The lawsuit opens up another front in what will be a long legal fight led by Democrat-led states and progressive activists to stop President Trump’s aggressive second-term agenda in the federal courts. 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 court challenges.
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. To do so, they say would be an unconstitutional usurpation of the legislative branch’s power of the purse
The budget office’s memo said that “assistance received directly by individuals,” as well as Medicare and Social Security benefits, would not be impacted by the pause. But it remains unclear whether that carve-out would include Medicaid, a federally-funded program where the money flows first to states and then care is provided to low-income residents.
For example, New York State is expected to receive about $90 billion in federal funding this year, according to the state’s budget office. Of that about $60 billion would be directed to Medicaid, which provides care to about seven million New Yorkers. The State Budget Office also expects to receive about $4.7 billion in education funding and nearly $3 billion for transportation infrastructure investments. All of that money could now be vulnerable.
“In the event of a substantial hit to Medicaid funding, millions of people including many who voted for President Trump would lose health insurance,” said Nathan Gusdorf, the director of the Fiscal Policy Institute, a nonprofit research organization in New York.
