The Trump White House Wants A Court Challenge Over Frozen Funds

An internal OMB document shows that it is official administration policy to block funding to provoke a constitutional challenge.

The Trump administration’s federal government funding freeze instituted Monday and apparently rescinded Wednesday appears to be a part of the White House’s official policy to get courts to hand President Donald Trump the power to pick and choose which congressionally authorized funding he will spend, according to a confidential document obtained by HuffPost.

The confidential Office of Management and Budget document outlining “regulatory misalignment” calls on Trump to issue executive orders blocking the release of appropriated funds in order to provoke a court challenge over the president’s power to impound such funds.

“Use executive orders to impound funds exceeding legislative intent or conflicting with constitutional duties, citing national security, fiscal waste, or statutory ambiguities,” the document states. “Seek legal precedent to affirm the President’s Article II powers under the Take Care Clause and Executive Vesting Clause.”

That is what is playing out with the now-rescinded OMB memo freezing federal grants, loans and financial assistance across the federal government.

Less than 12 hours after the OMB memo’s release, it was challenged in court by Democratic state attorneys general and a coalition of nonprofit groups. The challenge brought by the nonprofit groups resulted in a judge issuing a temporary restraining order blocking the freeze from going into effect Tuesday evening. On Wednesday, the administration rescinded the memo but then claimed that the policy was still in effect and officials only rescinded the memo to get courts to drop the restraining order. A second judge issued another temporary restraining order on Wednesday after the administration rescinded the original memo.