Bernie Sanders blasts Trump for federal loans and grants freeze: ‘He is not a king’
Bernie Sanders blasts Trump for federal loans and grants freeze: ‘He is not a king’
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Senator denounces order to pause all funding and says it’ll have ‘devastating impact’ on ‘most vulnerable people’ in US. Vermont senator Bernie Sanders has blasted the Donald Trump administration’s order to freeze all federal loans and grants, describing it as a “dangerous move towards authoritarianism” in America.
The order, which is scheduled to begin at 5pm ET on Tuesday, was ordered in a memo from the US president’s acting head of the Office of Management and Budget on Monday evening. The directive instructs all federal agencies to “temporarily pause all activities related to obligations or disbursement of all federal financial assistance”.
The memo did not state which groups or programs would be affected but said that the freeze would not apply to social security or Medicare. Sign up to This Week in Trumpland. A deep dive into the policies, controversies and oddities surrounding the Trump administration.
after newsletter promotion. On Tuesday, Chuck Schumer, the Democratic Senate leader from New York said that the pause would likely affect universities, the non-profit sector, food assistance programs, hospitals, community health centers, organizations that assist disabled veterans and more.
On Tuesday, Sanders joined many Senate Democrats in denouncing the order, and said in a statement that the freeze will have a “devastating impact on the health and wellbeing of millions of children, seniors on fixed incomes, and the most vulnerable people in our country”.
