WASHINGTON — A federal district judge on Tuesday granted an administrative stay in a case challenging the Trump administration’s planned freeze of federal aid, pausing the plan for a week and setting a hearing for further arguments next Monday morning.
The order only applies to the pause of disbursements in open grants, Judge Loren AliKhan said. And it doesn’t get into the legality of the freeze, instead just giving the court more time for briefings.
The freeze was scheduled to begin Tuesday at 5 p.m.
The planned freeze is part of a sweeping effort by President Donald Trump and his advisers to eliminate government spending that’s not in line with his agenda. The move was announced in a Monday night memo from the acting director of the Office of Management and Budget, which said that agencies had to “temporarily pause all activities related to obligation or disbursement of all Federal financial assistance, and other relevant agency activities that may be implicated by the executive orders, including, but not limited to, financial assistance for foreign aid, nongovernmental organizations, DEI, woke gender ideology, and the green new deal.”
The freeze immediately sparked confusion about exactly what types of federal spending would be affected. And Tuesday’s court order was just the first step in what’s expected to be a major legal battle over the issue that could quickly end up before the Supreme Court.
Shannon Pettypiece and Lawrence Hurley contributed.
