A federal judge has temporarily blocked aa Trump administration freeze of all grants and loans disbursed by the federal government, potentially upending programs relied upon by millions of Americans while also quickly earning his second presidential administration a lawsuit.
US district judge Loren AliKhan ordered an administrative stay on the pause on Tuesday afternoon, moments before it was set to take effect. The stay, issued in response to a lawsuit brought by a group of non-profits and small businesses, pauses the administration’s action until Monday.
In a two-page internal memo, Matthew Vaeth, Trump’s acting head of the office of management and budget (OMB), instructed all federal agencies to “temporarily pause all activities related to obligations or disbursement of all federal financial assistance”.
Vaeth said that the pause did not include social security or Medicare – and that the assistance put on hold “does not include assistance provided directly to individuals”.
If allowed to take effect, the order could have far-reaching consequences that touch nearly every corner of American society, including universities, the non-profit sector, cancer research, food assistance, suicide hotlines, hospitals, community health centers, non-profits that help disabled veterans and many more.
Democratic attorneys general said on Tuesday they planned to sue to prevent the memo from taking effect. Letitia James, the New York attorney general, said her office would take “imminent legal action against this administration’s unconstitutional pause on federal funding. We won’t sit idly by while this administration harms our families.”
Four groups representing non-profits, public health professionals and small businesses filed a lawsuit saying the directive was illegal and would have a “devastating impact on hundreds of thousands of grant recipients who depend on the inflow of grant money”. The groups said the directive would disrupt education, healthcare, housing and disaster relief and would devastate “hundreds of thousands of grant recipients who depend on the inflow of grant money”.
At a news conference on Tuesday morning, Chuck Schumer, the Democratic Senate leader from New York, described the order as “a dagger at the heart of the average American families, in red states and blue states, in cities and suburbs and rural areas”.
Joined at the news conference by the Democratic senators Amy Klobuchar, Patty Murray, Jeff Merkley and Andy Kim, Schumer noted that among the programs potentially affected was Meals on Wheels, which provides hot meals to at-risk seniors and is partly funded by the federal government.
The halt in spending comes days after the US also immediately cut off all foreign aid, and was designed to ensure that financial assistance is in line with Trump’s policies, Vaeth wrote.
The spending halt, he added, would affect federal agencies that touch upon “financial assistance for foreign aid, nongovernmental organizations, [diversity initiatives], woke gender ideology, and the green new deal”.
The freeze in federal funding, set to take place on Tuesday afternoon, has thrown the future of a vast array of programs into uncertainty. The memo said it should be implemented “to the extent permissible under applicable law”. There was no explanation as to whether the pause would affect food stamps, disaster assistance and other programs, but on Tuesday afternoon, several lawmakers and state officials reported that portals for Medicaid were down.
Karoline Leavitt, Trump’s press secretary, said that the White House was aware of the “website portal outage” and that they had confirmed that no payments had been affected and that payments “are still being processed and sent”.
“We expect the portal will be back online shortly” she added.
In a press conference on Tuesday, Leavitt pushed back against suggestions the memo caused chaos and uncertainty and said it would not affect direct assistance to individuals, including social security, Medicare, welfare and food stamps. She did not clarify, however, whether aid that goes through organizations to individuals, like Meals on Wheels, would be affected.
“[The] only uncertainty in this room is amongst the media,” said Leavitt, blaming the press for anxieties spurred by the measure.
Jeff Landry, the Republican Louisiana governor, released a statement on Tuesday, along with Louisiana state officials, saying that they were “thoroughly evaluating President Trump’s new order and seeking clarity as to the depth of this action” and urged the administration’s office of management and budget “to develop a responsible runway to untangle us from any unnecessary and egregious policies without jeopardizing the financial stability of the state”.
While the US president administers federal spending programs, actual spending and budgets are determined by Congress. Democrats said Trump’s spending pause was “breathtaking” and “unprecedented” and would cause disruption to Americans’ day-to-day assistance.
“They say this is only temporary, but no one should believe that,” said Schumer.
“Donald Trump must direct his administration to reverse course immediately and the taxpayers’ money should be distributed to the people. Congress approved these investments and they are not optional – they are the law.”
In reference to the National Institutes of Health, Klobuchar wrote on social media: “Are you stopping NIH cancer trials?”
Murray and the representative Rosa DeLauro, the top Democrats on the Senate and House appropriations committees, issued a letter to Vaeth expressing “extreme alarm”.
They wrote: “This administration’s actions will have far-reaching consequences for nearly all federal programs and activities, putting the financial security of our families, our national security, and the success of our country at risk.”
At the Democrats’ news conference, Murray, the top Democrat on the chamber’s appropriations committee, called for a delay in consideration of Trump’s pick for budget chief, Russell Vought.
“The American people did not vote for this kind of senseless chaos,” Murray said. “Republicans should not advance that nomination out of committee until the Trump administration follows the law.”
The Democratic Virginia senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine also blasted the Trump administration’s order, calling it “reckless and illegal” in a joint statement.
“This is money that builds roads and bridges, helps small businesses make payroll, and makes our communities healthier, safer, and more economically competitive,” the statement added.
Bernie Sanders said in a statement on Tuesday that the Trump administration’s order would have “a devastating impact on the health and wellbeing of millions of children, seniors on fixed incomes, and the most vulnerable people in our country”.
“It is a dangerous move towards authoritarianism and it is blatantly unconstitutional,” said the senator from Vermont, adding that “our founding fathers explicitly gave Congress the power of the purse”.
“If President Trump wants to change our nation’s laws he has the right to ask Congress to change them,” Sanders added. “He does not have the right to violate the United States constitution. He is not a king.”
The Associated Press contributed reporting
