By Arkansas Black Vitality Staff

Clarksdale, Miss.  – March 19, 2026 – After the Trump administration put a funding freeze on trillions of dollars directed to federal assistance programs, new grant opportunities are now available due to favorable court rulings and the reopening of some programs that were put on pause.  

On Monday, the multistate Delta Regional Authority (DRA) announced it is providing $4 million to support workforce development across the lower Mississippi River Delta and Alabama Black Belt regions, which include Arkansas and seven other southern states.

 Funded through the Delta Workforce Grant Program (DWP), DRA officials said the Clarksdale, Miss.-based federal-state agency will make targeted investments toward projects and initiatives aimed at bolstering the local and regional workforce of the 255 counties and parishes within the DRA eight-state service region.

According to the funding opportunity announcement (FOA) released on March 17, DRA is seeking applications for grants that allocate federal resources to communities in the Mississippi River Delta and Alabama Black Belt regions, which are particularly affected by industrial downsizing, business closures, and job losses. Additionally, DRA highlights projects that impact distressed or isolated counties and parishes.

“Through the Delta Workforce Grant Program, DRA is helping our communities meet critical workforce demands and address job shortages across the region,” said Dr. Corey Wiggins, Federal Co-Chairman. “By expanding pathways to in-demand careers, we are creating opportunities for residents to gain the skills and education they need to secure quality jobs, remain in their communities and thrive.”

Applications for the funding opportunity are due by Friday, May 15. Award amounts will range between $50,000 to $300,000. This 32-page FOA provides a general overview of the grant program and the specific requirements for completing an application.

In 2025, the Delta Regional Authority (DRA) awarded approximately $7 million to 25 workforce development projects that support economic growth and prosperity throughout the Mississippi Delta region. These three applicants in Arkansas received nearly $900,000 for job training programs.

• Arkansas Northeastern College received $300,000 for a workforce education program aimed at increasing middle-skilled jobs in northeastern Arkansas to enhance global competitiveness in industrial maintenance. 

•  Black River Technical College received $300,000 for facility upgrades and equipment to establish a collaborative robot welding lab that will support industry-led workforce training for careers in advanced technology in Northeast Arkansas. 

• Center on Rural Innovation was awarded about $298,000 for a workforce project that will deliver information technology training and industry-recognized certifications to tackle staffing challenges in Phillips County. 

The new DRA grant is the second announcement in the past month to bring new federal dollars to local programs and infrastructure projects in Arkansas and across the South. On Feb 17, DRA announced that four Arkansas communities will soon receive a combined investment of over $6.7 million to upgrade their local water systems.

The communities of Forrest City, Hampton, Felsenthal, and Walnut Ridge received nearly $17 million in federal funding from the DRA’s Community Infrastructure Fund (CIF) to support local water, sewer, and wastewater initiatives. The funding window for that fund opened on Jan. 6 and closes at the end of August, offering between $500,000 and $2 million to mostly rural communities across Arkansas and seven other southern states.

Regionally, DRA serves 255 counties and parishes across eight states in the Mississippi River Delta and Alabama Black Belt regions, including Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, and Tennessee. Under federal law, at least 75% of DRA funds must be invested in economically distressed counties, parishes, and isolated hardship areas within the region.

The fresh DRA monies arrive as federal grant funding appears to be getting back on track after Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) reportedly canceled over 16,000 grant programs and nearly 13,500 federal contracts and lease agreements, saving U.S. taxpayers more than $215 billion.

However, since that program was disbanded in late 2025, Congress has rejected most of those budget cuts, and courts have blocked or reinstated others. In fact, separate court rulings in the past two weeks blocked federal grant cuts affecting public health funding and upheld a lower court’s decision to block a “sweeping and unprecedented” freeze on trillions of dollars in federal financial aid that President Trump imposed a year ago.

On March 5, U.S. District Judge Angel Kelley in Boston ruled that the administration’s cuts to the National Institute of Health “indirect cost” grants cause “pressing, irreparable harm” to patients, researchers, and the medical community as a whole, according to Courthouse News Service.

 “The risk of harm to research institutions and beyond is immediate, devastating and irreparable,” Kelley, a Biden appointee, wrote in a 76-page order.

Earlier this week, U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth, a longtime federal judge appointed by President Reagan, ordered that Voice of America’s (VOA) news operations be restored and told the Trump administration to reinstate 1,000 full‑time VOA employees who were placed on leave by next week.

Lamberth also strongly rebuked former U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) Director Kari Lake, a Trump appointee who has not been confirmed by the Senate, for unlawfully firing the entire 1,042-worker VOA staff, stating she lacked the authority because of her unqualified appointment.

“Only the Appointments Clause or the Vacancies Act’s exclusive structure may authorize service as a principal officer, and Lake satisfies the requirements of neither the statute nor the Constitution,” Lamberth wrote.

However, the biggest setback for the Trump administration was another Boston-based federal court ruling on Monday that halted the White House budget office’s efforts to freeze trillions of dollars in government funding early last year.

Part of the three-judge panel for the First U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Chief U.S. Circuit Judge David Barron said the White House Office of Management and Budget’s decision to “halt trillions in government loans, grants, and other payments, unleash(ed) uncertainty for programs ranging from Medicaid to child-care programs and infrastructure projects,” according to Bloomberg Law.

In the preliminary injunction brought by 24 attorneys general from mostly Democratic States, they  described the potential impacts of the sudden freeze of federal financial assistance included “possible layoffs, reductions in service and closure of childcare programs; probably slowed emergency response times to major disasters; and likely reduced levels of service in processing, approving and paying out unemployment insurance claims and benefits.”

The First Circuit panel agreed in its 58-page ruling, upholding the lower court injunction blocking the OMB’s funding freeze enacted in January 2025 that totaled more than $3 trillion. The White House has not said whether or not the Trump administration will appeal those recent court rulings.