U.S. President Donald Trump’s attempt to freeze hundreds of billions of dollars in federal aid was temporarily blocked in court on Tuesday, even as it sowed chaos throughout the government and stirred fears that it would disrupt programs that serve tens of millions of Americans. Minutes before it was due to take effect at 5 p.m. eastern, a federal judge blocked Trump’s spending freeze that would have affected thousands of federal grant programs.
U.S. District Judge Loren AliKhan granted a temporary halt after an advocacy group argued the freeze would devastate programs ranging from health care to road construction. The court will revisit the issue on Monday. Trump’s sweeping directive was the latest step in his dramatic effort to overhaul the federal government, which has already seen the new president halt foreign aid, freeze hiring and shutter diversity programs across dozens of agencies.
Democrats castigated the funding freeze as an illegal assault on Congress’ authority over federal spending and said it was already disrupting payments to doctors and preschool teachers. Republicans largely defended the order as fulfilling Trump’s campaign promise to rein in the $6.75 trillion budget.