With the region attracting hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding, Chattanooga area institutions are watching an effort by President Donald Trump to clamp down on spending that runs afoul of his recent executive orders — a move that has now been stalled by the courts.
Novonix, a battery materials maker in Chattanooga, and agencies like the Chattanooga Housing Authority, EPB, the University of Tennessee and the Trust for Public Land received tens of millions of dollars in federal grants over the past 12 months, according to a spending database maintained by the U.S. government.
In a memo Monday, the acting director of the Office of Management and Budget, Matthew Vaeth, ordered federal agencies to identify programs, projects and activities that may “be implicated” by any of Trump’s recent executive orders. That includes diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, “woke gender ideology” and “the Green New Deal” a proposal from Democratic lawmakers that aims to address climate change while aiding the economy.
“The use of federal resources to advance Marxist equity, transgenderism and Green New Deal social engineering policies is a waste of taxpayer dollars that does not improve the day-to-day lives of those we serve,” Vaeth wrote.
(READ MORE: Novonix in Chattanooga more than a green, feel-good story, official says)