Judge temporarily blocks Trump administration’s federal spending freeze after nonprofit groups lawsuit
Judge temporarily blocks Trump administration’s federal spending freeze after nonprofit groups lawsuit
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The temporary order preserves the status quo while legal proceedings continue. A federal judge has temporarily blocked Donald Trump’s administration from freezing federal grant funding across government agencies, dealing a setback to the White House’s plan to pause federal programs that don’t align with the new president’s political ideology.
US District Judge Loren AliKhan issued the two-day temporary restraining order after a brief hearing in Washington on Tuesday. The order follows a lawsuit from a coalition of nonprofit organizations and small businesses that warned in court documents that the order “will have a devastating impact on hundreds of thousands of grant recipients” who depend on the steady flow of grant money that they’ve already been awarded and “deprive people and communities of their life-saving services,” including health care services, LGBT+ community support and services to support small businesses.
A second imminent lawsuit from New York Attorney General Letitia James — joined by 22 other state attorneys general — is also seeking a court order to immediately halt the administration’s order, which they say imperils billions of dollars in aid to their states.
The two-page memo at issue comes from acting White House Office of Management and Budget director Matthew Vaeth and directs federal agencies to “temporarily pause all activities related to obligation or disbursement of all federal financial assistance.”.
That includes “other relevant agency activities that may be implicated” by Trump’s sweeping executive orders, “including, but not limited to, financial assistance for foreign aid, nongovernmental organizations, DEI, woke gender ideology, and the green new deal,” according to the memo.
