A federal judge of the Columbia district has temporarily blocked the order of the Donald Trump administration to freeze federal aid to review if they adjust with the president’s “priorities”.
The judge, Loren L. Alikhan, has published the decision minutes before the Order entered into force and in response to the legal appeal presented by Democracy Forward.
The letter argues that the order issued by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) violates the first amendment and a government law on how executive orders should be applied. The judge has suspended the measure until next Monday.
This same Tuesday, the general prosecutors of 22 states have also announced different plans to present legal resources pointing out that the OMB decision is unconstitutional, since it intends to intervene on the powers of the Congress that, according to the Magna Carta, is who has the main authority When deciding how taxpayers’ money is spent.
This is the second judicial setback against Trump, after last week another judge stopped the executive order that revoked the right to citizenship by birth. The judge suspended her for being “flagrantly unconstitutional.”
Ultra agenda
During his return to the White House, the US president has put the dismantling of diversity, equity and inclusion within the federal government that conservatives have criticized for a long time, calling them as discriminatory and ideas as discriminatory and ideas Woke (something like progre).
But the impact goes beyond diversity programs and the break can pause financing for a wide range of policies, ranging from national infrastructure and energy projects to programs related to foreign aid. For example, all those programs linked to the green agenda (also known as IRA) that former president Joe Biden and that Trump has sent dismantle.
“Federal agencies must temporarily suspend all activities related to the obligation or disbursement of all federal financial assistance, and other relevant activities of the agency that may be involved by executive orders, including, but not limited to, financial assistance For foreign aid, non -governmental organizations, Dei, gender ideology Wokeand the new green agreement (The New Green Deal) ”, Specifies Matthew Vaeth, in functions director of the Office of Management and Budget (WBO).
The budget office established on Monday that all government agencies must suspend payments from 5:00 p.m. local time. The Medicare Health Program and Social Security are the only exceptions.
Chaos and confusion
The announcement by the Trump government has unleashed chaos and confusion at all administrative levels, since it could affect millions of dollars in state and local aid, directly affecting thousands of homes.
Many organizations are trying to find out how they will be affected by the measure. For example, the Meals On Wheels organization receives federal financing from the Nutrition programs of the Older America Act. “This presumably would interrupt the service to millions of vulnerable elders who do not have other means to buy or prepare meals.”
There is also doubts about whether this order can really be applied or if at least it can be used at the legal level. The memorandum includes certain vagueness, including that the agencies pause the subsidies “to the extent that applicable legislation allows it.”
What the Management and Budget Office is doing is known as Impoundment (Fund retention) and consists of the refusal of the presidents to spend the money that Congress has assigned. This practice has a long history, but after Richard Nixon took her To the extreme and cancel billions of dollars, the Congress approved the Fund Retention Control Law. The rule establishes that presidents can only use the retention power by submitting applications to Congress on the funds they do not want to spend and then legislators must approve those requests within 45 days; Otherwise, the funds are released.
The document presented by the OMB does not seem to follow the line of what the law establishes, when ordering to start freezing the funds in the next few hours. Once again, Trump seeks to overcome his executive powers to monopolize those of the other branches, in this case the legislative.
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