A U.S. federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to immediately restore federal funding it attempted to freeze, after a legal challenge by 22 states and the District of Columbia.
In a written ruling issued Monday, U.S. District Judge John McConnell Jr. in Rhode Island directed the administration to “immediately take every step necessary” to comply with a temporary restraining order he issued on January 31. The ruling comes after states argued that the White House was not fully adhering to the court’s earlier directive.
The lawsuit centers on a directive from the White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB), which instructed federal agencies to pause funding while it reviewed compliance with new executive orders signed by former President Donald Trump. These executive orders targeted foreign aid, diversity initiatives, and green-energy projects.
Although the OMB rescinded the directive following the lawsuit, states claim that some congressionally approved funds remain improperly withheld. These include $7 billion in grants for solar panels and $5 billion supporting greenhouse-gas reduction measures.
In response, the Justice Department argued in court that the administration had made “good-faith, diligent efforts” to comply with the judge’s order but that some funds remained frozen due to a Trump executive order pausing federal climate spending. However, Judge McConnell rejected this argument, stating that the government had “violated the plain text” of his previous order.
“The Defendants now plea that they are just trying to root out fraud,” McConnell wrote in his ruling. “But the freezes in effect now were a result of the broad categorical order, not a specific finding of possible fraud.”
This ruling is the latest in a series of legal battles over Trump’s sweeping executive actions on government spending.
Separately, another lawsuit was filed Monday by 22 Democratic state attorneys general against the National Institutes of Health (NIH) over a decision to cut billions in research funding to medical centers. The NIH recently imposed a 15% cap on indirect costs for laboratory support services, a move estimated to save $4 billion annually but feared to disrupt vital medical research and clinical trials.
The attorneys general argue that NIH lacks the authority to impose these cuts unilaterally and are seeking a court order to block the decision.
Legal challenges against the Trump administration’s financial directives continue to escalate, highlighting ongoing tensions over budgetary decisions affecting climate initiatives, healthcare research, and federal grants.
Newspot Nigeria will continue to provide updates on this developing story.
Source: MSN
