2 Lawsuits Seek To Halt Trump's Federal Funding Freeze

[Amaryllis]

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/donald-trump-inauguration-live-updates_n_678a8f36e4b097ab56976f5b

A coalition of 23 states led by California Attorney General Rob Bonta and New York Attorney General Letitia James filed a lawsuit Tuesday in an attempt to stop Trump’s federal funding freeze from taking effect at 5 p.m. ET.

A similar lawsuit was also filed by a collection of advocacy groups: the National Council of Nonprofits, the American Public Health Association, the Main Street Alliance and SAGE, which serves LGBTQ seniors.

Both suits requested a temporary restraining order against the Office of Management and Budget after its acting director, Matthew Vaeth, issued a memo on Monday titled “Temporary Pause of Agency Grant, Loan, and Other Financial Assistance Programs.”

The pause has already sparked mass confusion over what programs and institutions will be affected, with little answer so far from the White House.

“The Trump Administration is recklessly disregarding the health, well-being and public safety of the people it is supposed to serve,” Bonta said in a statement. He noted the freeze could hit California particularly hard as the state reels from a series of wildfires requiring assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Both suits call the action “arbitrary and capricious,” a legal standard of review that courts use in determining whether a federal agency has violated the Administrative Procedure Act, which gives the courts say over agency actions.