A group of Democratic state attorneys general is asking a Federal district court judge in Rhode Island to fully enforce the court’s temporary restraining order (TRO) issued on Jan. 31 that blocked President Trump’s attempted freeze of most Federal grant and loan funding.
Filed on Feb. 7, the motion offered by 22 states and the District of Columbia attorneys cites ongoing funding constraints that are apparently still in effect despite the Jan. 31 order from John McConnell, Jr., chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island, including hold-ups in grant funding administered by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
The TRO issued on Jan. 31 blocks the Trump administration and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) from freezing payments of trillions of dollars from government loan and grant programs. The freeze was declared by OMB on Jan. 27 to defund Federal programs that don’t align with Trump’s policy agenda, leaving agencies and funding recipients scrambling to comply and understand how the order would impact them.
The memo was rescinded by OMB on Jan. 29, despite White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt insistence that “the President’s EO’s [executive order] on federal funding remain in full force and effect, and will be rigorously implemented.”
Judge McConnell said that given the White House’s contradictory statements, the withdrawal of the OMB memo did not make states’ claims moot in the case.
In their latest missive to the court, the state attorneys general are saying that despite the judge’s Jan. 31 ruling in favor of the states, the Trump administration is still causing “immediate irreparable harm” and disregarding the terms of the TRO.
“Plaintiff States and entities within the Plaintiff States continue to be denied access to federal funds,” reads the motion. “Jobs, lives, and the social fabric of life in the Plaintiff States are at risk from the disruptions and uncertainty that have continued now a full week after entry of the Order.”
The states also highlighted the Trump administrations’ recent determination that certain Federal financial assistance – such as that provided under the Inflation Reduction Act to bolster clean energy and the Infrastructure Improvement and Jobs Act to support essential infrastructure – fall outside of the scope of the court’s TRO.
Evidence of this, the states’ motion says, includes the Climate Pollution Reduction Grant and the Home Electrification and Appliances Rebates program which continue to face a funding halt.
In addition, the National Institute of Health also abruptly cancelled a review meeting with Brown University’s School of Public health for a $71 million grant on dementia care research due to the funding freeze, according to the motion.
Michigan and Vermont said they couldn’t access funds from the Department of Education, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Health Resources and Services Administration halted work orders to a University of Washington HIV prevention program, the states said.
“As long as this Administration continues to break the law, we will continue our fight to uphold it,” said Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha in a statement. “States and federal funding recipients across the country have reported trouble accessing their congressionally allocated funds. These lingering funding pauses are not coincidental.
“So let me be as crystal clear as Judge McConnell’s order: we’re not interested in playing these games, especially when it comes to funding programs that Americans rely on to survive and thrive,” Nerhona continued.
A second block on the OMB freeze was ordered by Judge Loren AliKhan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia shortly after the OMB freeze memo was sent out.
Those two blocks on the Federal funding freeze join numerous other lawsuits against the Trump administration since it took office, including one blocking at least for now the deferred resignation program for Federal workers who were offered full pay and benefits until Sept. 30 if they agreed to quit by Feb. 6.
