Fact check: What can be Trump’s federal funding freeze stop? , Donald Trump News
School food for low -income students. Cancer treatment test. Housing aid for veterans.
These are one of the federal programs that may be on-or not on-or-chopping blocks after the White House released, but unclear, late January 27 late night memo. Ordered
Sudden freeze inspired widespread confusion among United States government officials, Congress members, state agencies and non -profit organizations, which rely on federal funding to maintain operations.
“We are making nervous calls,” the Senate Minority leader Chak Shumar said during a news conference on 28 January. “In fact, any organization, school, state, police, office, county, city or community depends on federal grant money to run their day-to-day operations, and they are now in danger.”
Legal observers saw funding as the inaugural volley in a legal battle, focusing on a concept, called “Improvement”, a Shakti Chairman Donald Trump believes that he can get out but of critics The argument is that it is not lawful. At its root, an impoundment is denying an executive to deny an executive.
“This is an attempt by Donald Trump to confiscate power,” said the Democratic Senator for Connectic Chris Murphy, who attended Shumar at the news conference. He called it “illegal and unconstitutional decisions to keep the President of the United States to keep the President of the United States” and no one called the in -charge of this in -charge who receives federal money and who does not do “.
In the moments before going to a stay on January 28 at 5 pm, US District Judge Lauren L Alikhan temporarily blocked the action, stopping till 3 February. The deadline will be stopped after the passage has passed.
In his first daily briefing, the press secretary of the White House Karolin Levit portrayed the freeze as a “blanket break” and said that the aid that directly goes to the people, such as social security, medicare, food stamps and welfare benefits, Will not happen. Affected
However, Levit did not answer questions about whether American can rely on receiving federal funds that pass through an intermediary, such as a non -profit group or a state or city.
Here we know about funding freeze and its validity.
What does the memo say
The 27 January MEMs direct the federal agencies to “stop all the activities related to all federal financial assistance or harassment, temporarily stop”, as long as the authorities ensure that the programs are corresponding to Trump’s policies.
The memo singles programs related to foreign aid, diversity, equity and inclusion, pending the funding related to the “Vok” gender ideology and “Green New Deal”. (“Green New Deal” was a policy blueprint focusing on the environment that was supported by some Democrats in 2019, but was never enacted. Trump used the word in the past a catal Have done it.)
Memo says the stagnation will give time to the Trump administration to review the programs and determine the “best use” of funding. It gives agencies to submit detailed information on any program, projects or activities by 10 February.
What is impoundment?
Impoundment is a legal term that refers to the President’s effort to spend or delayed the fundamental funds by the Congress.
Legal observers say that Trump is carrying forward the envelope that they have the right to unilaterally act against the laws passed by the Congress and signed in the law.
As a 2024 presidential candidate, Trump said, “I will use the President’s long -recognized impoundment power to squeeze the bloated federal bureaucracy for large -scale savings.” It is included in the list of 75 seconds-Term Trump’s promises that we are tracking in our Maga meter.
Russell Watt, Trump Nominee waited for confirmation as the head of the management and the office of the budget, repeated a detailed approach about the President’s impulse powers in his hearing on his 15 January Senate.
The Impoundment Authority has a long history, which is going back to at least President Thomas Jefferson. The presidents later claimed independent power to invest money, including Harry Truman, John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon.
Some legal experts show that the arguments of these presidents were discontinued by the 1974 Impression Control Act (ICA), which the Congress passed “after the misuse of President Nixon”, which is a Law in the California College of the Professor Zachari Price wrote. The law established a detailed procedure as to what a president could do and what could not do when there was disagreement on what to spend money that was signed in the law.
If the Executive Branch wants to completely cancel the expenses, the law of 1974 says, it should “rescue”, or propose a cut. Law manufacturers can consider those proposed deduction under an early process, but the expenditure cannot be prevented for more than 45 days while this process plays.
Programs that may be affected
It is not clear which federal programs will definitely be affected.
A spokesman for the Education Department in a statement of January 28 clarified that the stagnation would not affect the direct student loan and the PAL grant.
Meanwhile, some non -profit organizations said that some of their funding had already been cut.
Tommy Sheridan, Deputy Director of the National Head Start Association, told NBC News that some of its early childhood education programs were unable to use the already awarded funds as the system appeared offline.
There were reports that the online portal for Medicid, the low -income health insurance scheme funded by both the federal government and the states, was offline on 28 January; Levit called it an outage and said in an X post that the portal would be “back” soon “.
Amidst the uncertainty of which program can be stopped from their funding, because due to the stagnation, the office of the management and the budget sent a separate, 51-pain document on 28 January, which to the agencies in dozens of agencies and organizations Was asking for details of more than 2,500 programs. ,
The document has 14 questions that get information about the disbursement of a program fund. This also includes specific questions for Trump’s agenda, including whether the programs promote gender ideology, provide diversity, equity and inclusion funding, or promote or support abortion.
Is funding break legal?
Steven Smith, a political scientist at Arizona State University, said that Trump’s memorandum failed to follow the process prescribed in the 1974 law.
The Act “does not make any provision for the type of blanket deforms provided in OMB memo,” Smith said. This “provides for a specific objective or deferral for the project,” not the government-wide suspension of the budget authority. There is no example for the width or justification of the OMB memo. Duration. “
Yale Law School Professor Keith E Whitington agreed. He said, “Whether the administration is ready to claim that this stagnation can be justified by some comprehensive President’s unholy power, it will go away from the statutory structure which the Congress has made any expenses to manage any expenses. Was kept, “He said.
Whitington said that the law requires “case-case evaluation to follow the law, and administration cannot only deny the assumption that it eventually capable of coming up with such a statutory authority Maybe, “Whitington said.
The entire scope of the memo for federal programs is ending, it is clear that the Trump administration wants it to bring a legal case to the President’s full measure at the expense.
Whitington said, “The current action seems to be clearly to start a clock tick on such a wider fight.”
What will happen next?
The lawsuits were already filed before the official stagnation began.
The National Council of Non -Profits and the American Public Health Association filed the first lawsuit on January 28, seeking temporary preventive order against the management and budget, as long as the court got an opportunity to maintain the status quo until the court The court does not have the opportunity to fully consider the illegality of OMB ”.
Separately, a collection of lawyers from Democratic -led states including New York, California, Illinois, New Jersey, Road Island and Massachusetts said that they were prepared to sue the administration to block the instructions of the memo and flow the money Was doing. Shumar announced the move on 28 January.
Legal experts say Kendall vs. United States X Rill Stokes and Train V City of New York have been an important example against Trump’s position since 1975. , The American Supreme Court is also ready to exemplifies Trump’s position, when it overturned the Ved Ved when it cried for abortion decisions.
Politifact Copy Chief Matthew Croly contributed to this report.
