Federal judge says Trump administration ignoring his order to pause funding freeze – PBS NewsHour
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A federal judge said that President Trump has violated his order to lift a blanket freeze on federal spending and again directed the administration to release the funds. That comes as top prosecutors in nearly half the country sued the administration for withholding medical research funding. White House correspondent Laura Barrón-López reports.
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Geoff Bennett:
Today, a federal judge said that President Donald Trump violated his order that lifted a blanket freeze on federal spending and again directed the administration to release the funds.
Amna Nawaz:
That as top prosecutors in nearly half the country just won a temporary legal victory, restoring medical research funding stripped late last week.
White House correspondent Laura Barron-Lopez joins us now for more.
So, Laura, with three weeks into the Trump administration, you’re seeing a growing number of federal judges describe the president’s actions as overreach. What more did federal judges say about Mr. Trump’s attempts to free some of those federal funds.
Laura Barron-Lopez:
So, on that sweeping freeze of federal funding, District Judge John McConnell said in a ruling today that the Trump administration’s continued freeze of those funds — quote — “violate the plain text of an order” that he previously issued saying that they needed to stop and that they needed to release all of those funds.
And Judge McConnell called Trump’s actions — quote — “likely unconstitutional” and said that the freeze continues to — quote — “cause irreparable harm” to much of the country. Now, he didn’t hold any government officials in contempt, criminal contempt, but hinted that he might in the future if they violate this order.
And he specifically ordered the administration to stop freezing money for the infrastructure law, for the Inflation Reduction Act — those are Biden era laws — as well as said that he needed — that the administration needed to release funding for the National Institutes of Health.
So the big question here, Amna, is, does the Trump administration comply with this judge’s order? I asked the White House. They didn’t answer that question. And there’s some suggestions from people like Vice President Vance as well as Elon Musk that they think that the administration should defy the court orders.
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