Environmental advocates have warned that the order may have immediate and terrible consequences for Americans if it goes into effect.
“From the White House, this is the reckless stroke of a pen,” Manish Bapna, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council, said in a statement. “On the ground, it's a cold house in the dead winter. It's a kid who is hungry at school. It's a family that can't pay rent. It's a higher utility cost income in every state. “
The list of programs includes twelve -two throughout the Department of Homeland Security, which includes the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Samantha Montano, an assistant professor of emergency management at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy, said the helping help could effectively stop agency programs that would help the state and local government prepare and recover from those catastrophic.
“I think it's fair to say that pausing all federal grants will have a terrible effect on the US emergency management system,” he said. “This will make it less prepared for any disasters that are happening in the future and will make it harder for those who survived the catastrophe in the middle of trying to rebuild their lives to do so.”
These offices do not focus on the disasters related to the weather, Montano said.
“We are also talking about port security providers, terrorism, cybersecurity,” he added. “This is a whole national security that is at risk when you remove these grants.”
Nationwide, state agencies and nonprofit organizations have been shut out from a federal system for accessing money, Maria Lopez-Nuñez, an agency's cofounder, said a firm advisory of the Environmental justice. He has listed a wide range of potentially affected programs, from a Give to North Carolina to help rural communities get access to sewers and clean water in state government programs for In laying water pipes.
For many smaller nonprofits, delaying access to federal funds can leave them unable to make a payroll, he said, or complete their programs.
“They are freezing the key, it is necessary to fund many states for important services,” said Lopez-Nuñez, a member of the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council during the Biden Administration.
In North Carolina, where communities are still recovering from Hurricane Helene, a speaker for the Department of Nature of State Nature, or DEQ, the agency said to “review and evaluate” the memo and the potential effects This, adding, “the federal fund provides for a significant portion of the DEQ operating budget as well as the billions of dollars for North Carolina's communities.”
Instructions to agencies are listed more than 400 programs under the U.S. Department of Agriculture, from emergency food assistance to support farmers' markets and water-saving initiatives . Also listed is one of the largest, most popular and effective initiatives of the department, the Conservation Reserve program.
Many legal experts said they were skeptical of the legality of the funding. While some have said the presidents can temporarily prevent Spending under certain circumstances, others say that the actions directed by the memo clearly violate the constitutional boundaries.
“The law is unfair: Congress controls federal spending, and no executive action can miss this authority,” said Jillian Blanchard, director of climate change and environmental justice to lawyers for good government, In a statement. “This command not only violates the Constitution but threatens the critical programs and communities that rely on this fund, which will affect the roads around the country.”
Following -next came because some science, environmental and energy programs have been suspended their work. On Monday, NPR reported that the National Science Foundation canceled the review panels that were scheduled for this week. Multiple news organizations have reported that the Department of Energy has suspended billions -billions of dollars in loans, grants, and other expenditures.
Within the news journalists Georgina Gustin and Lisa Sorg contributed to this article.
