Appeals court won't halt judge's order requiring Trump administration to unfreeze federal cash
WASHINGTON — A federal appeals court on Tuesday refused to immediately halt a judge's order requiring the Trump administration to release billions of dollars in federal grants and loans that remain frozen even after a court blocked a sweeping pause on federal funding.
The Boston-based U.S. 1st Circuit Court of Appeals turned back the emergency appeal, though it said it expected the lower court judge to act quickly to clarify his order and would keep considering the issue.
The Justice Department argued the sweeping lower court order to keep all federal grants and loans flowing was 'intolerable judicial overreach.'
That ruling came from U.S. District Judge John McConnell in Rhode Island, the first judge to find that the administration had disobeyed a court order.
McConnell is presiding over a lawsuit from nearly two dozen Democratic states filed after the administration issued a boundary-pushing memo purporting to halt all federal grants and loans, worth trillions of dollars. The plan sparked chaos around the country.
The administration has since rescinded that memo, but McConnell found Monday that not all federal grants and loans had been restored.
Money for things such as early childhood education, pollution reduction and HIV prevention research has remained tied up even after his Jan. 31 order halting the spending freeze plan, the states said.
McConnell, who was appointed by former President Obama, ordered the Trump administration to 'immediately take every step necessary' to unfreeze federal grants and loans.
He also said his order blocked the administration from cutting billions of dollars in grant funding from the National Institutes of Health, a move announced last week.
The Justice Department said McConnell's order prevents the executive branch from exercising its lawful authority, including over discretionary spending or fraud.
'A single district court judge has attempted to wrest from the President the power to 'take care that the laws be faithfully executed.' This state of affairs cannot be allowed to persist for one more day,' government attorneys wrote in their appeal.
The states, meanwhile, argued that the president can't block money that Congress has approved, and the still-frozen grants and loans are causing serious problems for their residents. They urged the appeals court to keep allowing the case to play out in front of McConnell.
The court battle is unfolding as a string of court losses is increasingly frustrating top administration officials by slowing President Trump's agenda.
Judges have also blocked, at least temporarily, Trump's push to end birthright citizenship for anyone born in the U.S., access to Treasury Department records by billionaire Elon Musk's team and a mass deferred resignation plan for federal workers.
The Republican administration previously said the sweeping funding pause would bring federal spending in line with the president's priorities, including increasing fossil fuel production, removing protections for transgender people and ending diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.
A different federal judge in Washington has also issued a temporary restraining order against the funding freeze plan and since expressed concern that some nonprofit groups weren't getting their funding.
Whitehurst writes for the Associated Press.
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