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By Sophie Clark
Live News Reporter
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President Trump and his administration are being sued by 22 states and the District of Columbia, which say his attempt to freeze the federal budget is unconstitutional.
The order states that the government "must temporarily pause all activities related to obligation or disbursement of all federal financial assistance, and other relevant agency activities that may be implicated by [recent executive orders] … including, but not limited to, financial assistance for foreign aid, nongovernmental organizations, DEI, woke gender ideology and the green new deal."
The "green new deal" is not an official government policy but a framework for the government to view climate spending. The federal government also does not fund "gender ideology". However, Trump's executive order on transgender people has removed a number of books on supporting and accepting LGBTQ+ people, including children, from federal offices and agencies.
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This announcement was issued by the President's Office of Management and Budget (OMB), which is set to be run by Project 2025 author Russell Vought.
The spending freeze has been temporarily halted by a federal judge until Monday as it faces legal action, not just from almost half of U.S. states, but also from public health groups and nonprofits.
The Trump administration said Social Security and Medicare will not be affected by the freeze. However, people across all 50 states reported yesterday that they were not able to access the Medicaid reimbursement portal. The Trump administration said this was due to an "outage."
The White House has been contacted via email for comment.
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Why It Matters
Trump won the election in part due to people's concerns about the economy. However, his actions to freeze the budget threaten the paychecks of thousands of government employees and contractors, public school funds and Medicaid reimbursements to hospitals, doctors and nurses providing care.
Josh Bivens, chief economist and research director at the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), told Newsweek in a previous article that these actions could trigger a "steep recession."
The president also lacks the Constitutional power to control the federal budget. That power belongs to Congress.
Opponents such as Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy have warned that, alongside his executive order spree, this move represents another attempt from Trump to seize sole control of the federal government.
A federal spending freeze could also trigger a government shutdown, which would further threaten the military's capabilities, law enforcement spending and the functioning of other services such as national parks, research institutions and regulatory agencies.
Illinois
Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul said: "January 20 was an inauguration—not a coronation."
He added: "This freeze will have a devastating impact on the funding for our state's most vulnerable residents. It also makes our residents, including our children, less safe. My office's Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force has arrested more than 2,300 sexual predators since 2006. Our children and our state cannot afford for us to not fight this unlawful policy."
Illinois Governor JB Pritzker said on X, formerly Twitter: "Let me say this in no uncertain terms: the President's actions today are illegal. Cutting off people from healthcare, childcare, and other services is cruel. The State of Illinois will fight this unlawful order with everything we have."
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New Jersey
New Jersey joined the other states suing the Trump administration on January 28, stating that the freeze threatens children's health services, law enforcement capabilities, disaster relief funding and many other critical areas for government spending. It also said the move is unconstitutional.
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy said: "All of us deserve better—from the police that would be defunded to the families who rely on aid to pay their bills. I stand with [New Jersey] Attorney General [Matt] Platkin and his fellow state attorneys general who are swiftly taking legal action to protect our residents and ensure funding and services aren't disrupted."
New Jersey Attorney General Platkin said: "This may be a game to President Trump and his administration, but to New Jersey and states across the country, last night's actions are causing serious, immediate harm. We won't just stand by as the Trump administration rips away access to health care, food, law enforcement funding and so much more that hurts our residents most in need."
New York
New York Attorney General Letitia James said: "Immediately blocking the majority of federal funds to states is unconstitutional and dangerous." She said the OMB policy violates the Constitution as well as the Administrative Procedure Act as it has no regard for the laws and regulations that apply to each separate source of federal funding.
She added that this policy has "unleashed mayhem" on families who rely on the government for their next meal.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul said: "The Trump administration wants to defund homeland security, health care and even our roads and bridges. New York won't let them do it without a fight."
California
California Attorney General Rob Bonta said the group of attorneys general suing the administration are asking for a temporary restraining order to block the OMB policy from going into effect as it will immediately harm their states by removing billions in essential funding.
Bonta said: "The Trump administration is recklessly disregarding the health, wellbeing and public safety of the people it is supposed to serve … I will not stand by while the president attempts to disrupt vital programs that feed our kids, provide medical care to our families, and support housing and education in our communities."
18 More States and D.C.
The 18 other states plus D.C. filing this suit are:
- Arizona
- Colorado
- Connecticut
- Delaware
- Hawaii
- Maine
- Maryland
- Massachusetts
- Michigan
- Minnesota
- Nevada
- New Mexico
- North Carolina
- Oregon
- Rhode Island
- Vermont
- Washington
- Wisconsin
- District of Columbia
What Happens Next
The OMB proposal is frozen until Monday but has already created immense confusion among government workers and Medicaid recipients over whether they will be paid for work or reimbursed by the government for medical care.
The state attorneys general are suing each individual Trump-appointed head of the federal agencies who would implement these spending freezes in their official capacities, and have asked the courts to halt this motion until the power to control the federal budget is returned to Congress.
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