The Federal Emergency Management Agency must show in one week whether it is complying with a judge’s ruling Thursday that blocks the Trump administration from withholding grants and loans.
In a broad ruling on presidential powers, Chief Judge John McConnell of the Rhode Island District Court cited the withholding of FEMA disaster aid as an example of “acute harm” caused by a federal funding freeze.
“With floods and fires wreaking havoc across the country, federal funding for emergency management and preparedness would be impacted” by freezing FEMA grants, McConnell wrote in a 45-page ruling.
McConnell, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, was the second federal judge in the past two weeks to rebuke the Trump administration for trying to withhold grants and loans.
