ATLANTA — Atlanta’s mayor is calling on the Trump administration to immediately restore “funding for Atlanta and the entire region” after it announced that it would be putting a pause on federal grants and loans starting at 5 p.m. Tuesday.
President Trump said his administration was going to begin an across-the-board ideological review of its spending.
It said federal assistance to individuals would not be affected, including Social Security, Medicare, food stamps, student loans and scholarships.
However, the funding freeze could affect trillions of dollars, at least temporarily, and cause widespread disruption in healthcare research, education programs and other initiatives. Even grants that have been awarded but not spent are supposed to be halted.
In a statement from Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens, he said: “These actions adversely affect not only the City’s funding for affordable housing, assistance for our unsheltered residents, economic development projects, salaries and investments in our infrastructure and public safety—they also affect partner agencies like Atlanta Housing, Partners for HOME and other organizations who currently cannot access the portals they use to pay people’s rents, operational costs or fund economic programs; in turn placing an even heavier burden on the communities we collectively serve.”
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It’s unclear from a White House memo how sweeping the pause will be. Matthew Vaeth, the acting director of the Office of Management and Budget, wrote that “each agency must complete a comprehensive analysis of all of their Federal financial assistance programs to identify programs, projects, and activities that may be implicated by any of the President’s executive orders.” He also wrote that the pause should be implemented “to the extent permissible under applicable law.”
“More than 18,000 residents who rely on housing vouchers currently do not know how their rent will be paid next month, and workers across various federally funded programs risk losing their pay. The Dickens Administration calls on all White House decision makers to immediately restore this funding for Atlanta and the entire region—and the families from all stations of life who will suffer the consequences,” Dickens said.
On Tuesday evening a federal judge put a temporary hold on the order, resuming funding on federal grants and loans. The stay on the order ends on Feb. 3.
ABC News contributed to this article.
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