States urge judge to enforce block of Trump federal funding freeze

(CN) — Nearly two dozen states embroiled in a legal battle against President Donald Trump’s federal funding freeze asked a federal judge on Friday to enforce the court’s order to unfreeze that money.

U.S. District Judge Jack McConnell, a Barack Obama appointee in the District of Rhode Island, called Trump’s order to broadly pause federal funding “constitutionally flawed” in a ruling last week. He ordered the Trump administration to hold off on implementing the freeze until he could be briefed further on the matter.

But in a new court filing the states say Trump’s White House continues to deny access to federal funds, despite McConnell’s order.

“Despite the court’s order, defendants have failed to resume disbursing federal funds in multiple respects,” the states say in a motion Friday.

The states cited evidence that showed a number of Inflation Reduction Act and Infrastructure, Investment and Jobs Act programs’ funding remaining blocked by the Trump administration.

Among those programs, according to the motion, is the Climate Pollution Reduction Grant — a $5 billion EPA initiative that supports states, tribes and local governments in planning and implementing greenhouse-gas reduction measures.

The Home Electrification and Appliances Rebates program — a $4.5 billion project that subsidizes low-income households’ purchase of essential appliances like electric water heaters — also remains unfunded.

The states added that, on Feb. 3, the National Institute of Health abruptly cancelled a review meeting with Brown University’s School of Public health for a $71 million grant on dementia care research because of the funding freeze.

In each instance, the states claim that the programs were unable to access the congressionally-approved federal funds, which they say should have remained available under McConnell’s order.

“Defendants have violated the order,” the states say in the motion. “The evidence is overwhelming. Defendants appear to contend that their conduct is permissible under the order. But defendants are wrong.”

According to the filing, officials within the Trump administration had expressed that cutting off funding for Inflation Reduction Act and Infrastructure, Investment and Jobs Act programs doesn’t violate the judge’s order. But when the states raised this issue at a scheduling conference Thursday morning, McConnell appeared to disagree.

“I think it’s as clear as the court could have possibly made it on short order,” the judge said of his ruling.

Now, the states want McConnell to clear things up and keep the Trump administration from continuing to withhold funding from those programs. The 23-state coalition is being led by the attorneys general of California, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Rhode Island — where the lawsuit against Trump’s funding freeze was filed.

“As long as this administration continues to break the law, we will continue our fight to uphold it,” Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha said in a statement Friday. “These lingering funding pauses are not coincidental. So let me be as crystal clear as Judge McConnell’s order: we’re not interested in playing these games, especially when it comes to funding programs that Americans rely on to survive and thrive.”

Neronha and the other attorneys general filed their lawsuit on Jan. 28 after a leaked memo from the White House Office of Management and Budget outlining the freeze caused widespread panic and confusion throughout the country.

The memo suggested that any use of federal resources to “advance Marxist equity, transgenderism, and Green New Deal social engineering policies” could be at risk of losing funding.

The White House later rescinded the memo, but insisted that the funding freeze was here to stay.

McConnell granted the states a temporary restraining order on Jan. 31, halting the freeze. The following week, a second federal judge — U.S. District Loren AliKhan, a Joe Biden appointee in Washington, D.C. — placed her own restraining order on the funding freeze.

The White House is at the center of dozens of lawsuits as Trump continues to test the powers of the presidency with executive orders. In addition to the funding freeze, federal judges have also stepped in to halt Trump’s orders to limit birthright citizenship and offer buyouts to more than 2 million federal employees.

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