President Donald Trump’s spending freeze is blocking access to millions of dollars in at least one state where regulators are pushing to clean up old, abandoned mines across the West.
Mike Tompson, who directs New Mexico’s abandoned mine land program, said his agency cannot currently draw from $2.3 million worth of grants the state is slated to receive to clean up abandoned mines in the area.
The money that’s frozen is tied to the bipartisan infrastructure law and critical to the state’s push to clean up more than 15,000 abandoned legacy mines plaguing the state, from open pits to piles of waste.
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Other funds tied to direct fees have not been impacted, Tompson told POLITICO’s E&E News.
