*** UPDATE 1 *** Looking for more info…

Within minutes of the White House freezing billions in federal grants and loans, a federal judge temporarily blocked the funding pause from taking effect — issuing a "brief administrative stay" — until Monday at 5PM.

— Katherine Faulders (@KFaulders) January 28, 2025

…Adding… The judge’s order is here.

…Adding… AP…

A federal judge has temporarily blocked a Trump administration freeze on federal grants and loans that could total trillions of dollars.

U.S. District Judge Loren L. AliKhan blocked the action Tuesday afternoon, minutes before it was set to go into effect. The administrative stay pauses the freeze until Monday.

The White House had planned to start the pause as they begin an across-the-board ideological review of federal spending.

*** UPDATE 2 *** The governor just said the state was able to access the Medicaid system as of about an hour ago (around 3 o’clock).

*** UPDATE 3 *** Pritzker went off on the president today…

The United States Constitution clearly states that Congress has the power of the purse and sets laws to obligate federal funding for all 50 states. What Donald Trump tried to do in the last 24 hours is illegal.

Let’s be clear, this is a demonstration of cruelty against people who depend on us, working families who rely on federal assistance to pay their rent, people who need help paying their utility bills, parents who need critical programs like Head Start for quality, affordable child care, and 3.5 million Illinoisans who get their health insurance through Medicaid. Despite what the White House press secretary said at the podium earlier, I believe it is my duty to report to you the truth of what actually happened today in Illinois.

Donald Trump’s administration is lying to you. The White House’s attempt to walk back what they did today does not match what we saw on the ground.

They assured us that Medicaid would not be affected. That was a lie. Our state agencies were unable to access the Medicaid system until an hour ago, preventing payments for services. And this has been reported from states across the nation.

When we reached out to federal agencies, they informed us that they have been directed not to discuss any guidance with states. They have canceled previously scheduled meetings for this week.

The White House assured us that Head Start would not be affected. That was a lie. Providers across the state experienced outages and some were unable to make their payroll. They assured us that they were doing nothing to take away individual assistance from the most vulnerable people in our state, but they refused to say that they would restore LIHEAP, the low income housing, Energy Assistance Program, payments to support the unemployment system and meals on wheels. These are programs that hundreds of 1000s of illinoisians depend on, children, seniors, veterans, working parents.

Let’s just be clear about what happened over the last 24 hours. At 7:42pm last night, we saw a memo from the White House saying that they were pausing federal funding across the board. This morning, along with all 50 states across the country, we discovered that our ability to access critical federal funding had been cut off, and now the administration would like us to believe that these were just coincidental website outages.

Donald Trump and his administration have not earned the benefit of the doubt. They are either lying to us or they are critically incompetent. This is what happens when you staff the federal government full of project 2025 contributors that don’t have any experience governing and don’t think that the laws apply to them. The consequences of their actions are not hypothetical. They are not numbers on a spreadsheet. These are real people, ordinary Americans struggle, struggling to afford groceries, rent, and health care.

Please pardon all transcription errors.

…Adding… More from Pritzker…

I was very happy to hear as I entered this room today that an administrative stay has been granted. Let me assure you, the state of Illinois will fight this unlawful order with everything we have. We’re working with the Attorney General, who has moved forward with other states to continue pursuing legal action to protect the people of Illinois. Last November, on the day after the election, I made a promise to the people of Illinois when it comes to threats to our freedom, health or security. If you come for my people, you come through me.

…Adding… More Pritzker…

You think it’s an accident that the memo came out last night and then this morning, our state agencies, like Medicaid could not access those systems? It’s not an accident. The intention here is to disrupt. The intention here is to make cuts, and it will affect people all across our state.

…Adding… Pritzker…

When our agencies reached out to the federal agencies, we literally were informed that they are not to speak with us.

-30-

*** UPDATE 4 *** The attorney general’s lawsuit is here.

[ *** End Of Updates *** ]

* Background is here if you need it. Some of what I’m using in this post is in the other post, but I’m trying to refocus and make this more readable.

The federal government is now saying the Medicaid portal will be back up soonish. I suppose we’ll just have to wait and see…

Update from the White House on the Medicaid portal shutdown - spokesperson says payments are still being processed and should be back up and running: https://t.co/CGEBLt9xpl

— Paris Schutz (@paschutz) January 28, 2025

* However…

A notice at the top of the federal Medicaid Payment Management System website on Tuesday read: “Due to Executive Orders regarding potentially unallowable grant payments, PMS is taking additional measures to process payments. Reviews of applicable programs and payments will result in delays and/or rejections of payments.”

So, we don’t really know what’s going on.

* But, as I noted on the earlier post, even if the system goes back into operation, we still don’t know the fate of trillions of federal funding dollars that are being held up. From the Sun-Times…

Trump’s administration announced the pause in federal grants, loans and other financial assistance as they embarked on a sweeping review of spending — a measure aimed at “ending ‘wokeness’ and the weaponization of government,” according to a memo from Matthew Vaeth, acting director of the Office of Management and Budget.

The funding freeze could affect trillions of dollars and cause widespread disruption in health care research, education programs and other initiatives. Grants that have been awarded but not spent are also halted, according to the Associated Press. […]

In the federal memo, Vaeth wrote: “The use of Federal resources to advance Marxist equity, transgenderism, and green new deal social engineering policies is a waste of taxpayer dollars that does not improve the day-to-day lives of those we serve.”

Vaeth said each agency must complete a comprehensive analysis of all federal financial assistance programs.

“In the interim, to the extent permissible under applicable law, Federal agencies must 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.”

The full memo is here, and the spreadsheet with impacted programs is here.

* Attorney General Kwame Raoul joined several other AGs around the country to file a lawsuit against the budgetary action. From his remarks today…

This unconstitutional pause in funding will have a devastating impact on the public safety, prosperity and quality of life of all.

Democrats and Republicans alike will be negatively impacted by this pause in funding.

It impacts our ability to go after offenders who prey on a our children, because this impacts our Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. Our task force has enabled us to capture a record number of child predators. That is compromised.

It impacts… funding that allows our law enforcement partners to fight crime and impacts those who rely on Medicaid for life-saving health care.

It impacts our capacity to provide for veterans who served our country. Head Start and child care programs. The support for critical research at our universities. And support for farmers who grow our food. And of course, critical investment in infrastructure needed for our roads and bridges and keeping our working families working.

* More context from the Tribune…

In the fiscal year ending in 2024, Illinois agencies received nearly $30 billion in direct federal aid, according to a report from the state Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability. More than $19 billion in federal funding went to the Department of Healthcare and Family Services in Medicaid-related payments, according to CGFA.

Billions went to grants in other parts of state government, including some $2.3 billion to the Department of Transportation, $401 million to the agency tasked with economic opportunity and $314 million to the Environmental Protection Agency, the same report said.

* More context from NBC…

Challengers to Trump’s actions to withhold funding would likely cite the Impoundment Control Act, a law passed in 1974 to regulate the president’s control over the budget. This followed efforts by then-President Richard Nixon to withhold spending on programs he did not support, like Trump has indicated his intention to do.

Under that law, the president can temporarily withhold funds — but must notify Congress first, and the decision cannot be based on policy grounds. The president can also ask Congress to rescind spending decisions, which can also be grounds for a pause in spending.

Their “pause” decision is obviously based on policy grounds…

The spreadsheet includes specific questions for over 2,600 specific accounts within agencies across the government, large and small — every Cabinet department and independent agencies ranging from the Federal Communications Commission to the Institute of Museum and Library Services to the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation.

The questions, intended to ensure that federal programs are in compliance with Trump’s executive orders and policy goals, include the following:

• “Does this program provide Federal funding to non-governmental organizations supporting or providing services, either directly or indirectly, to removable or illegal aliens?”
• “Is this program a foreign assistance program, or provide funding or support activities overseas?”
• “Does this program provide funding that is implicated by the revocation and rescission of the U.S. International Climate Finance Plan?”
• “Does this program include activities that impose an undue burden on the identification, development, or use of domestic energy resources (including through funding under the Inflation Reducing (sp) Act of 2022; and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act)?”
• “Does this program provide funding that is implicated by the directive to end discriminatory programs, including illegal DEI and ‘diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility’ (DEIA) mandates, policies, programs, preferences, and activities, under whatever name they appear, or other directives in the same EO, including those related to ‘environmental justice’ programs or ‘equity-related’ grants?”
• “Does this program promote gender ideology?”
• “Does this program promote or support in any way abortion or other related activities identified in the Hyde Amendment?”
• “If not covered in the preceding columns, does this program support any activities that must not be supported based on executive orders issued on or after January 20, 2025 (including executive orders released following the dissemination of this spreadsheet)?”

The Trump folks say the Impoundment Control Act is unconstitutional. We’ll see.

* The White House appears taken aback…

The scramble began late Monday, after the White House budget office circulated a list of spending programs under scrutiny that seemed to implicate virtually every function of the federal government. The funds it identified for review included a vast array of initiatives that help the poor, potentially arresting funds that provide rental vouchers, nutrition benefits and college aid to low-income Americans.

The administration also pointed to federal programs that inspect meat, poultry and eggs for potential foodborne illnesses, and payments to farmers whose crops are ravaged by natural disasters. And they included a sizable roster of initiatives to protect public health, seemingly aiming to freeze money meant to fight the spread of AIDS, research cancer causes and detection, and prepare for bioterrorism attacks. […]

The Trump administration also said it had set up a process for agencies to work with the White House on evaluating their funding, and already had approved “many programs to continue” operating normally. Otherwise, OMB said some spending could come back online in as quickly as a day, as the White House looked to deflect criticism that it had taken radical action.

Stay tuned.