Biden nominated judge blocks Trump’s $10B welfare fund freeze
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A federal judge on Friday blocked the Trump administration from freezing $10 billion in welfare funds earmarked for five blue states.
In response to a request from the states for an emergency injunction, U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian ordered that the money from three programs — Child Care Development Fund, Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, and Social Services Block Grants — must continue to flow to the states. His decision, which expires in two weeks, was meant to give the two sides time to submit more extensive legal arguments on whether the cuts should be allowed or the ban kept in place, the judge wrote.
Earlier in the week, California, Colorado, Illinois, New York and Minnesota received letters from the federal Department of Health and Human Services notifying them of the cuts. California is in line to receive about half of the $10 billion in targeted funding.
The attempt to withhold the funds was in response to what the Trump Administration has alleged without evidence is widespread fraud and waste in the states’ welfare programs. Along with the cuts, administration officials are also requesting reams of information about how states administer the programs in an effort to bolster the claims of malfeasance and ineptitude.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta and the attorneys general from the other states filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration late Thursday night and sought the emergency order to preserve the funding as the case got underway.
The states argued that the administration was overstepping its power by trying to claw back funds Congress had already appropriated. It is an argument similar to others that have been successful in reversing Trump’s proposed cuts to food aid, research grants, school funding and other programs.
In California alone, officials say the state has won back around $168 billion in federal funds the administration tried to cut off.
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Source: Judge blocks Trump’s $10B welfare fund freeze
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