A federal judge has temporarily prevented Donald Trump’s administration from blocking federal grant funding across government departments, undermining the White House’s aim to pause projects that do not line with the new president’s political worldview.
Following a brief hearing in Washington on Tuesday, US District Judge Loren AliKhan issued the temporary restraining order, which would keep the funding freeze in place until February 3.
The order, which is intended to maintain the status quo while legal proceedings are ongoing, was the result of a lawsuit filed by a coalition of nonprofit organizations and small businesses, which warned in court documents that the order “will have a devastating impact on hundreds of thousands of grant recipients” who rely on the steady flow of grant money that they have already received.
The lawsuit said that the order will “deprive people and communities of their life-saving services,” such as health care, LGBT+ community support, and small business help.
A White House official told The Independent that administration officials were still “digesting” the judgment before deciding how, if at all, to respond.
The two-page memo, released by interim White House Office of Management and Budget Director Matthew Vaeth, directs federal agencies to “temporarily pause all activities related to the obligation or disbursement of all federal financial assistance.”
According to the memo, this includes “other relevant agency activities that may be implicated” by Trump’s wide executive orders, such as financial assistance for foreign aid, nongovernmental groups, DEI, woke gender ideology, and the Green New Deal.
The memo sent nonprofits and public programs that support low-income families and vulnerable Americans into a tailspin on Tuesday, raising concerns about impending cuts to disaster relief, healthcare, childcare, infrastructure support, and groups that help homeless people and veterans, among a wide range of other programs that rely on federal funding, from suicide prevention to support for domestic violence survivors.
A second memo from the White House to members of Congress on Tuesday sought to clarify the financial “pause,” which White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters is intended to “ensure that all of the money going out of Washington, D.C., is in line with the president’s agenda.”
Democratic politicians and legal analysts have claimed that Trump’s order breaches Congress’s constitutional power as well as federal law, which bans the president from blocking funding allocated by lawmakers.
A second complaint, filed by New York Attorney General Letitia James and 22 other state attorneys general, seeks an urgent court order to suspend the administration’s action, which they claim jeopardizes billions of dollars in state aid.
“This president has exceeded his authority, violated the constitution, and trampled on a co-equal branch of government,” James told reporters at a video briefing on Tuesday.
“There is no question, this policy is reckless, dangerous, illegal, and unconstitutional,” she told the audience.
She described the Trump administration document as “arbitrary and capricious.”
“What we are doing is protecting democracy and the rule of law,” she told the audience.
In a press briefing in Washington, D.C., Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer described Trump’s funding restriction as “a heist done on a national scale.” He described the order as “lawless, dangerous, destructive, cruel.”
“It is illegal. It’s unlawful,” Schumer said during a conference that was originally scheduled to discuss Senate Democrats’ resolution condemning Trump’s January 6 pardons.
Instead, lawmakers are receiving “panicked calls” and “people are scrambling” to understand the breadth of Trump’s executive order.
“Virtually any organization — school, state, police office, county or community — depends on federal grant money to run its day to day operations, and they’re all now in danger,” Schumer tweeted.
“The blast radius of this terrible decision is virtually limitless, and its impact will be felt over and over again,” he said. “The only people who may be immune to this are the ultra-wealthy, to whom they wish to grant a tax cut. “The Trump administration is robbing Peter to pay billionaires.”
