Judge Suspends Trump Plan To Freeze Health And Education Subsidies

 A US federal judge on Tuesday ordered an indefinite stay of Trump administration orders to freeze federal funding and subsidies for health and education programs in the United States.

Loren Alikhan, a District of Columbia judge who had already temporarily frozen the measure, accepted the lawsuit filed by the National Council of Nonprofits, the largest network of NGOs in the United States, asking for a preliminary prohibition on the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) from implementing government directives.

The Jan. 27 document required federal agencies to review all financial assistance programs and suspend distribution of funds while the review takes place.

The project is part of Trump's aggressive initiative to overhaul the functioning of the US public administration.

The administration justifies the measure by arguing that it is necessary to ensure that all funds comply with recent executive orders signed by the president, which include restrictions on the rights of trans people and cuts to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs.

The executive order sought to delay the disbursement of billions of dollars for various programs, including student loans, and was expected to have significant impacts on health research, food assistance, organizations that support veterans and people with disabilities, as well as the delivery of aid to alleviate the effects of the recent wildfires in California.

The judge also ordered OMB to provide written notice of today's order to all agencies to which the memo was sent and urged those agencies to continue disbursing funds to the programs that were frozen.

Finally, the preliminary decision requires the parties involved to meet and submit a joint report by March 1 proposing the next steps in this procedure.

In his brief, Alikhan said the plaintiffs presented evidence that clearly shows that freezing funding "would be economically catastrophic."

The "'national panic' and widespread chaos" caused by the plan to freeze funding and subsidies motivated its decision in favor of the "public interest", he concluded.