A federal judge in Boston issued a ruling Friday blocking the Trump administration from using a White House budget regulation to eliminate billions of dollars in grant funding for programs that don’t align with the president’s agenda.
U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani sided with a coalition of Democratic-led states who challenged the move, agreeing that a provision quietly added to U.S. Office of Management and Budget regulations back in 2020 — during Trump’s first term in office — did not actually give his administration the legal authority to pull grant funding simply because federal agencies have shifted their priorities.
The states argued the regulation was being misused as a tool to cut off funding for causes the administration found unfavorable, and Judge Talwani agreed that the clause did not support such sweeping grant terminations.
