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One difficulty with writing about the Trump administration is the speed with which things change. That means whatever we write here may well be outdated within the next hour, not to mention days.
But on Feb. 19, Kevin Thornton, chief of administration with the Arkansas Department of Transportation, told the state Highway Commission that the federal government had halted $383 million in funding for infrastructure projects in Arkansas.
And research institutions in Arkansas, like the University of Arkansas System, including the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, may lose millions of dollars in federal funding after the Trump administration announced a funding freeze last month. “What we do know is clear — research would be significantly affected, along with some of its associated programming, personnel, and many future efforts to further science and healthcare for the well-being of all Arkansans,” UA System Jay Silveria said. A federal judge has blocked that order, which is the subject of numerous lawsuits, but uncertainty remains.
Efforts to eliminate the proverbial “waste, fraud and abuse” in federal government spending are laudable. But these actions by the Trump administration are indiscriminate and heedless and have the potential to do real harm to Arkansas and its citizens.
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