Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), the chair of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, called a new memo from the White House budget office freezing the disbursement of federal loans and grants “far too sweeping” and warned it would have a substantial impact on the delivery of federal services.
“I think there is benefit in taking a look at federal spending,” Collins told reporters. “But this is far too sweeping and will have an adverse effect on the delivery of services and programs.”
“I do appreciate that the administration did not apply it to Social Security, Medicare direct benefit programs, but nevertheless it does have a large impact on the provision of a lot of services and programs,” she said.
Collins made her comments moments after Senate Democrats warned the latest directive from President Trump’s Office of Management and Budget would plunge the nation into “chaos.”
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) warned at a press conference Tuesday morning that Trump’s action would put “a halt to virtually all federal funds across the country.”
“In an instant, Donald Trump has shut off billions, perhaps trillions of dollars that directly support states, cities, towns, schools, hospitals, small businesses and most of all American families,” he said.
Schumer said New York State Attorney General Letitia James (D) would lead a lawsuit to be filed in the Southern District of New York to challenge Trump’s order. The suit will be joined state attorneys general from California, Illinois, New Jersey and Rhode Island.
“Just like the Jan. 6 pardons, this decision is lawless, dangerous, destructive, cruel. It’s illegal, unconstitutional. I spoke to my attorney general this morning; she’s head of the state attorneys general association. They’re going to court right away on this horror,” he said.
A senior Trump administration official disputed Democrats’ characterization of the White House budget memo as an across-the-board freeze on federal spending.
The official described it as guidance for agencies to review whether grants, loans and other programs are in compliance with Trump’s executive orders and emphasized that the action does not impact individual payments or assistance.
Senior Democratic lawmakers, however, disputed that attempt to downplay the impact of the budget memo.
“That’s nice from somebody up at the top, but I’ll tell you what’s happening. Every single agency, school, health care agency that got that memo is going to say, ‘I better be darn careful not to accidentally fund something that I’m not supposed to, so I’m going to stop everything,’” said Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), the ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Committee.
