City Comptroller Brad Lander and other city officials urged Mayor Eric Adams on Tuesday to either directly sue or join other legal actions to protect the $11.8 billion in federal funding that the city could lose due to President Trump’s newly enacted federal funding freeze.
Trump’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) announced on Monday night that it would pause all federal grant and loan payments as it conducts a “review” of spending to ensure they align with the torrent of executive orders he issued last week. His actions touched several areas, such as dismantling federal diversity and inclusion programs, executing mass deportations of undocumented migrants, and rolling back climate change-fighting policies.
Late on Tuesday afternoon, however, Reuters reported that a federal judge in Washington, DC temporarily paused part of the Trump funding freeze until at least Monday, Feb. 3, following legal action from a consortium including the National Council of Nonprofits. The groups had argued that the OMB lacked the authority to cut off funding, and that the directive itself violated the First Amendment because it targeted grant recipients based on their political leanings.
According to Lander, the city’s fiscal watchdog, Trump’s freeze could cut off Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funding aimed at helping the city recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and money for infrastructure projects passed through the Federal Infrastructure and Jobs Act. While OMG said in its memo that Social Security and Medicare are exempt from the freeze, other public assistance programs, like those administered by nonprofits and those funded through block grants, are in a more precarious state.
“This is money that goes to our hospitals, this is money that pays the rent for low-income families, this is the school lunch money in our public schools,” Lander said at a Jan. 28 press conference. “Hundreds of millions of dollars are at risk here that would have direct, devastating impact on working families and, of course, on cities and states themselves.”
‘Stealing our lunch money’
The comptroller also raised concerns about what could happen to New Yorkers who rely on programs the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program — also known as Food Stamps, Medicaid, and Section 8 housing vouchers.
However, Mayoral spokesperson Kayla Mamelak Altus, in a post on X, pointed to new guidance released by Trump’s budget office indicating that those programs and several others would not be subject to the freeze. Yet multiple reports indicated that Medicaid’s online portals were down in several states on Tuesday.
Lander, who is running for mayor against Adams, said the city should either file its own legal action or join larger brewing lawsuits to block Trump’s pause on federal funding. He said the city could join a suit that state Attorney General Letitia James announced later Tuesday on behalf of a 22 state coalition or another brought by a group of nonprofits and small businesses in Washington DC.
“New York City has to take action; this is literally the bully stealing our lunch money,” Lander said. “And it is critical for New York City to stand up and be counted and make clear that we won’t stand for it.”
The City Council, in a post on X, also pressed Adams to take legal action in its own Tuesday afternoon statement.
“From our children and families to older adults and students, President Trump’s decision to halt federal aid will endanger our economy and the health and safety of our residents and Americans across the nation,” they said. “This demands a clear and coordinated response from the mayoral administration to join with cities and states throughout the US to protect the services our residents depend on.”
‘Assessing the situation’
In a statement, the mayor did not address whether the city would take or join legal actions against Trump’s order. He stopped short of taking an adversarial tone against the White House but said he would “advocate firmly” for the city’s interests.
“We are assessing the full reach of the Trump administration’s announcement, as specific programs are not named in the memo,” Adams said. “We are in touch with our federal counterparts as we continue to monitor this situation closely, and will advocate firmly on behalf of New Yorkers whose lives are impacted by affected programs.”
Lander charged that Adams, whose office has said he is “not feeling his best” this week, has thus far not taken a hard line against Trump’s action because he is seeking help from the president with his federal indictment.
“Today, perhaps that has to do with his illness, and I want everyone to be healthy,” Lander said. “But in days even before that, Mayor Adams has appeared as someone more interested in seeking a pardon for himself than standing up for the people who elected him.”
