Latest news with #federalgrant
Reuters
14-07-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Trump administration leaves Congress in dark on spending decisions
WASHINGTON, July 14 (Reuters) - Around 300 students in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, may face changes to after-school tutoring and English-language proficiency instruction unless the district's $860,000 federal grant is freed up by President Donald Trump's administration in time for the new school year. This funding is a part of more than $6 billion in school funds held up on July 1 for school programs nationwide, leaving superintendents including Cleveland Heights' Elizabeth Kirby in a budget bind. "We have not received any information about whether or not this money is coming," she said. The lack of clarity follows a broader pattern in which the Trump administration has provided less detail on how it plans to spend taxpayer dollars, drawing criticism from some Republicans in Congress. "Delayed budgets, missing details, and omitted spend plans make the federal budget less transparent and less accountable to the people and their elected representatives," Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee told Russell Vought, director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, at a June 25 hearing. The OMB and the White House did not respond to a request for comment. In previous statements, the OMB said the held-up education funds are a part of an "ongoing programmatic review" due to initial findings of grant programs being "grossly misused to subsidize a radical leftwing agenda." Budget experts say this unwillingness to share a broad range of spending details skirts funding law, complicates the budget process going forward, and breaks from precedent aimed at increasing spending transparency. "At this point in the year, there has never been less reliable information available to either the public or Congress about actual agency spending than at any time since the modern budget process was established in 1974,' said David Taylor, a former leader of President George H.W. Bush's White House budget office and chief budget aide to Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, who now runs the research firm Federal Budget IQ. The U.S. Constitution gave Congress the power of the federal purse to decide how to allocate taxpayer money for the executive branch to disburse throughout its agencies. But since lawmakers passed a full-year stopgap funding bill in March -- signed by Trump -- they have been left with questions about where the money is going because a wide swath of federal agencies across the government either failed to share spending plans required by the stopgap bill, or sent incomplete data, according to U.S. lawmakers. 'This administration has — more than any other in my time in office — refused to share basic information with this committee," said Democratic Senator Patty Murray, a 32-year veteran of the chamber and her party's top appropriator. This standoff on federal funding powers will be tested again this week as the Senate considers the administration's $9 billion request to cancel foreign aid and public media, which could undo the funding passed on a bipartisan basis in March with a simple Republican majority. The Republican-controlled Congress early this month narrowly passed Trump's sweeping tax-cut and spending bill, overriding some Republicans' objections about the heavy toll it was expected to take on the nation's $36.2 trillion in debt. The administration's reluctance to share detailed spending plans has placed Cabinet secretaries in the hot seat on Capitol Hill for the last several weeks, as the funding law required these details by the end of April. 'We need more information than we have gotten," Republican House of Representatives Appropriations Chair Tom Cole of Oklahoma told Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in June, more than a month after his department's spending plan was required. 'I'm doing the best I can," FBI Director Kash Patel said at his May hearing, pointing the finger at other parts of the administration when hounded about the lack of spending details. 'We have a lot of irons in the fire ... as we try to build up staff,' explained Interior Secretary Doug Burgum when pressed by Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon about the lack of clarity on conservation projects. Even the agency plans that were submitted had notable gaps. There were 530 asterisks in the Health and Human Services Department's plan where specific funding amounts for programs should have been listed, according to Murray and Representative Rosa DeLauro, the top House appropriations Democrat. "The fact that appropriators are discussing these issues in open hearings means that multiple attempts to get this information behind the scenes has failed," said Joe Carlile, a former Democratic budget official. Trump's focus on slashing the federal government also has made his administration less concerned about congressional queries, said Cerin Lindgrensavage, counsel at Protect Democracy, a group which is suing the administration over removal of online spending details. "Usually, administration officials would be wary of angering the appropriations committee for the same reason it's a bad idea to bite the hand that feeds you, but now, Congress is negotiating against an executive branch that seems happy to cut more spending," Lindgrensavage said. Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins cited White House budget office guidance and a 1983 Supreme Court ruling over congressional restraints on emergency powers to defend how his department notified Congress to "reprogram" money away from initiatives the administration deemed wasteful. Congressional leaders tasked with overseeing VA funding demanded the department request approval to redirect money. "The way this secretary, and this administration, has interacted with Congress on moving hundreds of millions of dollars from one account to the next is unprecedented," said Democratic Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida. The panel's Republican leader, Representative John Carter of Texas, backed Schultz up: "I've been on this committee for 20 years ... and we are not going to change it now."
Yahoo
14-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Analysis-Trump administration leaves Congress in dark on spending decisions
By Bo Erickson WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Around 300 students in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, may face changes to after-school tutoring and English-language proficiency instruction unless the district's $860,000 federal grant is freed up by President Donald Trump's administration in time for the new school year. This funding is a part of more than $6 billion in school funds held up on July 1 for school programs nationwide, leaving superintendents including Cleveland Heights' Elizabeth Kirby in a budget bind. "We have not received any information about whether or not this money is coming," she said. The lack of clarity follows a broader pattern in which the Trump administration has provided less detail on how it plans to spend taxpayer dollars, drawing criticism from some Republicans in Congress. "Delayed budgets, missing details, and omitted spend plans make the federal budget less transparent and less accountable to the people and their elected representatives," Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee told Russell Vought, director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, at a June 25 hearing. The OMB and the White House did not respond to a request for comment. In previous statements, the OMB said the held-up education funds are a part of an "ongoing programmatic review" due to initial findings of grant programs being "grossly misused to subsidize a radical leftwing agenda." Budget experts say this unwillingness to share a broad range of spending details skirts funding law, complicates the budget process going forward, and breaks from precedent aimed at increasing spending transparency. "At this point in the year, there has never been less reliable information available to either the public or Congress about actual agency spending than at any time since the modern budget process was established in 1974,' said David Taylor, a former leader of President George H.W. Bush's White House budget office and chief budget aide to Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, who now runs the research firm Federal Budget IQ. The U.S. Constitution gave Congress the power of the federal purse to decide how to allocate taxpayer money for the executive branch to disburse throughout its agencies. But since lawmakers passed a full-year stopgap funding bill in March -- signed by Trump -- they have been left with questions about where the money is going because a wide swath of federal agencies across the government either failed to share spending plans required by the stopgap bill, or sent incomplete data, according to U.S. lawmakers. 'This administration has — more than any other in my time in office — refused to share basic information with this committee," said Democratic Senator Patty Murray, a 32-year veteran of the chamber and her party's top appropriator. This standoff on federal funding powers will be tested again this week as the Senate considers the administration's $9 billion request to cancel foreign aid and public media, which could undo the funding passed on a bipartisan basis in March with a simple Republican majority. The Republican-controlled Congress early this month narrowly passed Trump's sweeping tax-cut and spending bill, overriding some Republicans' objections about the heavy toll it was expected to take on the nation's $36.2 trillion in debt. 'NEED MORE INFORMATION' The administration's reluctance to share detailed spending plans has placed Cabinet secretaries in the hot seat on Capitol Hill for the last several weeks, as the funding law required these details by the end of April. 'We need more information than we have gotten," Republican House of Representatives Appropriations Chair Tom Cole of Oklahoma told Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in June, more than a month after his department's spending plan was required. 'I'm doing the best I can," FBI Director Kash Patel said at his May hearing, pointing the finger at other parts of the administration when hounded about the lack of spending details. 'We have a lot of irons in the fire ... as we try to build up staff,' explained Interior Secretary Doug Burgum when pressed by Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon about the lack of clarity on conservation projects. Even the agency plans that were submitted had notable gaps. There were 530 asterisks in the Health and Human Services Department's plan where specific funding amounts for programs should have been listed, according to Murray and Representative Rosa DeLauro, the top House appropriations Democrat. "The fact that appropriators are discussing these issues in open hearings means that multiple attempts to get this information behind the scenes has failed," said Joe Carlile, a former Democratic budget official. TRANSPARENCY DIVIDE Trump's focus on slashing the federal government also has made his administration less concerned about congressional queries, said Cerin Lindgrensavage, counsel at Protect Democracy, a group which is suing the administration over removal of online spending details. "Usually, administration officials would be wary of angering the appropriations committee for the same reason it's a bad idea to bite the hand that feeds you, but now, Congress is negotiating against an executive branch that seems happy to cut more spending," Lindgrensavage said. Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins cited White House budget office guidance and a 1983 Supreme Court ruling over congressional restraints on emergency powers to defend how his department notified Congress to "reprogram" money away from initiatives the administration deemed wasteful. Congressional leaders tasked with overseeing VA funding demanded the department request approval to redirect money. "The way this secretary, and this administration, has interacted with Congress on moving hundreds of millions of dollars from one account to the next is unprecedented," said Democratic Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida. The panel's Republican leader, Representative John Carter of Texas, backed Schultz up: "I've been on this committee for 20 years ... and we are not going to change it now."
Yahoo
11-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Kansas City secures $3.5 million grant to clean up polluted lots around city
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, II (D-MO) announced on Wednesday that the city of Kansas City has been given a federal grant of $3.5 million to help clean up — properties that are potentially contaminated by pollutants or hazardous materials — within the city. The federal funds, awarded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, will invest in the city's Brownfields Supplemental Revolving Loan Fund, providing loans and subgrants to clean up and redevelop projects at these polluted properties. KC Irish Fest to bring back annual breakfast in honor of late chef Shaun Brady 'From investments in new roads and bridges to funding that enables the cleanup and redevelopment of brownfield sites like the Hardesty Federal Complex, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law continues to fuel a remarkable economic comeback in Kansas City,' said Congressman Cleaver. The funding is expected to help Kansas City's Revolving Loan Fund, giving the city the opportunity to not only clean up these sites but also ensure more projects can be funded. According to Cleaver, the grant is largely attributed to former President Joe Biden's Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which allotted $1.5 billion to these efforts. 'While we've come a long way since the dark days of the global pandemic, thanks in part to investments like this, there is still so much work that can be done to boost economic development in underserved communities across the metro area – and this funding will help support those efforts,' Cleaver added. Since the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act passed, Kansas City has been awarded more than $18.5 million in brownfields grants. Jackson Co. Executive responds to litigation alleging attempt to delay recall election In 2022, these grants were seen in action when Cleaver allocated $5.5 million of these funds to cleaning up the . Now, the latest project, which passed in May, is focusing on fixing 47 vacant parcels in Kansas City, known as the Washington Wheatley Vacant Lots Site, as well as the former Benson Manufacturing Site. 'I'm proud to have helped secure this $3.5 million for Kansas City, and I'll continue fighting every day to bring more investments that support Missouri workers and small businesses back to the Fifth Congressional District,' Cleaver said. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Washington Post
05-07-2025
- Science
- Washington Post
How the Trump administration is already cutting off climate research
A $15 million federal grant was supposed to help scientists better understand how the warming climate is harming plants and animals, setting many on paths toward extinction. But the Trump administration shelved it earlier this year, miring the research in a holding pattern. Jacquelyn Gill isn't sure there's a way out. The professor of paleoecology and plant ecology at the University of Maine spent hundreds of hours readying the grant proposal, and 13 years before that gathering knowledge about how past changes to Earth's climate echoed through ecosystems. But without federal funding, she finds herself at a loss for how to keep building on that work as more species disappear.
CTV News
14-06-2025
- General
- CTV News
Child-care centres say they're facing financial crisis
Calgary Watch Child-care centres across Alberta are speaking out against the province, saying they've been left out of a key federal grant and forced to charge families more.
