ICYMI: Stevens Moves to Stop Trump’s Federal Funding Power Grab

Washington, D.C. – In case you missed it, Michigan Congresswoman Haley Stevens introduced a bill to stop Trump from hijacking federal funding for political gain. The Protect Local Funding Act would prevent Trump from letting his political loyalists override merit-based review, rein in executive overreach, and protect Michiganders’ taxpayer dollars.

The legislation is the latest in Rep. Stevens' fight to hold the Trump administration accountable. She has introduced legislation to block Trump's effort to expand handgun mail delivery, secured victories against ICE in Romulus, drafted Articles of Impeachment against RFK Jr., and is now working to protect federal investments in Michigan from political interference.

Here’s what Michiganders are seeing and hearing about Rep. Haley Stevens standing up to Trump’s abuse of tax dollars:

WWJ:

With: Greg Bowman

• Members of Congress have introduced a resolution, a legislation they say is gonna prevent the politicization of the federal grant process. Joining us live now is Representative Haley Stevens, one of the Members of Congress to introduce the act.
• “We’ve seen some continued overreaches from the current administration, particularly out of the Office of Management and Budget. They put together a pretty aggressive, what we call rulemaking, around federal grants that are gonna really impact, what’s really gonna impact Michigan.”
• “As a political appointee myself in the Obama Administration, I worked in the Economic Development Administration, which was a grantmaking office. But I had nothing to do with the actual decisions that went around grants.”
• “Let’s ensure that the experts, the methodology, the non-political process that goes into federal grantmaking is preserved.”
• “The very first bill that I ever got signed into law was called the Building Blocks of STEM Act. And that was for grant programs for K-12 Education out of the National Science Foundation… Guess what I woke up to last year from this administration? That they were just out of nowhere canceling all the STEM grants out of the National Science Foundation.”
• “I want to see schools, whether you’re in Detroit or Sturgis, be able to have shop class and STEM education and getting our students access to the skills that they need.”
• “This politicization is just more chaos that is disruptive to Michigan, our workforce goals, and training the next generation to win the future.”

FOX 2:  Stevens: Donald Trump is for the Billionaire Class

With: Ronia Shamona

• “Yet again, we see this administration abusing power, going way too far in terms of the federal grants-making process. Here in Michigan, we have countless organizations, nonprofits, schools, heck, even sometimes places of worship that are going through the federal grants-making process. “
• “They want to say if it doesn’t fit their political purposes, they can stop the federal grant. And it opens up to clawing back money or charging enterprises who have received federal grants from years ago.”
• We’ve got the most number of first robotics teams in the country in our schools, this is a real achievement in Michigan… I want all those schools with FIRST Robotics teams to be able to apply for workforce dollars.”
• “I’ve got a real track record of delivery, and of standing up alongside Michiganders and our schools to make sure they get their fair share of federal dollars for the programs that are going to enable us to succeed and win the future. And that’s just really what I want to get back to.”

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