The News
Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins on Tuesday criticized the Trump administration’s federal grant and loan freeze, raising questions about why it was done without a confirmed White House budget director to implement it.
The Maine Republican, whose committee supervises federal spending, said she’s seeking more information from the administration about the breadth of the funding pause and whether it will affect the Defense Department, though she has not heard back about it. The Trump administration’s broad freeze on federal grants and loans came Monday night, days ahead of Russ Vought’s committee vote to lead the Office of Management and Budget.
“I am surprised they did not wait until he was confirmed so that we would have someone to go to in authority and ask questions about: ‘Did they really need to disrupt the transportation funding?’ Those sort of things,” Collins said.
She aired specific concerns about the freeze’s potential to hurt nonprofits in her home state and delay critical projects.
“There certainly is justification to take a hard look at some programs, but this is far too sweeping and will cause disruption in the administration of a lot of important programs and services,” Collins said.
She added that “I appreciate that the administration did exempt Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, but I’m still concerned about the impact,” and that she’s hearing from organizations in Maine who were awarded federal grants.
It’s not clear how the freeze effective Tuesday will touch Medicaid, with some state officials reporting that the health care program had been affected.
In a separate interview, Senate Budget Committee Chair Lindsey Graham, R-S.C, said his panel would consider Vought as scheduled on Thursday, allowing the nominee to come to the Senate floor for a confirmation vote. Graham, too, said he was asking questions about the Trump administration’s freeze.