PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Despite being tied up in the courts, last month’s executive order by President Donald Trump has paused a number of federally funded grant programs in Delaware County, including lead-reduction efforts, FEMA assistance partnerships and infrastructure projects.
“Those are significant projects in terms of the impact they can have on the community and in our county,” said Delaware County Executive Director Barbara O’Malley.
At least seven county programs have been negatively affected. One of them is a major infrastructure project — a $2.5 million redesign of Route 291 in Chester. O’Malley said the project intended to add road, pedestrian and bike safety improvements.
Another partnership to curb flooding in Darby Creek is also now on hold — and seeing drastic changes.
“Technical assistance has been removed, so we no longer have FEMA representatives and consultants helping us to work on that project to mitigate the flooding in those areas,” O’Malley said.
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The Safe Routes to School grant, a low-cost initiative that helps kids in dangerous areas get to school safely, has been paused before contract completion.
“We have a grant for safe routes for schools. This allows our communities to design and make sure we have safe ways for students to walk to school. That grant is on hold as well,” O’Malley added.
As of now, health and human services as well as Medicaid funding, which both get millions of dollars in federal funding, are safe, but she said uncertainty is fueling fears of more cuts to come.
“We are doing our best to make sure we are talking to our peers and to making sure we advocate for these services and resources to continue,” she said.
Other grant programs include a collaboration with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to reduce lead exposure in housing; workforce development programs for minority-, women- and veteran-owned businesses; and several accessibility and fair housing education projects.
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Last month, the White House said it would temporarily halt federal funding to ensure that payments complied with Trump’s agenda. The administration rescinded a memo outlining its planned funding freeze after U.S. District Judge Loren AliKhan temporarily blocked it earlier this month. A second judge in Rhode Island also issued a temporary restraining order blocking any pause in federal spending pause in a separate lawsuit filed by nearly two dozen states.
Some groups initially said they couldn’t access promised federal funding even after the memo was rescinded.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro on Monday said the Trump administration finally freed up billions in federal aid that Shapiro’s administration had identified as either frozen or held up by an unspecified review.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.