US politics live: Trump’s attempt to freeze federal funding will have ‘devastating impact’, non-profits say
US politics live: Trump’s attempt to freeze federal funding will have ‘devastating impact’, non-profits say
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More now on the news that a federal judge has blocked a move by President trump to pause trillions of dollars in federal loans, grants, and other financial assistance. Federal grants and loans reach into virtually every corner of Americans’ lives, with hundreds of billions of dollars flowing into education, healthcare and anti-poverty programmes, housing assistance, disaster relief, infrastructure, and a host of other initiatives.
A two-page internal memo which had been due to take effect at 5pm eastern time on Tuesday told all federal agencies to “temporarily pause all activities related to obligations or disbursement of all federal financial assistance”. The memo was met with widespread confusion in Washington, where civil servants struggled to understand its full extent scope and application.
The US constitution gives Congress control over spending matters, but Trump has said he believes the president has the power to withhold money for programmes he dislikes. A letter from senior Democrats on the House Committee on Appropriations expressed “extreme alarm about the Administration’s efforts to undermine Congress’s power of the purse”, adding that this and other directives had “sown immense confusion across the country, with some reports indicating that they could immediately halt all federal funding for any grant or loan”.
