WASHINGTON — The Office of Management and Budget has apportioned a fraction of the cash Congress allotted to the Community Development Financial Institution Fund, documents show.
OMB has allotted solely $35 million below the Trump administration to the CDFI program, in keeping with new apportionment documents. All of these funds have gone to cowl administrative prices reasonably than awards from this system fund.
That implies that OMB has apportioned no discretionary awards to banks or different monetary establishments for the fiscal yr, which ends in a bit over a month on Sept. 30.
Funds for numerous CDFI packages are on a two-year cycle, so not like many packages, the cash would not expire on the finish of the fiscal yr.
Still, the delay for the Bank Enterprise Award program and the opposite 10 packages below the CDFI Fund umbrella is uncommon and problematic for the establishments that depend on these awards, and there is not any signal that this system goes to be kicked again into gear. The Bank Enterprise Award Program, for instance, nonetheless has not obtained a discover of funding availability, a delay that would lead to no awards this yr, contemplating the lengthy means of disbursing the funds.
“All of this tells us what we already suspected, which is that OMB has not permitted any apportionments for discretionary awards utilizing funds supplied in FY25,” stated a spokesperson for Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va.
Warner is the co-chair of the CDFI Caucus in Congress, alongside former Senate Banking Committee Chairman Mike Crapo, R-Idaho. Crapo’s workplace didn’t return a request for remark.
The destiny of the CDFI Fund has been unsure since President Donald Trump signed an govt order earlier this yr that aimed to dismantle this system, which has usually loved bipartisan help in Congress.
The govt order demanded the dissolution of this system to the extent allowed by regulation.
Although the Treasury Department has stated that the whole CDFI Fund is statutorily mandated, that hasn’t stopped OMB from withholding the funds. The OMB is led by director Russell Vought, who can also be the appearing head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and who was a number one proponent of the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 governing blueprint.
The CDFI case highlights a core constitutional battle over Congress’ energy of the purse at play in Washington below the Trump administration. Vought and OMB have maintained that the administration can withhold cash that Congress has appropriated, whereas lawmakers — even some Republican lawmakers like Crapo — have maintained that solely Congress can resolve what packages must be funded.
“To date, the CDFI Fund has but to announce and disburse awards for 5 packages inside its portfolio though utility intervals closed months in the past,” Crapo, Warner and a big group of bipartisan senators stated in a letter to OMB final month. “Furthermore, different packages have but to publish purposes for the present fiscal yr.”
OMB Director Vought has beforehand advocated for so-called “pocket recessions,” a not often used process that might enable the president to suggest spending cuts late within the fiscal yr when Congress has inadequate time to evaluate them. Vought has stated the administration intends to make use of such instruments to attain financial savings with out legislative approval.
