Pause in funding prompting lawsuits
Critics call Trump move reckless, catastrophic
By: Bart Jansen
USA Today
..... President Donald Trump's grant and loan funding freeze sparked immediate push-back and panic Tuesday. [01/21/2025]
.....
The White House Office of Management and Budget issued a memo Monday [01/27/2025] ordering a pause in such funding while officials review whether the spending priorities are aligned with Trump's agenda. The White House said the pause wouldn't affect Social Security or Medicare payments.
..... "Federal agencies must temporarily pause all activities related to obligation or disbursement of all federal financial assistance, and other relevant agency activities that may be impacted by the executive order, including, but not limited to, financial assistance for foreign aid, nongovernmental organizations, DEI, woke gender ideology, and the green new deal,' Matthew J. Vaeth, the acting director of the Office of Management and Budget, wrote in the memo, referencing orders Trump has signed since taking office again. The freeze was to go into effect Tuesday [01/28/2025 at 5 PM.
..... The National Council of Nonprofits, the Cameraman Public Health Association and the Main Street Alliance together asked a federal court Tuesday [01/28/2025] to block the Trump memo pausing federal grants and loans.
..... "This reckless action by the administration would be catastrophic for nonprofit organizations and the people and communities they serve," said Diane Yentel, CEO of the National Council of Nonprofits. "From pausing research on cures for childhood cancer to halting housing and food assistance, shuttering domestic violence and homeless shelters, and closing suicide hot lines, the impact of even a short pause in funding could be devastating and cost lives."
..... Senate Democrats blasted the move as an unconstitutional power grab. the bipartisan spending decisions were made by Congress and can't be overturned by Trump, they argued.
..... Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, said Trump shut off billions and perhaps trillions of dollars to sate and local governments, schools, hospitals and small businesses - and disaster aid.
..... "It's a dagger at the heart of the average American family," Schumer said. "It is shut outrageous."
..... Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon, the top Democrat on the Budget Committee proposed a two-week postponement of the Senate Budget Committee vote schussed Thursday [01/30/2025] on Russell Vought's nomination to become director of OMB, saying they need to learn more about the freeze.
..... But the Senate Budget Committee headed by Senator Lindsy Graham, R-south Carolina, issued a statement Tuesday [01/28/2025] saying lawmakers will vote on the nomination Thursday. [01/30/2025]
.....
Staffing shake-up continues as Trump's Justice Department fired more than a dozen officials who assisted special counsel Jack Smith in prosecuting Trump before he won the 2024 election.
..... "acting Attorney General James Henry made this decision because he did not believe these officials could be trusted to faithfully implement the President's agenda because of their significant role in prosecuting the President,' a Justice Department official told USA today in a statement.
..... smith led tow prosecutions against Trump that he dropped after Trump's election. One alleged Trump unlawfully tired to overturn the 2020 election results; the other alleged he mishandled classified documents after his first presidential term. Smith r4esigned earlier this month, [01/2025] ahead of Trump's January 20 [2025] inauguration.
..... Barbara Mcquade, a former federal prosecutor and a law professor at the University of Michigan, criticized the firing on X. "DOJ supports and defends the Constitution, not the president;s agenda," McQuada wrote.
..... At the same time, the acting U.S. attorney for Washington, Dec., Ed Martin, a Trump appointee, opened a probe into the Biden administration Justice Department's decision to bring felony obstruction charges against hundreds of individuals who were allegedly involved in the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. That's according to a report by the Wall Street Journal, which citied people familiar with the matter, and a reported by the Washington Post, which said it saw a copy of an email form Martin.
..... Last June, [2024] then-Attorney General Merrick Garland said no January 6 [2021] defendant faced only the obstruction charge.
..... On his first day back in office, Trump pardoned roughly 1,500 defendants who faced charges related to January 6. [2021]
..... Contributing: Reuters; Josh Meyer, Erin Mansfied, Riley Beggin and Aysha Bagchi, USA Today.