TAMPA, Fla. — The White House budget office has ordered a pause on all federal grants and loans.

What You Need To Know

  • A memo from the White House budget office is calling for a spending freeze on federal assistance

  • The freeze could have wide-ranging implications, with the White House noting that $3 trillion was spent in 2024 on federal assistance programs
  • News of the announcement is causing confusion throughout government, including locals in Tampa Bay who rely on federal funding
  • While the executive order from the president says funds for small businesses won’t be paused, some are worried about grants for minority businesses

The announcement is causing confusion throughout government, including locals here in the Tampa Bay area who rely on federal funding. News of the freeze has them concerned for their future.

“I’m looking at it from the economics and from the financial, where the money goes at," said Daryl Hych, who has had a busy 24 hours.

“We’re fighting hard to try to figure out what we need to do to help our members as part of the chamber,” he says.

As Chairman of the Board for the Hillsborough County Black Chamber of Commerce, news of President Trump’s freeze of federal grants and loans was surprising.

“The CDBG Grant that the city offers, the Small Business Program or the MBE Certification Programs — all of these things are now subjected to that executive order,” said Hych.

Hych says minority and Black businesses depend on these grants for assistance and funding and that a loss in funding has the potential to do substantial damage to agencies.

“When the president said cease all of those and stop those, then there’s a major ramification that our small businesses suffer because that’s where we get our resources from," he said.

While the executive order from the president says funds for small businesses won’t be paused, Hych worries about grants for minority businesses, like Dope Men Social, a barbershop in downtown Tampa.

Impacting businesses, Hych says, will have an effect on the local economy.

“All of these things are going to affect the marketplace," Hych said. "Tampa being as progressive as it has been and their plight toward satisfying the minority community, you have to ask yourself, 'Are they going to be continuously loyal to that?' Because the law of the land says you can’t do that anymore.”

And as more information on the federal freeze comes to light, some may not be impacted at all.

“Hopefully, just hopefully, they’ll get to understand the ramifications of not knowing what just happened," Hych said.

Spectrum News did obtain a copy of the OMB memo regarding the President pausing all federal grants and loans. In the memo, it mentions funds for small businesses, farmers, pell grants, head start, rental assistance and other similar programs will not be paused.