seem to be facing)
A dark mode Screenshot of an email. The email that reads as follows "(All Tracks) In the Payment Management System (PMS), a new mandatory field has been added in the payment request screen. A detailed payment request justification (limited to 1,000 characters) is now required: Program name Time period covered by request Clear description of activities Line-item detail of your payment request, such as employee salaries and benefits, equipment and supply purchases, travel, and indirect costs You may receive an email from DefendtheSpend@hhs.gov to submit a revised justification if clarification is needed. These changes may lead to processing request times different than previously experienced."
May 20, 2025 at 12:33 PM
ddiamond.bsky.social
The chaotic rollout has created a backlog

Organizations have been told payments are “in transit,” but officials say that isn’t true

At NIH, payments aren’t going out - and aren’t expected to until next week
Federal officials also have been instructed to use a website run by DOGE to approve grant payments, according to an email sent by defendthespend@hhs.gov and obtained by The Washington Post. NIH officials on Thursday were still determining who would approve grant payments at their agency and did not expect to finalize the process until next week, two NIH officials said. Some outside organizations have been told their delayed payments are "in transit," but several federal officials said that is not true. It is unclear whether all the federal health-care grants will be approved and when. "All funding is on hold," an NIH official told colleagues at a meeting on Thursday, according to audio obtained by The Post. "The bottom line is no one is getting any money right now. But they don't know they're not getting any money because it just says that it's in transit."
April 17, 2025 at 11:46 PM