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A federal judge said on Monday that the Trump administration had defied his order to unfreeze billions in federal funding and issued a directive demanding that the government “immediately restore frozen funding”.
In the order, US district judge John J McConnell Jr in Rhode Island instructed Donald Trump’s administration to restore and resume federal funding in accordance with the temporary restraining order he issued in January, which halted the administration’s freeze of congressionally approved federal funds.
The ruling appeared to be the first instance of a judge finding the Trump administration had violated a court order pausing a new policy rollout. The Trump administration on Monday said it is appealing.
Last month, the Trump administration’s office of management and budget issued a memo halting federal grants and loans while it evaluated spending to ensure it was in alignment with Trump’s agenda and policies. The administration later withdrew the memo, which caused widespread confusion.
Nearly two dozen states filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration. On 31 January, McConnell issued a temporary restraining order, blocking the freeze of federal funding, and described the rescission of the memo as “in name only”.
McConnell’s new order on Monday comes as Democratic attorneys general that challenged the freeze, in the 22 states and Washington DC, said the government had not been complying with the order and had yet to restore some funding for several programs.
“The states have presented evidence in this motion that the defendants in some cases have continued to improperly freeze federal funds and refused to resume disbursement of appropriated federal funds,” McConnell wrote in his decision, adding that the pauses in funding “violate the plain text” of the temporary restraining order.
In a letter sent last week to the administration’s office of management and budget, the governor of Colorado, along with the state’s two senators, said that in Colorado alone they were aware of more than $570m in funding that was inaccessible.
They wrote that companies, local governments, state agencies and non-profit organizations could not access their federal grant portraits or receive reimbursements “due to them under their federal grant contracts despite both the court order and the promises from the agencies”.
“The consequences of this continued uncertainty are severe and could have a devastating effect on the programs and people this funding supports,” the letter said.
McConnell on Monday ordered the federal government to “immediately end any federal funding pause” until he reviews and decides whether to make the order more permanent through a preliminary injunction.
“The broad categorical and sweeping freeze of federal funds is, as the court found, likely unconstitutional and has caused and continues to cause irreparable harm to a vast portion of this country,” the order added.
Reuters contributed reporting
