Some forms of federal aid spending still appear to be frozen, a federal judge in Washington said Monday, despite a court order blocking the Trump administration’s funding pause and the Office of Management and Budget’s move last week to rescind its own memo announcing the policy.
President Donald Trump ordered a freeze on domestic and foreign federal aid last week in an effort to halt funding for causes that don’t fit with his agenda. But facing court challenges, the acting director of the Office of Management and Budget walked it back a day later.
Still, cases challenging the initial order are working their way through the court system.
U.S. District Judge Loren AliKhan said during a hearing Monday that she is inclined to grant a request from a coalition of nonprofit groups for a temporary restraining order requiring the government to release federal funds that have been frozen since last week.
AliKhan also said that she was leaning against granting a motion from the Justice Department to dismiss the lawsuit brought by the nonprofits as moot, due to the rescission of the OMB memo.
“We have individuals who are still having issues accessing funding platforms,” AliKhan said. “That indicates to me the memo is still doing some work,” she added.
Lawyers for the nonprofits submitted a collection of declarations from various small organizations testifying to their inability to access funds. As of Friday, three days after AliKhan initially blocked the funding freeze, rural health centers, scientific research labs, childcare facilities and other organizations still had not received their expected funds, according to the declarations.
The board president of a West Virginia nonprofit that helps people with disabilities remain in their homes said in a declaration filed Sunday that they have been waiting for federal funds to be deposited into the organization’s account since Jan. 29 but had not yet received the funds as of Sunday night.
“I am desperate to bring attention to our situation,” the board president wrote in the declaration. “I cannot believe anyone would NOT want to help an 86-year-old woman get to her dialysis sessions, or a family with Autism and Intellectual Disability get help to live on their own instead of being committed to an institution.”
