Judge Blocks Trump’s Funding Freeze, Saying White House Put Itself ‘Above Congress’

A federal choose on Thursday prolonged an order barring the Trump administration from withholding billions in congressionally authorised funds to 22 states and the District of Columbia, discovering that the administration had overstepped its authority in telling companies to stem the circulate of cash for federal applications appropriated by Congress.

The ruling, which builds on the judge’s temporary order instructing the federal government to maintain the cash flowing, units up a broader conflict between Democratic states’ attorneys normal over the Trump administration’s efforts to overtake spending to align with the president’s agenda.

In an opinion handed down on Thursday morning, Judge John J. McConnell Jr. of the Federal District Court for the District of Rhode Island mentioned the lawsuit got here all the way down to a case of government overreach, during which prime administration officers had required companies to withhold funds approved by Congress.

A memo from the White House price range workplace had demanded a pause on billions in grants till the administration might decide that the funding complied with Mr. Trump’s priorities, setting off days of confusion and alarm.

Judge McConnell wrote that with out the injunction, “the funding that the states are due and owed creates an indefinite limbo.”

“Here, the executive put itself above Congress,” he wrote. “It imposed a categorical mandate on the spending of congressionally appropriated and obligated funds without regard to Congress’s authority to control spending.”

The coalition of states had sued over the suspension of funding out there from a number of companies, together with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which they mentioned put them at risk.

The states suing filed a second movement final week to implement the earlier order, noting “significant obstacles to accessing federal funds” even after Judge McConnell had ordered companies to let funding circulate.

“Moreover, the delays prompted by FEMA’s manual review process are significant and indefinite,” the states wrote, noting that some had requested disbursements since Feb. 7.

In his order on Thursday, Judge McConnell appeared to agree that the prospect of states not having entry in a catastrophe to emergency funds paused by the Trump administration was salient.

“In an evident and acute harm, with floods and fires wreaking havoc across the country, federal funding for emergency management and preparedness would be impacted,” he wrote.

The choose ordered that FEMA element steps it had taken to unfreeze funds by March 14.