U.S. Rep. Kweisi Mfume, a Maryland Democrat, said he feared Duffy’s directives would harm some grants already announced — including $85 million awarded to Baltimore in the final weeks of the Biden administration to transform a blighted stretch of U.S. 40 known as the “highway to nowhere.”

Lawmakers representing Democratic-controlled states are pushing back, arguing it is an arbitrary move to help out red states that supported the president.