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Trump freezes Biden-approved funding for Dems’ pet-projects and they are apoplectic

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Two of former President Biden’s signature policies are seeing a funding freeze thanks to President Donald Trump’s executive orders.

Democrats are having a meltdown as the newly inaugurated president ordered federal agencies to “immediately pause the disbursement of funds” through the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

Trump is adding “uncertainty to every company, nonprofit organization, and state and local government that has any stake in either of those laws,” according to Rep. Rosa DeLauro (Conn.). The top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee accused the president of “illegally impounding” investments as her colleagues claimed Trump was violating the Impoundment Control Act (ICA).

The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) clarified that the pause “only applies to funds supporting programs, projects or activities that may be implicated by the policy established in Section 2 of the order.”

Patrick Drupp, the director of climate policy at the Sierra Club, joined Democrats in signaling concerns.

“We made a ton of progress in the last four years, and I think he has the potential to really set us back at a time when we can’t afford that,” he claimed, according to The Hill.

Democrats have also been raising the alarm over Russell Vought, Trump’s former budget chief and current nominee to run the Office of Management and Business.

“He’s been leading the charge on impoundment of funds,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said this week.

He warned that Vought “could decide what funds that we allocated could go forward” and raised concerns around “the danger of impoundment.”

“We will faithfully uphold the law,” Vought said during Senate testimony. “The president ran on the notion that the Impoundment Control Act is unconstitutional. I agree with that.”

According to The Hill:

Part of the issue is that it’s not clear exactly what is included in Trump’s order. The laws fund a wide variety of matters, including tax credits for low-carbon energy projects, consumer rebates for technology to make homes more climate-friendly, grants aimed at cutting pollution, and funds for roads, bridges and electric vehicle chargers.

 

Republicans waved off Democrat outrage over the funding freeze, maintaining that Trump has the authority to do so.

“Clearly, we’re going to try to claw back funds there,” Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.), told The Hill. “We made that very clear, and that’s something we look at doing in budget reconciliation.”

“For the president to pause that, I mean, he has executive authority, so he has some discretion in that realm,” he contended.