President Trump has held office for just over a week now and has managed to stir up numerous controversies through implementing executive orders and presidential memoranda. Just this Monday, Janurary 27, President Trump orchestrated a memo that was sent out from the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) which meant to halt all federal grants and loans starting at 5:00pm EST on Tuesday, January 28. For the couple hours the memo was in effect, countless institutions that rely heavily on federal funding, such as schools and non-profit organizations, faced widespread confusion and distress, as trillions of dollars of federal funding are put into these institutions. Many also wondered if this memo would affect programs that provide direct assistance to Americans, such as Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and student loans, however it was later confirmed by Trump administration officials that these programs would not be affected.
Now you may be wondering the reasoning behind President Trump's order to freeze federal grants. The answer is no surprise; Trump administration officials said that pausing federal loans and grants was necessary to ensure that the institutions benefitting from funding aligned with President Trump's recent outpouring of executive orders. As stated by Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, the memo was meant to strip funding from programs that promote "transgenderism and wokeness," basically cutting off funds to programs tied to diversity, climate action, or LGBTQ+ rights.
In alignment with all the distate for the memo, several non-profits filed suit in federal court less than 24 hours after the administration's pause in funding was announced. The lawsuits stated that the memo had failed to explain the source or legal reasoning behind the OMB's right to gut every program in the federal government. And the plaintiffs (the National Council of Nonprofits and the American Public Health Association being among them) were completely correct. Legal expert and defense attorney Shan Wu argued that the memo clearly violated the Impoundment Control Act, which limits the president's ability to withhold congressionally approved funds: an example of separation of powers as it is ensured that the President cannot override the legislative branch's power of the purse without oversight. Wu also claimed that the executive branch didn't set forth valid reasons for the order, as recited in the lawsuit.
As learned recently in class, the President's power is limited by the judicial branch, which has the authority to ensure that executive actions do not exceed constitutional or legal boundaries. In this specific case, the judicial branch played a crucial role in reviewing the legality of President Trump's memo once several lawsuits were filed. In response to the plaintiff's complaints that the memo violated the Impoundment Control Act as well as the fact that it would inflict harm upon programs that many disadvantaged Americans rely on, Judge Loren AliKhan issued a temporary injunction, halting the enforcement of the memo until the court reviewed the legal challenges. This intervention by the judicial branch ensured that President Trump's actions did not infringe on the legislative branch's right to control federal spending. The memo was eventually blocked and rescinded on Tuesday, January 28, the same day it had been put into effect. However, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has claimed that efforts to "end the egregious waste of federal funding" will continue.
Sources:
https://www.npr.org/2025/01/29/g-s1-45313/trump-federal-funding-freeze-reversed
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0rv3HnUXv8&list=RDNSW0rv3HnUXv8&start_radio=1
1 comment:
I agree that this is definitely one of Trump's more reckless decisions since coming into office that would have had an overwhelmingly detrimental effect on the country (as most people should recogninze and be aware of). I also wonder how this move will impact public perception of Trump. It is a promising sign that the existing legal and legislative restraints on executive power seem to be working, and Trump is not able to immediately wreck havoc on public services and welfare. However, the mere fact that he has signed several orders, such as the one you discuss freezing federal grants, which blatantly disregard legal standards is very concerning to me. If he's willing to go this far within the first week of power, it is very possible he'll manage to chip away at the country's legal institutions throughout his four year term. Considering Trump is an expert at making the absurd look normal by modifying his own extreme tactics to be only slightly less extreme seems to turn this memo into a bad omen for what is to come.
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