States Plan to Sue to Block Trump’s Federal Grants Freeze

A coalition of state attorneys general plans to file suit on Tuesday afternoon to block an order from the White House budget office that would freeze all federal grant programs by 5 p.m.

The move, which had been expected, was announced by Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, at a news conference in the Capitol on Tuesday morning. The coalition is being led by the New York State attorney general, Letitia James, and the lawsuit is expected to be filed in the Southern District of New York. Among the states joining the suit are California, Illinois, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Massachusetts.

“My office will be taking imminent legal action against this administration’s unconstitutional pause on federal funding,” Ms. James wrote on social media. “We won’t sit idly by while this administration harms our families.”

The freeze order, a two-page memo dated Monday from Matthew J. Vaeth, acting director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, directs federal agencies to “temporarily pause all activities related to obligation or disbursement of all federal financial assistance,” specifically citing foreign aid and “D.E.I., woke gender ideology and the Green New Deal.”

The lawsuit will open up another front in what will be a long legal fight led by Democratic-led states and progressive activists to stop President Trump’s aggressive second-term agenda. Mr. Trump’s efforts to make it easier to fire federal employees, accelerate deportations and reverse the 14th Amendment’s guarantee to birthright citizenship are all already facing challenges in federal courts.

Since 1974, a federal law passed to rein in what Congress saw as abuses of power by Richard M. Nixon has required the executive branch to spend money allocated by Congress and signed by the president. Democrats contend that money approved by President Joseph R. Biden Jr. through the infrastructure law, routine congressional appropriations and other measures cannot be summarily blocked without an act of Congress.