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Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul calls Trump's federal funding freeze unconstitutional

Federal funding freeze on hold, but serious concerns persist in Chicago
Federal funding freeze on hold, but serious concerns persist in Chicago 02:52

CHICAGO (CBS) -- Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul on Tuesday said the Trump administration's move to freeze funding for federal assistance programs is an unconstitutional violation of the separation of powers between the White House and Congress.

A memo from the White House budget office has directed federal agencies to review all federal financial assistance programs to ensure they are consistent with the president's policies, and a wave of executive orders and actions he's taken since he was sworn in.

Tuesday afternoon, a federal judge in Washington D.C. temporarily blocked the freeze, just minutes before it was set to go into effect. Judge Loren AliKhan's administrative stay pauses the freeze until Monday.

The order blocking the funding freeze came after several nonprofits and other private groups that rely on federal funding had sued over the funding freeze.

The White House directive specifically targets "DEI, woke gender ideology and the Green New Deal," but does not specify what those policies refer to, especially since the Green New Deal was never signed into law. 

Raoul and attorneys general from more than 20 other states also have announced plans to file a lawsuit to prevent the White House from instituting the funding freeze.

"Let's be clear, January 20th was an inauguration, not a coronation. Congress is given the power to appropriate the funding. The executive branch cannot unilaterally disregard those appropriations passed by a separate and equal house of government. We will collectively fight this unconstitutional mandate," Raoul said.

Illinois AG Kwame Raoul challenging Trump's federal funding freeze 03:24

State Medicaid programs locked out of federal funding website

From highway programs to school lunch programs, and drug addiction assistance to medical research labs, the federal funding freeze sent a chill rolling through government and nonprofit groups that rely on federal money.

Last year, the U.S. spent $3 trillion on federal assistance programs.

U.S. Rep. Brad Schneider (D-Illinois) said more than 2,000 groups that rely on federal funding have been left scrambling.

"The administration last night sent an Excel spreadsheet with 2,635 lines, and so everyone is still going through and seeing what's on that line and what's impacted," he said.

The White House said funding for Medicare and Social Security benefits will not be affected.

"Social Security benefits, Medicare benefits, food stamps, welfare benefits, assistance that is going directly to individuals will not be impacted by this pause," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said.

Many organizations and agencies that rely on federal funds have said they already have been locked out of the online system responsible for tracking and depositing their money as a result of the funding freeze.

Those include state Medicaid programs that cannot log into the Payment Management Services (PMS) web portal run by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which handles billions of dollars in payments every year.

"Due to Executive Orders regarding potentially unallowable grant payments, PMS is taking additional measures to process payments. Reviews of applicable programs and payments will result in delays and/or rejections of payments," the Payment Management Services website states.

U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) said in a post on X that Medicaid portals went down for all 50 states Tuesday.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a post on X that the White House was aware of the outage for the Medicaid payment portal website.

"We have confirmed no payments have been affected — they are still being processed and sent," she wrote. "We expect the portal will be back online shortly."

White House sources said the Medicaid payment portal issues were unrelated to the federal funding freeze.

Gov. JB Pritzker responds to Trump administration's federal funding freeze 06:56

However, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said the White House was lying about what happened.

"Donald Trump's administration is lying to you," Pritzker said. "The White House's attempt to walk back what they did today does not match what we saw on the ground. They assured us that Medicaid would not be affected. That was a lie. Our state agencies were unable to access the Medicaid system until an hour ago, preventing payments for services, and this has been reported from states across the nation."

Pritzker said the sweeping cuts confirmed by the White House to thousands of programs — ones that fund everything from highway projects to kids' lunches, drug addiction assistance to medical research labs — was going to include cuts to Medicaid too, until a late-day pivot.

Pritzker also said when state officials reached out to federal agencies, they were informed that they had been directed "not to discuss any guidance with states."

"They have canceled previously scheduled meetings for this week," Pritzker said.

The governor also said the state was assured the Head Start program would not be affected, only for providers across the state to face outages, and being left unable to make payroll.

Pritzker said he was working with state agency leaders, nonprofit organizations, and other elected officials to make sure the state is doing everything it can "to stand up for working families and the most vulnerable people in our state who are affected by these cuts."

"Let's be clear, this is a demonstration of cruelty against people who depend on us; working families who rely on federal assistance to pay their rent, people who need help paying their utility bills, parents who need critical programs like Head Start for quality affordable child care, and 3.5 million Illinoisans who get their health insurance through Medicaid," he said.

Gov. Pritzker says federal funding freeze was going to include Medicaid 03:05

Mayor Brandon Johnson says funding freeze shows Trump's "disdain towards working people"

Meantime, U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) said federal funding for disaster relief, medical research, small business loans, veterans care, child care, and Head Start early childhood education programs all are at risk under the funding freeze.

Raoul said the funding freeze also affects the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, which helps state and local law enforcement agencies prosecute child sex predators.

"This unconstitutional pause in funding will have a devastating impact on the public safety, prosperity, and quality of life of all Americans," Raoul said. 

Raoul and other attorneys general challenging the funding freeze said they will seek a court order to stop the White House from enforcing its directive.

Mayor Brandon Johnson also challenged the Trump administration's authority to enact the funding freeze, and said it shows the president's "disdain towards working people."

"Whatever the motives are of this administration, I can't speak to. All I can say is that there are people across the city of Chicago and this country that want a federal government that doesn't show animus towards working people," he said.

The city relies on approximately $4 billion a year in grant funding, much of it from the federal government. The mayor's budget director, Annette Guzman, said city officials are examining the potential impact on the city's budget.

"We are going to be doing some further digging to better understand what's at present risk," Guzman said.

Former Mayor Lori Lightfoot says Trump's federal funding freeze "creating chaos" 04:23

Former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, a CBS News political analyst, said the White House directive and ensuing confusion were not surprising, and were typical of the Trump administration's tactics from his first term in office.

"A lot of things rolled out without really thinking or caring about the consequence," she said. "When you ask the questions of what does this really mean? How is it going to function? Under what authority? They haven't thought any of that out."

Lightfoot said, based on her experience as mayor during Trump's first term in office, his administration does not seek input from local officials when taking actions that might affect them.

"These guys are like a wrecking ball and a hurricane. They're just throwing things out, creating chaos, and that chaos I think is part of the mission, which is to sow fear, uncertainty, make people frankly have to go to Washington and beg for certain services to be restored," she said.

Meanwhile, late in this whirlwind of a day in federal government cuts, President Trump offered all federal workers a buyout with seven months' pay in an effort to shrink size of government.

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