Attorney General William Tong is joining a lawsuit against multiple federal agencies and senior administrators in the federal government. This lawsuit alleges that President Donald Trump has been misusing a legal provision to justify funding cuts across multiple federal programs.
The provision in question is a regulation in the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) that allows the president to terminate federal funding if it “no longer effectuates… agency priorities,” according to a press release from Tong’s office. The OMB is the first defendant listed in the lawsuit.
“There is no ‘because I don’t like you’ or ‘because I don’t feel like it anymore’ defunding clause in federal law that allows the President to bypass Congress on a whim,” Tong said in the press release. “Since his first minutes in office, Trump has unilaterally defunded our police, our schools, our healthcare, and more. He can’t do that, and that’s why over and over again we have blocked him in court and won back our funding. We’re taking aim today to stop his repeated illegal misuse of an OMB regulation to punish states and hurt American families.”
Tong is one of 21 attorney generals who are a part of this lawsuit. The suit was filed in the District of Massachusetts on June 24.
The attorney generals are making two primary arguments in the lawsuit. The first is that the Trump Administration has “unlawfully” terminated grants that were given out by the federal government, with little to no notice. The second is that federal agencies have also slashed their own funding and funding to certain agencies and foundations without legal authorization.
In addition to the OMB, the attorney generals are suing the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Homeland Security, Justice, Labor and State, as well as the Environmental Protection Agency, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the National Science Foundation.
“Since Trump took office, federal agencies have shifted course and claimed unfettered authority to terminate grants on a whim and with no advance notice,” the press release states. “In February, Trump issued an executive order formally directing agencies—and the DOGE employees assigned to these agencies—to terminate grants en masse. And federal agencies have carried out that directive by invoking the regulation as grounds for terminating entire programs based on a purported shift in agency priorities, without any notice to the states and in conflict with the federal statutes appropriating funding for these programs.”
The attorney generals are also asking for “a declaration as to the legal meaning of the Clause” and clarity on how it can be used going forward.
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If it was idea of our President Trump the Democrats would oppose it.When will this Blue state of Connecticut wake up!