Federal Judge Loren alikhin has ordered for a temporal block on Trump’s federal funding freeze.
(The Post News)– President Donald Trump’s efforts to freeze federal grants and loans funding have been temporarily blocked by Loren Alikhan, a federal judge. This occurred just a few minutes before the freeze was scheduled to go into effect.
Judge Alikhan’s imposed block delays the freeze for any “open awards” that had already been authorised by the federal government until Monday of the coming week. Moreover, a hearing for additional arguments was scheduled for Monday morning. However, the temporary block does not prohibit Trump and his administration from stopping agencies from giving out new grants.
The order to freeze federal funding was announced in a two-page document from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and sent to federal agencies on Monday evening. The aim of the freeze was to allow the White House an opportunity to examine agency initiatives to assure compliance with the flurry of decrees that Trump’s administration signed in the early days of his second term. Meanwhile, Matthew Vaeth, the interim director of the OMB, wrote the memo criticising diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, calling them a “waste of taxpayer dollars.”
As the judge issued the order, she is also analysing a complaint filed by a nonprofit organisation (NPO) in the federal court, urging that Trump’s order be reversed on the basis that OMB lacks constitutional jurisdiction to eliminate every initiative in the federal government. Moreover, in a media briefing on Tuesday morning, state attorneys from seven states, led by New York Attorney General Letitia James, vowed to take legal action against the White House. The attorneys labelled the directive “unconstitutional.”
This directive was also criticised by a number of Harvard associates shortly after it was publicized, calling it “unlawful” and an effort by Republicans to take all of Congress’ power.
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