By Jim Bloch
When President Donald Trump ordered a freeze in funding for federal grants, loans and similar programs, it sent a deep scare through organizations, states and municipalities throughout the country.
The initial memo, sent from the Office of Management and Budget Jan. 23, was met by a restraining order by a federal judge in Washington, D.C. The next day, the president rescinded the order, but not before local officials struggled to figure out what was going on.
One of the potentially affected municipalities was the city of St. Clair, which is in the middle of a federally funded rehabilitation of its water treatment plant at a cost of $10 million plus.
City Manager Quentin Bishop addressed the issue at the regular meeting of the city council, Feb. 3. Bishop received word of the freeze while attending the Michigan Municipal Executives Conference in Bay City, Jan. 29-30.
“During the conference, I received an email from the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (about the) executive order President Trump issued freezing federal funding,” said Bishop, as heard on the CTV-Channel 6 recording of the meeting posted on YouTube. “That sent a shock wave through the 50 states. And EGLE, being the fiduciary of federal funds, (said in the email) that your federal funds are going to be frozen.
“I replied with an email within 20 minutes saying we have active projects, specifically the water treatment plant, and we can’t (proceed) with any kind of funding freeze whatsoever. Within 24 hours, as you know, that order was rescinded. The federal projects that were in the pipeline and receiving funds, like our water treatment plant, are free and clear to disburse funds and process payments. So you hear about federal programs being frozen, that’s very isolated and restricted to very specific programs. The ones in play right now, like our water treatment plant, they’re not in jeopardy. I am billing those
appropriately to the state and they are sending the funds and we are paying the contractors. So there’s no worries there.”
‘Flooding the zone’
The freeze in federal funding was one of dozens of executive actions taken by Trump and his administration to streamline the federal government in such a way that it will do his bidding with minimal pushback. In a “flood the zone” approach to governing, Trump pardoned 1,600 people charged with crimes in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol, including 140 who assaulted law enforcement personnel. He ended all federal support of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. He announced tariffs on the US’s two closest trading partners and allies, Mexico and Canada, then postponed them. He declared a national emergency at the southern border, sending in troops and ending refugee admissions to the country, including those of 1,660 Afghans who assisted the US war effort there or are related to US citizens. He pulled the US out of the Paris climate agreement and the World Health Organization. He has frozen federal hiring, fired top level officials, including inspectors general in key departments, and liquidated programs such USAID. He wants to make Canada the 51st state, seize the Panama Canal, takeover Greenland and assume control of the Gaza Strip and dislodge the Palestinians.
Michigan has the only Palestinian American in the US House of Representatives, Rashida Tlaib, who said Trump’s Gaza plans amounted to a call for ethnic cleansing, made possible by President Biden’s prior support for the genocidal war waged on Gaza by Israel.
“He’s perfectly fine cutting off working Americans from federal funds while funding the Israeli government,” Tlaib told Truthout.
“It’s been overwhelming sensory overload,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin, the Maryland Democrat characterizing Trump’s tsunami of actions to the New York Times.
Jim Bloch is a freelance writer based in St. Clair, Michigan. Contact him at bloch.jim@gmail.com.
