A federal judge issued a stay on a Trump administration order that would have frozen the issuance of existing federal grants and loans until agencies vetted them. The order was set to take effect at 5 p.m. ET and would have potentially frozen trillions of dollars in funding. The judge, Loren AliKhan, issued her stay just minutes before the order was to take effect.
The order, part of an effort by President Donald Trump to cut spending and purge “woke ideology” from government programs, had been met with widespread confusion and criticism. The administration’s actions may have been intended to block funding for certain programs that do not align with Trump’s policies, including foreign aid, assistance to nongovernmental organizations, and gender and environmental initiatives.
A group of 22 states and the District of Columbia has sued the Trump administration in Rhode Island federal court, challenging the order’s legality. Nonprofit groups and a small business organization also sued the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in federal court in Washington, seeking to block the order from taking effect.
The judge set a hearing for Monday morning to discuss a temporary restraining order, which would pause the order’s implementation. The order only affects existing grants and loans, not new funding requests, and would cause harm to at least some of the grant programs operated by the plaintiffs, according to their lawyer, Jessica Morton. The judge’s stay has been extended until next week.