“We cannot stand idly by while this President continues to launch unprecedented, unlawful attacks on Massachusetts’ residents, institutions, and economy,” Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell said.
Attorneys general from 20 states and the District of Columbia have filed a federal lawsuit challenging the billions of dollars in funding cuts ordered by the Trump administration.
According to The Associated Press, the lawsuit was filed earlier this week in the Boston-based U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts. In court filings, the attorneys general ask the court to prevent the Trump administration’s weaponization of an obscure regulatory clause that lets it cut grants that don’t align with its political priorities.
The lawsuit notes that, in some cases, the administration has used its discretionary powers to cancel entire programs and thousands of grants, many of which had already been awarded to states and institutions.
“Defendants’ decision to invoke the Clause to terminate grants based on changed agency priorities is unlawful several times over,” the lawsuit alleges. “The rulemaking history of the Clause makes plain that [the federal Office of Management and Budget] intended for the Clause to permit terminations in only limited circumstances and provides no support for a broad power to eliminate grants on a whim based on newly identified agency priorities.”
The attorneys general say that Trump’s use of thins provision has led to a “slash-and-burn campaign” against federal grants.
“Defendants have terminated thousands of grants awarded to Plaintiffs, pulling the rug out from the States, and taking away critical federal funding on which States and their residents rely for essential services,” the complaint states.
In a statement, Rhode Island Attorney General Peter F. Neronha said that the lawsuit is one of several claims that the coalition has filed over funding cuts. Most of these lawsuits have succeeded in securing court orders against the Trump administration.
“It’s no secret that this President has gone to great lengths to intercept federal funding to the states, but what may be lesser known is how the Trump Administration is attempting to justify their unlawful actions,” Neronha said in a press release. “Nearly every lawsuit this coalition of Democratic attorneys general has filed against the Administration is related to its unlawful and flagrant attempts to rob Americans of basic programs and services upon which they rely. Most often, this comes in the form of illegal federal funding cuts, which the Administration attempts to justify via a so-called ‘agency priorities clause.”
Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell noted that the funding cuts have real effects, citing the example of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s decision to terminate an $11 million agreement with her state’s Department of Agricultural Resources, making it more difficult for farmers to connect with food distributors.
Similarly, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency slashed a separate $1 million grant to reduce asthma triggers in low-income communities.
“We cannot stand idly by while this President continues to launch unprecedented, unlawful attacks on Massachusetts’ residents, institutions, and economy,” Campbell said.
The lawsuit alleges that the Office of Management and Budget has repeatedly cited the same clause to justify cuts. The clause, adds The Associated Press, simply states that federal agents may terminate grants if a grant “no longer effectuates the program goals or agency priorities.”
“The Trump administration has claimed that five words in this Clause—‘no longer effectuates…agency priorities’—provide federal agencies with virtually unfettered authority to withhold federal funding any time they no longer wish to support the programs for which Congress has appropriated funding,” the lawsuit states.
Sources
Lawsuit challenges billions of dollars in Trump administration funding cuts
Maryland joins more legal actions against Trump, including a challenge to billions in grant cuts
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