Attorney General James Leads Coalition in Filing Motions to Stop Trump Administration’s Reckless and Illegal Funding Freeze

NEW YORK – New York Attorney General Letitia James today led a coalition of 22 other attorneys general in filing motions for enforcement and a preliminary injunction in their ongoing lawsuit against President Trump over his administration’s reckless and illegal funding freeze. The freeze, issued by the President’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB), would put an indefinite pause on the majority of federal funding and financial assistance, jeopardizing vital programs that support families, promote public safety, and provide essential services to communities nationwide. 

Attorney General James and the coalition sued the administration over the freeze on January 28, and on January 31, the court granted the attorneys general’s request for a temporary restraining order (TRO) blocking the freeze’s implementation until further order from the court. Despite the TRO, Attorney General James and the coalition argue that the administration has continued to withhold essential funding, and that states, grantees, and programs are continuing to experience a significant lack of access to funds, putting lives and jobs at risk. In fact, the Trump administration has argued that certain massive areas of funding, including billions of dollars appropriated from Congress in the bipartisan Infrastructure Improvement and Jobs Act (IIJA) and Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), can and should remain frozen. In the motions filed today, Attorney General James and the coalition are asking the court to urgently enforce the TRO by ordering the administration to unfreeze funds and issue a preliminary injunction formally blocking the administration’s funding freeze while the lawsuit proceeds. The filings today make clear that the TRO applies to any funding portions of Executive Orders issued by the Trump administration, including those related to gender affirming care. Additionally, the filings seek to stay cuts to USAID.

“Last week’s illegal freeze of essential federal funding has wreaked havoc and harm in New York and across the country,” said Attorney General James. “Due to the administration’s reckless action, programs providing childcare and health care services, necessary research, and life-saving public safety support have experienced real challenges. Today, we are taking action to stop the chaos and confusion and ensure this vital funding remains available while our lawsuit continues.”

The directive, as initially articulated by OMB on January 27, would put an indefinite pause on vast amounts of federal financial assistance, cutting off funds for health care, education, law enforcement, disaster relief, infrastructure, and more. While the administration claimed to rescind the memorandum two days after announcing the policy, the court found that the supposed recission was “in name only,” and that the administration was continuing to withhold essential funding that did not serve the President’s chaotic and discriminatory executive orders. 

Throughout New York, Medicaid funds were frozen and Head Start programs were unable to access their funding, causing some childcare centers to consider closure. In Syracuse, a community health center serving low-income communities announced plans to borrow funding to meet payroll and warned it could close within weeks. In New York City, patients receiving gender-affirming care at NYU Langone had their appointments and treatment cancelled. Billions of dollars in federal funding currently supporting critical infrastructure projects in New York, including improvements to roads and bridges and a new rail tunnel under the Hudson River, were put at risk. In New York City, nonprofit groups that support children were battling uncertainty over whether they would remain able to pay their staffs. The chaos and confusion continue.

Through their lawsuit and with these motions, Attorney General James and the coalition seek to stop the illegal freeze and preserve federal funding that families, communities, and states rely on. The attorneys general assert that the administration’s funding freeze has and would continue to cause significant harm to essential programs impacting communities across the country, including:

• Childcare:  Head Start, which provides free, high-quality, year-round childcare, and early childhood education, relies on federal funding. As of this week, many Head Start providers were still having difficulties accessing federal funds, and reported that they were considering layoffs, reducing services, or even closing due to lack of funding.
• Education:  Schools, especially those with a high percentage of low-income students, rely heavily on federal funding to provide necessary services to their students, including tutoring, after-school programs, and disability services. A freeze in funding for these essential services would irreparably disrupt students’ learning. Many university systems also rely on federal funding to provide financial aid to students and support groundbreaking research, including projects backed by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) that are a strategic investment in global health, economic stability, and sustainability.
• Public Safety: Local law enforcement agencies and public safety programs across the country are supported by federal grant programs, and this funding is essential for administering community violence and crisis intervention programs. Without this funding, states would not be able to adequately combat gun violence, get drugs off the streets, or respond to emergencies and disasters.
• Health Care: Without federal funding supporting programs like Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), health care institutions would not be able to provide life-saving care and Americans would be forced to suffer increased medical debt and even personal bankruptcy. Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) provide necessary health care, testing, and vaccines to patients who likely would not receive any care without access to a FQHC. Providers have started turning away patients who were receiving gender-affirming care because of the threat of potentially losing more funding.
• Energy and Environment: As a result of the freeze, critical pollution and contamination remediation projects – and the associated jobs created – established by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act were unable to access funding, and valuable research programs have been halted. 

This lawsuit is led by Attorney General James and the attorneys general of California, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Rhode Island. Joining the lawsuit are the attorneys general of Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia.