Senate Democrats vowed to fight a White House freeze on federal financial assistance, calling for a delay in the confirmation of President Donald Trump’s nominee for White House budget chief, threatening potential court actions and warning Republicans about potential impacts on their own states.
The Office of Management and Budget on Monday night issued a halt on “all federal financial assistance,” effective 5 p.m. Tuesday, that could be targeted under executive orders he’s already signed pausing funding for foreign aid, diversity programs and energy projects.
“It’s a dagger at the heart of the average American family in red states and blue states, in cities, in suburbs, in rural areas,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.). “It is just outrageous.”
Democrats said the sweeping funding freeze is unlawful under the Impoundment Control Act of 1974, a law that Trump and his allies in turn call unconstitutional.
“We have a constitutional crisis,” said Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), the top Democrat on the Senate Budget Committee, which is scheduled to vote Thursday on Russ Vought, Trump’s White House budget chief and an architect of the spending freeze.
“Congress holds the power of the purse,” added Senate Appropriations Vice Chair Patty Murray (D-Wash.). “That is very clear in the Constitution.”
Republican leaders are so far defending the move.
“I think that’s a normal practice at the beginning of administration, until they have an opportunity to review how the money is being spent,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters Tuesday morning.
“We’ll see kind of what the extent of it is, and … what they intend to do in a more fulsome way. But for now, I think it’s just, it’s just kind of a preliminary step that I think most administrations take,” Thune continued.
But Democrats are preparing for action. Schumer said that he has already been in touch with New York Attorney General Letitia James. She plans to go to court, he said, “right away on this horror.”
While states are expected to take the lead with lawsuits, organizations representing people impacted by the funding freezes could also have legal standing to sue.
In addition to throwing U.S. agencies, states and localities into confusion over the fate of their federal funding, this move could jeopardize congressional efforts to keep the federal government funded past a March 14 shutdown deadline.
Murray warned that the White House’s move amounted to “massive, massive overreach” that could imperil the traditional bipartisan negotiations over federal funding.
“Can you imagine what it’s going to be like … if those agreements mean nothing? That somebody can sit back and say, ‘Sure, I’ll give you that,’ knowing full well that their president’s in power and they will keep the funding out?” Murray said Tuesday. “We cannot function as a democracy in this country if we cannot respect and abide by our ability to make agreements in Congress.”
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