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The US government has many ways to complete financial support to businesses, large and small, helping them do research and development, to extend operations, to hire and pay the staff and to compete in the global market . Almost all of these financial support was in the air on Tuesday evening.
The Trump administration tried to place an indefinite freezing in federal subsidies and loan programs on Monday evening, a decision that left many questions for companies that depend on the government’s support to their plans and activities.
Then, Tuesday evening, a federal judge prevented the move of his “open awards” already granted at least on Monday, creating even more uncertainty.
And if there is one thing that companies hate, it is uncertainty. But it is the best they have had for at least a little time.
The Trump administration’s decision sowed chaos and mass confusion through non -profit organizations, local governments, universities and beneficiaries of other federal funds. But companies in each state also depend on government grants and loan programs, literally using tens of billions of federal dollars to perhaps use millions of workers.
If this tap may be deactivated by the Trump administration freeze on federal subsidies and loan programsAnd if so, for how long it was difficult to settle Tuesday, even before the judge’s decision. But there is clearly a lot in play.
The Federal Office of Management and Budget published a two -page memo on Monday by saying that it instituted a “temporary pause for grant, loan and other financial assistance programs”. The memo seemed clearly to want to continue and perhaps even increase help for businesses, as long as the Trump administration likes what they intend to do with money.
“Financial aid should be devoted to advancing administration priorities … release American energy and manufacturing,” the statement said.
But a certain business assistance is clearly on the administration’s reticle. The memo specifically said: “The use of federal resources to advance … Green New Deal’s social engineering policies are a waste of dollars of taxpayers who do not improve the daily life of those we serve.”
There is no “New Deal Green”. The effort to succeed in 2019 during the first Trump administration failed. But Clean Energy Projects obtained a major financial elevator in 2022 when the Congress adopted the law on the reduction of inflation, which despite the name, greatly concentrated support for energy and the environment. It included loans to help companies build electric vehicle factories and battery factories that should create thousands of jobs, often in “red”, President Donald Trump won. The status of loans announced previously is not clear, even before the court decision on Tuesday evening.
The DOE reports that at the end of the last financial year in September, it financed $ 46.9 billion in “innovative energy projects and manufacturing facilities for technology vehicles across the United States”.
For example, Blueoval SK, a joint venture between Ford and the Korean battery manufacturer SK, received a loan of $ 9.6 billion which must be used to build three EV battery factories – two in Kentucky One in Tennessee. Each factory should employ 2,500 workers. One of the factories in Kentucky and Tennessee factories should start production later this year.
But a spokesperson for Blueoval SK did not answer questions about the question of whether the “break” announced on Monday puts this or any other federal financial support at risk.
Starplus Energy, A joint venture between Samsung SDI and the automaker Stellantis, which builds cars under the Jeep, Ram, Dodge and Chrysler brands, also has a loan of $ 7.5 billion that closed in December to build two manufacturing factories and lithium-ion modules in Kokomo, Indiana ,. He also said that he could not answer CNN’s questions about the status of his loan.
But federal financial support is crucial for American car manufacturers who try to compete with Chinese car manufacturers, who have received massive support from their own government to accelerate the country’s national electric vehicle industry, a letter to the Congress of a Commercial group that represents car manufacturers receiving loans called last year.
“Nations around the world move aggressively to direct the development and deployment of these emerging automobile technologies,” said the letter From the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, the commercial group of the industry, which told CNN that it retains the position of the letter. “The United States must do everything it can to protect its competitiveness on a global market, guarantee a regulation of the equitable game against unjust trade, technology and grant practices.”
The group stressed that the Chinese automotive industry now produces around 10 million electric vehicles and rechargeable hybrids, almost equivalent to all passenger cars made in American car factories.
Loans to large and small businesses
It was not only the Ministry of Energy that supported American clean energy efforts. The Small Business Administration, the Economic Development Agency of the Commerce Department and the Export-Trust Bank, a federal agency which finances or supports the loans used by American exporters to finance purchases by their foreign customers, all loans to clean energy in their end -of -year reports for last year.
None of these agencies responded to the requests for comments from CNN on Tuesday before the court’s decision as to the way in which these financial support or other supports for the companies they serve could be affected by freezing on grants and loans.
The SBA provided $ 56 billion to small businesses and communities for disasters during the year 2024, which ended in September, making more than 100,000 commercial loans at that time. In addition to an increased accent on clean energy loans last year, he also highlighted loan programs targeting companies belonging to women and belonging to minorities. It is not clear if these programs are also in danger, because the declaration of the OMB also identified the programs of DEI, or the programs of diversity, equity and inclusion, as something he wishes Until deception during this current gel.
Much of federal funding goes into industries with much wider political support. For example, the Bipartite 2022 flea law approved $ 39 billion for manufacturing incentives to support the construction or relaxation of 16 American semiconductor factories, plus an additional $ 11 billion for research and assistance to development.
Programs which grant loans or subsidies to American companies send most of this aid to a wide variety of companies in a range of industries representing the basic components of the American economy – of construction, of the Hospitality and tourism, agriculture, traditional energy companies, health care and large and small manufacturers.
Asked at the Press Conference of the White House on Tuesday how organizations based on federal funding should pay, Trump’s press secretary Karoline Leavitt being “necessary”, he would examine politics in this Case to see if “it is online with the president’s agenda”.
The Democrats of Capitol Hill were quick to oppose the cut, claiming that money for these programs was affected by the congress and that the administration does not have the unilateral power to cut it, whatever this that he thinks of the programs.
The Trump administration has positioned itself as a pro-company, so it is not clear how long it will suffocate all the subsidy and loans programs that flow long-term to American companies. Programs that are supposed to help develop clean energy or preferences to minority groups are probably the most at risk. But even some of them could end up being restored, especially if the money is used to build factories and create jobs in the red states.
But on Tuesday, there is much more uncertainty than answers on what awaits us for the companies that have made strategic decisions according to the expectation of continuous help.
CNN’s rebekah Riess has contributed to this report.