By LINDSAY WHITEHURST
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge found Monday that the Trump administration hasn’t fully followed his order to unfreeze federal spending and told the White House to release billions of dollars in funding. The Trump administration quickly appealed the ruling.
U.S. District Court Judge John McConnell became the first judge to find that the administration had disobeyed a court order. Federal money for things like early childhood education, pollution reduction and HIV prevention research has remained tied up even after his Jan. 31 order blocking a planned halt on federal spending, he found.
McConnell ordered the Trump administration to “immediately take every step necessary” to follow his temporary restraining order halting plans for a sweeping freeze of federal funding.
McConnell’s temporary restraining order issued Monday also blocks the administration from cutting billions of dollars in grant funding from the National Institutes of Health.
“These pauses in funding violate the plain text of the (temporary restraining order),” McConnell wrote. “The broad categorical and sweeping freeze of federal funds is, as the Court found, likely unconstitutional and has caused and continues to cause irreparable harm to a vast portion of this country.”
The ruling comes after top Trump administration officials over the weekend openly questioned the judiciary’s authority to serve as a check on executive power as his wide-ranging agenda draws pushback from the courts.
Judges have also blocked, at least temporarily, Trump’s push end birthright citizenship for anyone born in the U.S., access to Treasury Department records by billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency and a mass deferred resignation plan for federal workers.
The White House did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment. The Justice Department appealed the ruling to the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals.
The administration has said it was making good-faith efforts to comply with the judge’s ruling in a lawsuit filed by nearly two dozen states. But the Justice Department also argued that his ruling only applied to a sweeping spending freeze outlined in a late January memo that has since been rescinded.
The ruling doesn’t apply to other spending pauses outlined in different memos, including funds that were part of President Joe Biden’s signature climate, health care and tax package.
But McConnell, who is based in Rhode Island and was nominated by President Barack Obama, said his order blocked the administration from a wide range of funding cuts.
The Republican administration previously said the sweeping funding pause would bring federal spending in line with the president’s agenda, and the White House press secretary has indicated some spending halts would continue as part of his blitz of executive orders.
Trump has sought to increase fossil fuel production, remove protections for transgender people and end diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.
A different federal judge in Washington has issued a temporary restraining order against the funding freeze plan and since expressed concern that some nonprofit groups weren’t getting their funding.
Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha applauded McConnell’s ruling.
“This is a country of laws. We expect the administration to follow the law,” Neronha said in a statement. “We will not hesitate to go back to court if they don’t comply.”
In Oregon, a group that provides services and support to immigrants working to become U.S. citizens received a letter immediately freezing their funding on Feb. 4, Frank Jay So, executive director of the Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon, told The Associated Press.
As of Monday, the group has not received any notice that would indicate the funds are now available, he said.
“It’s sooooo frustrating!” he said. “We have a workshop planned for next month and will do so without federal funds if needed but at some point, our savings will dry up and so will this work.”
The group has received funding since 2010 and has helped more than 4,000 immigrants from 80 countries become citizens. This work, So said, benefits citizens who depend on the migrant workforce as well as immigrants. “Haphazard actions like this only cause harm.”
Associated Press writers Chris Megerian in Washington and Martha Bellisle in Seattle contributed reporting.
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