The Trump administration is now facing a bevy of federal lawsuits over its effort to claw back about $810 million in federal funding without Congress’ approval. The administration announced the cancellation last week, through a maneuver known as a “pocket rescission,” days before the funding expired at the end of the fiscal year Wednesday. Now it faces federal lawsuits over the move from housing groups, education grant recipients and several states, arguing that the rescissions violate federal law and the Constitution. A coalition of states, including California, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, New Mexico, Nevada and Oregon, filed suit against the administration Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. That lawsuit argues the funding clawback violates federal spending law, the 1974 Impoundment Control Act, and the Constitution. Under the 1974 law, the president can freeze funds for up to 45 days after sending a message to Congress to propose canceling them, in what's known as a rescission request. The administration has argued that by sending the message to Congress within 45 days before the end of the fiscal year, it can effectively cancel the funding unilaterally. The coalition of states argued that position would give too much power to the presidency and undermine the power of Congress to control federal spending. “That assertion of unilateral rescission power defies the Constitution’s finely wrought separation of powers,” the suit says. Another suit, filed in Washington, D.C., Wednesday by the HEP-CAMP Association, a national association for recipients of a federal educational grant, argued that the rescissions illegally targeted $24.9 million in spending on the High School Equivalency Program and College Assistance Migrant Program. That suit argues that the programs, which support education for children of immigrant families, were illegally targeted by the administration after Congress decided to fund them despite the Trump administration’s effort to cut them. “Although HEP and CAMP grant programs are codified in law and funded by Congress, the Administration nevertheless seeks to shut them down,” the suit says. The fastest-moving suit, at least so far, is the one filed by a set of housing groups on Tuesday. There, the National Urban League and several local housing nonprofits are arguing that the cancellation of $56 million in housing counseling grants violated federal law and the Constitution. In that suit, the judge paused the deadline of the grant cancellations and asked the Trump administration to respond to the suit by the end of next week.
