Arizona AG Mayes joins other states in lawsuit against Trump federal grant freeze

By Howard Fischer
Capitol Media Services
A federal judge late Tuesday temporarily blocked a move by President Trump suspending most federal grants and aids while his administration reviews them.
Judge Loren AliKhan agreed to grant a "brief administrative stay'' that keeps all federal disbursements in place, at least until Monday. That will presumably give her a chance to hear the arguments submitted by various nonprofit and public health organizations who say the move is illegal and decide whether to extend or dissolve the stay.
Despite that, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes along with 22 other attorneys general filed her own legal claims against the Trump administration.
Josh Bendor, her solicitor general, said this case raises broader constitutional and legal claims about the president's action than the one heard by AliKhan. And he said it seeks an order to more permanently quash what Trump is trying to do.
Mayes said the litigation is not just a policy dispute, saying there are real and serious effects of the potential loss of billions of dollars to Arizona, including:
- Eliminating funds that Arizona families now can use to get subsidized child care;
- Drying up funds for school lunch programs;
- Withholding dollars that tenants in Section 8 housing need to pay their rent just days from now;
- Impairing the ability of the state to pay some of its public safety officers, including those who are involved in combating fentanyl trafficking.
One bit of relief came after the governor's office said the Trump administration late Tuesday restored access to federal Medicaid funds. That affects the ability of more than 2 million people to get care through the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System.
But Mayes said there are other grants that support hospitals and clinics around the state that are caught up in the freeze.
There also is some question about whether the directive also halts payments for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, more commonly known as food stamps.
"More than 450,000 Arizona households rely on SNAP, benefits to afford dinner on their tables every single night,'' Mayes said.
All of this, the attorney general said, simply causes unnecessary chaos. More to the point, she said Trump can't legally do any of this.
The announcement from the administration Monday was framed by Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, as only a "temporary pause.''
She said the president wants to be sure that the money spent on federal assistance programs -- $3 trillion in 2024 -- does not conflict with the president's executive actions and orders. And Leavitt said the administration was trying to be "good stewards'' of public funds, specifically mentioning that the president wanted to be sure there was "no more funding for transgenderism and wokeness.
But a memo from Matthew Vance, the acting director of the Office of Management and Budget, was more specific.
"The use of federal resources to advance Marxist equity, transgenderism and green new deal social engineering policies is a waste of taxpayer dollars that does not improve the day-to-day lives of those we serve,'' he wrote.
What will remain untouched, however, are Social Security benefits.
Mayes, who just last week sued the administration over its directive to no longer recognize birthright citizenship, called the latest action "another blatantly unconstitutional action from Donald Trump's new administration.''
Much of the case is based on the fact that the funds at issue were approved by Congress. More to the point, she said states are counting on that cash.
"This chaotic and lawless order attempts to steal allocated dollars that are included in state budgets,'' Mayes said. "States like Arizona will be unable to pay public safety employees, cops on the street, satisfy contractual obligations and carry on the important business of government.''
The Democratic AG acknowledged that Trump won the 2024 presidential election.
"But winning by one of the slimmest election margins in history does not grant him dictatorial powers,'' Mayes said. "No presidential election grants any president that authority.''
She also suggested that many of those who will be harmed by even just a pause in funding are "the very people who placed the trust in Trump when they cast their ballot for him in November.''
Consider, she said, the effect on the ability for Arizona to work with federal agents to help secure the border, including cutting off dollars for the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area program. Trump made sealing the border a top issue in his campaign.
"They claim to care about law enforcement but then they defund law enforcement,'' Mayes said.
"Law enforcement wants to do their job,'' she said. "Law enforcement wants to be able to seize fentanyl, go after the drug cartels, deal with the border situation.''
But Mayes said there's much more involved, even if the edict does not affect Medicaid -- and even as Leavitt insisted that welfare benefits and food stamps will remain untouched.
"Nearly one million children rely on federally provided school lunch and breakfast so they don't go hungry,'' Mayes said. "For many, that is the only meal they are going to get.''
Also at issue, she said, are Head Start and preschool programs for more than 15,000 children.
And then, said Mayes, there are the dollars for a program to provide utility assistance to those of limited resources. Without that, she said, they "will literally be left out in the cold.''
What also is unclear, Mayes said, is the fate of grants to universities and even student loans.
The attorney general also said she has a theory about why Trump is taking this action.
"Not lost on me is that this comes right before Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress are about to pass one of the most extreme tax cuts for billionaires in this country,'' she said.
Earlier this month, Scott Bessent, the president's pick to be Treasury Secretary, told the Senate Banking Committee that the administration wants to make permanent the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, one designed to provide larger benefits to the most wealthy. Bessent called it "a generational opportunity to unleash a new economic golden age that will create more jobs, wealth, and prosperity for all Americans.''
"So my guess is they're trying to cut funding to the states and to folks who are low income or middle income and struggling so they could pay for a tax cut for the rich,'' Mayes said.
Motives, however, are beyond the reach of the courts to decide the legality of the new directive. What is, the attorney general said, is what is within Trump's legal reach.
"The president does not have the unilateral authority, really dictatorial authority, to countermand, to override, what Congress has already authorized through law,'' she said.
"These are funds that were authorized by Congress and Donald Trump just turned the spigot off,'' Mayes continued. "That is not the way it works in our country.''
The president does have his supporters. House Speaker Mike Johnson called the freeze "the appropriate thing for a new administration to do.''
"We want to make sure that the executive orders of the new administration are being followed,'' he said while at a House Republican retreat in Doral, Fla. "I think it's going to be harmless.''
—--
On X, Bluesky and Threads: @azcapmedia