WASHINGTON: A US federal judge on Tuesday temporarily blocked the Donald Trump administration’s planned freeze on federal grants, loans and other financial assistance, reported Xinhua.
Judge Loren AliKhan of the US District Court for the District of Columbia paused the plan for a week and scheduled a hearing for further arguments next Monday.
The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) on Monday issued a memo ordering a temporary halt to “all federal financial assistance,” saying that this temporary pause will provide the administration time to review agency programmes and determine the best uses of the funding for those programmes “consistent with the law and the president’s priorities.”
“Federal agencies must temporarily pause all activities related to obligation or disbursement of all Federal financial assistance, and other relevant agency activities that may be implicated by the (president’s) executive orders, including, but not limited to, financial assistance for foreign aid, nongovernmental organisations, DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion), woke gender ideology, and the green new deal,” the memo said.
Earlier on Tuesday, advocacy groups representing non-profits and small businesses filed a case in the federal court, arguing the memo is “devoid of any legal basis or the barest rationale” and “will have a devastating impact on hundreds of thousands of grant recipients.”
The freeze was the latest move in a series of actions taken by the administration since Donald Trump’s return to the White House on Jan. 20.
Trump’s executive order to end birthright citizenship has also faced legal challenges, with over 20 states already filing lawsuits against it. On Thursday, a federal judge in Seattle issued a temporary restraining order, blocking the implementation of the order for two weeks. – BERNAMA-XINHUA
