A federal judge on Thursday extended an order that prevented the Trump administration from freezing billions in congressionally approved funds to 22 states and the District of Columbia. The judge found that the administration had overstepped in trying to stop the agencies from using money appropriated by Congress.
The ruling, which builds on the judge’s temporary order instructing the government to keep disbursing the funds, sets up a broader clash between Democratic states over the Trump administration’s efforts to align spending 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, said the case amounted to executive overreach.
“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.”
A memo from the White House budget office had demanded a pause on billions in grants until the administration could determine that the funding complied with Mr. Trump’s priorities, setting off days of confusion and alarm. A coalition of the states’ attorneys general quickly sued. In their challenge, they pointed to specific examples of how critical funding from agencies such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency or the Environmental Protection Agency could leave states stranded in an emergency, unable to provide such vital services as clean water.
Judge McConnell, who was appointed by former President Barack Obama, said that the directive from the budget office “fundamentally undermines the distinct constitutional roles of each branch of our government” and that without his action, “the funding that the states are due and owed creates an indefinite limbo.”
The order on Thursday was aimed at all the federal agencies cited in the memo from the budget office. It directs them to refrain from “pausing, freezing, blocking, canceling, suspending, terminating or otherwise impeding the disbursement of appropriated federal funds to the States under awarded grants, executed contracts or other executed financial obligations.”
Judge McConnell also noted that the government still appeared to be defying his earlier temporary order.
The White House budget office memo had indicated that funds would be halted to give the Trump administration time to eliminate spending in line with political goals such as “terminating the Green New Deal” and “pausing funding programs relating to ‘removable or illegal aliens.’”
“The Trump administration’s illegal funding freeze jeopardized law enforcement funding, essential health care and child care services and other critical programs that millions of Americans rely on,” Letitia James, the attorney general of New York who helped lead the lawsuit, said after the ruling.
The case has unfolded similarly to other lawsuits accusing the government of similarly tying up foreign aid and grants to charities and other nongovernmental organizations.
In those cases, beneficiaries of U.S. assistance have claimed that the administration arbitrarily held up funding they rely on, causing weeks of confusion and disrupting their work. Later on Thursday, a Federal District Court judge is expected to hear updates in a case involving the Trump administration’s freeze on aid to various global health organizations.
At the heart of the challenges is the question of a president’s authority to unilaterally freeze funds appropriated by Congress under the Impoundment Control Act of 1974. Mr. Trump has said he wants the Supreme Court to strike down that law, affording him greater control of federal spending.
In his order on Thursday, Judge McConnell appeared to agree with the attorneys general that the uncertainty caused by the Trump administration’s actions could leave the states exposed, for instance if a state were unable to reliably access FEMA funding in the event of a natural disaster.
“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.
Judge McConnell directed FEMA to detail steps it had taken to make funds available in a status report due on March 14.
