On Friday, a federal judge in Rhode Island granted a temporary restraining order to 22 states and Washington, D.C, that asked for a pause of Trump's proposed pause on federal spending. The decision was hot on the heels of a Washington federal judge's decision to, at least temporarily, halt Trump's proposed spending freeze as applied to open grants. On Monday evening, the judge in the Washington case extended her decision to pause the freeze.
The freeze in question came last week when, in a short memo, the Trump administration, via the acting director of the Office of Management and Budget, sought to temporarily freeze an enormous swath of federal funding, apparently including everything but funding for programs that provide direct assistance to people, such as Social Security and Medicare. This is money that supports programs including early childhood education, assistance for disaster victims and aid for farmworkers. The Trump's administration's stated purpose was to ensure that federal funds were not used to support "Marxist equity, transgenderism, and green new deal social engineering."
If this invokes school civics lessons that taught that Congress, not the president, has the power of the purse, you're right.
This is a preview of Jessica Levinson's latest article. Read the full column here.
