Trump freezes spending for Biden’s massive climate initiative

According to the Washington Post, the freeze has caused "chaos and confusion" within climate groups getting grants from the giant spending bill. During Biden's final weeks in office, federal agencies were racing to send out billions of dollars from the IRA and 99 percent of the payments that have gone out cannot be reversed, the outlet reported.

However, of the $50 billion that has been awarded in grants, only around $18 billion has actually been paid out to recipients, meaning that $32 billion could potentially be pulled back by the Trump administration. Around $20.5 billion of that $32 billion unspent is from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

$13 billion of the funding was going to the EPA for "curbing planet-warming greenhouse gases." Around $2 billion was earmarked for Maryland and $1 billion for the area of Washington, DC.

Congressional Democrats have been pressuring the EPA to continue disbursements even with Trump's order still in place. Left-wing Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) told reporters outside the EPA agency building, "Thousands of EPA projects worth tens of billions of dollars have been illegally shut down, shut off and shut out of funding in red and blue states alike."

The order from Trump signed on the first day of his administration that revoked several orders relating to "climate crisis" as well as "climate change" that were made by former President Joe Biden. Trump also ordered the immediate pause on the "disbursement of funds appropriated through the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022."

Nonprofit climate groups have had to furlough as well as fire staffers as a result. “This is not unusual for an administration to pause funding and to take a hard look and a scrub of how these programs, how they’re being spent,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) said of the spending freeze. "The Green New Deal, things like that … are in direct contradiction with the [executive orders] the president signed.”

Chuck Morris, an executive at Thrive New Orleans, said the freeze "is going to be devastating for us — we may not survive this." The organization's about page says it is "committed to racial equity by advancing new systems for economic opportunity, climate resiliency, and community stability." $500,000 was awarded to the nonprofit by the IRA.

"We’re going to have to shut down our programs and have a lot less impact. … It’s hurting the people we pledged to serve," Morse told the Post.