The first eight days of Trump’s second term has caused confusion on several fronts. On Jan. 28, the White House issued a statement stating that a federal funding freeze would be implemented at 5 p.m.
The memo issued by the White House was vague and failed to provide adequate guidance to the numerous federal agencies that would be impacted by the funding freeze.
Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens responded to the federal funding freeze by revealing how it would impact Atlanta. Dickens shared that his office did not receive any notice on the city’s funding for affordable housing projects, salaries, and investments that is connected to federal funding.
In a statement, Dickens wrote “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.”
He continued, “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,”
Dickens and several political figures across the nation spoke out against the funding freeze and New York’s Attorney General Letitia James filed a lawsuit.
On Tuesday evening, U.S. District Judge Loren L. AliKhan ordered a pause on the federal freeze until Feb. 3. As a result, federal agencies, states and other organizations will continue to receive funding from the federal government.
