16 hours Ago By Claire Brown
Dozens of nonprofit groups operating programs aimed at helping disadvantaged communities adapt to climate change have been caught up in the Trump administration’s spending cuts. For days, several of the organizations who I’ve spoken to have been unable to access the government’s payment system to pay for staffing and expenses, or have had their grants listed as “suspended” in the system. Many have received no explanation from the Environmental Protection Agency, which administers the funds.
As of Tuesday, the groups were still looking for answers. The nonprofit groups were awarded the money through the agency’s $1.6 billion Community Change Grants program, which was authorized under included in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act signed by President Joe Biden.
Most of the awards were announced in December, weeks before President Trump’s inauguration. The funds went to more than 100 groups, intended to fund projects to install wastewater treatment systems in Alabama homes and connect remote Alaskan households to water and sewer systems, among others. In a statement Monday, the E.
P.A. announced it had canceled $1.
7 billion from “more than 400 additional grants across nine unnecessary programs.” These cuts, the statement said, came after “working hand-in-hand” with the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency to “rein in wasteful federal spending.” But it was not clear whether the 400 canceled grants included any from the Community Change Grants program.
The E.P.A.
did not respond to a request for comment or clarification about which grants were canceled. We are having trouble retrieving the article content. Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.
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