Judge in nation’s capital extends block on Trump administration federal funding freeze

WASHINGTON (AP) — A judge in the nation’s capital kept a temporary block on a Trump administration plan for a freeze on federal funding Monday after some nonprofit groups said they’re still struggling to get promised grants and loans.

U.S. District Judge Loren L. AliKhan extended an order she issued last week that paused a sweeping plan to freeze potentially trillions in federal spending. While the memo outlining it has since been rescinded, the Republican administration has said some kind of funding freeze is still planned as part of his blitz of executive orders.

A second judge in Rhode Island has also blocked any federal spending pause in a separate lawsuit filed by nearly two dozen Democratic states.

In the Washington lawsuit, several groups reported being unable to access promised federal funding even after the memo was rescinded. They ranged from childcare in Wisconsin to disability services in West Virginia to a small business research project on neutron generation and detection.

“For many, the harms caused by the freeze are non-speculative, impending, and potentially catastrophic,” AliKhan wrote

The Trump administration argues a brief pause in funding to align federal spending with the president’s agenda is within the law, and the court lacks constitutional authority to block it. President Donald Trump’s executive orders have sought to increase fossil fuel production, remove protections for transgender people and end diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.

AliKhan though, found that “furthering the President’s wishes cannot be a blank check for OMB to do as it pleases,” she wrote, referring to the Office of Management and Budget, the White House office that doles out federal money.

Lawyers with the advocacy group Democracy Forward are representing the nonprofits. They say the sweeping funding pause breaks federal law, puts nonprofits at risk of shuttering and violates their First Amendment rights.