How Trump’s federal aid freeze endangers people with disabilities
Multiple federal judges have temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s federal aid freeze, but litigation continues over how long it will be halted. Ahead of a hearing Monday in Washington, a court filing from a small West Virginia nonprofit that helps people with disabilities illustrates just a part of what’s at stake when funds are cut off.
The declaration comes from the president of a group that serves people with multiple sclerosis, diabetes, amputations, paraplegia, quadriplegia, blindness, hearing loss, seizures, heart disease, learning disability, muscular dystrophy, stroke, spinal cord injury and more.
“In essence, we operate on a federally mandated paycheck-to-paycheck budgeting system. When the flow of funds is interrupted, we are quickly in crisis mode,” the filing Sunday said, adding that the group had received no funds since the government freeze was issued after Donald Trump took office.
If the freeze isn’t stopped, the filing said, “we will shut down and the people we serve will be helpless.” Among the people noted in the sworn declaration is an 86-year-old woman the nonprofit regularly takes to dialysis treatments. “Our agency is her only way to get to these life-sustaining appointments,” the nonprofit president said in the declaration, adding: “I cannot believe anyone would NOT want to help an 86-year-old woman get to her dialysis sessions.”
Monday’s hearing is before U.S. District Judge Loren AliKhan, who last week temporarily blocked the administration’s implementation of a since-withdrawn memorandum purporting to halt aid. On Friday, a federal judge in a separate case in Rhode Island issued a temporary restraining order against the government freeze. Nonprofits brought the D.C. case and Democratic state attorneys general brought the Rhode Island case.
The litigation has unfolded against the confusing backdrop of the federal government withdrawing the memo after AliKhan issued her order, combined with seemingly conflicting statements from the White House about whether it still wants the funds frozen.
With AliKhan’s temporary order set to expire at 5 p.m. ET Monday, we should learn more soon in the D.C. case about how much longer the fund freeze will be blocked in that case, with this latest filing highlighting the human toll underlying this litigation.
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