A federal judge quickly put on hold Tuesday part of the Trump administration’s order to freeze much of the government’s funding after a lawsuit was filed in federal court in Washington.
U.S. District Judge Loren AliKhan ordered the White House not to block funding to existing programs until Feb. 3 when a hearing will be held in Washington. The Trump administration’s order was set to go into effect at 5 p.m. Tuesday.
The lawsuit was filed by advocacy groups representing nonprofit organizations, small-business owners and public health professionals.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, at her first news conference, defended the freezing of domestic grant and aid programs, telling reporters it is the responsibility of the new administration “to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars.”
Leavitt emphasized President Donald Trump’s order will not harm individual assistance programs, including “Social Security benefits, Medicare benefits, food stamps, welfare benefits” and other “assistance that is going directly to individuals.”
Democrats on Capitol Hill say that is not accurate and that chaos is resulting from Trump’s order, which the party’s leader in the U.S. Senate, Chuck Schumer of New York, characterizes as “lawless, destructive, dangerous and cruel.”
“People are in a panic about it,” Schumer told reporters on Tuesday afternoon.
The frozen funds, totaling “billions, perhaps, trillions of dollars that help American families every single day” include monies allocated for disaster assistance, local law enforcement, rural hospitals, aid to the elderly and food for people in need, according to Schumer.
“The use of federal resources to advance Marxist equity, transgenderism and green new deal social engineering policies is a waste of taxpayer dollars that does not improve the day-to-day lives of those we serve,” announced the Office of Management and Budget in its memo ordering the funding halt.
“I’m warning the Trump administration – the law is the law,” said Senator Patty Murray, from the state of Washington. “Avoid this pointless, damaging chaos.”
Murray is the vice chair of the Senate’s appropriations committee, which oversees and manages the allocation of funding from the federal government.
Other Democrats on the Senate’s appropriations and budget committees unsuccessfully tried to get their Republican colleagues to delay Thursday’s confirmation hearing for the president’s pick to run the OMB.
“The Senate Budget Committee will proceed” with the nomination of Russell Vought, responded the committee’s chairman, Republican Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.
Vought, who also ran OMB in the first Trump administration, said in two recent confirmation hearings before other Senate committees that he believed a 1974 “impoundment” law, which prevents presidents for blocking spending authorized by Congress, is unconstitutional.
“We are hearing from Medicaid offices across the country” that they have been locked out of federal funding systems, said Senator Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, a member of the finance committee.
Stealing the power of the purse from Congress is part of a “sweeping authoritarian power grab” by the president since Trump took office one week ago, Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon, the ranking Democrat on the budget committee, told reporters at the Capitol.
“Donald Trump is stealing from taxpayers to fund tax cuts for billionaires, and House Republicans are celebrating,” said Representative Katherine Clark of Massachusetts, the Democratic whip, in a statement.
Republicans in Congress reject that perception.
The president’s order is intended to ensure the government’s money “is spent wisely and well,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota told reporters Tuesday afternoon in the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol. He added it is not unusual for a new administration to pause funding, noting the previous president, Democrat Joe Biden, did so regarding the allocated money for expansion of a wall on the U.S. southern border of Mexico, which was a highlighted project of the first Trump administration.
Biden’s action was not as sweeping as the one taken this week by the Trump administration.
“Everybody take a deep breath, stay calm” during the 90-day review of the federally funded programs, advised Senator James Risch, the Idaho Republican who chairs the foreign relations committee. “We’ll get this done and reduce spending.”
