It is hard to avoid hearing or reading more about Trump’s actions than you ever wanted to hear. A week ago Monday Trump took the oath of office, "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” Shortly thereafter he issued an Executive Order (EC) plainly contradicting the 14th Amendment to that same Constitution (and more than a hundred years of law), unilaterally declaring the end of birthright citizenship. (You can read it here. It’s deceptively titled “Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship.”) During my lifetime this EC alone would have been grounds to consider impeachment of an out-of-control, power-grabbing president.
This week the Trump administration, acting on eight of his Executive Orders (see Note below), blatantly challenged the doctrine of the separation of powers that we all learned about in high school. A memo was issued declaring the impoundment (slightly disguised as a “temporary pause”) of federal grants and loans, and inducing widespread angst and chaos among individuals and entities dependent on these funds. The executive branch is specifically forbidden to withhold disbursement of funds appropriated by Congress under Congress’s “power of the purse” by the Impoundment Control Act of 1974.
The Spokesman offered this to illustrate the effects of the impoundment had it been allowed to move forward:
A sampling of federal grant and program dollars that could be affected by a temporary freeze:
$44 million federal check, promised last year, to aid in the rebuilding of Medical Lake and Elk.
The state received $27 billion from the feds to help fund a range of programs and initiatives. That’s 32% of the state’s budget.
Spokane County has 65 federal grants totaling $149 million for housing and development that are on hold.
The Spokane Tech Hub is poised to receive $48 million in federal funding to launch research and manufacturing of aircraft materials.
Two battery companies focused on electric vehicles are set to receive hundreds of millions of dollars in federal grants to build factories in Moses Lake.$49 million in funding for behavioral health administered through Spokane County.
This is no way to run a country. It is a way to destabilize it. It is grandstanding BS, just the sort of thing in which Trump revels.
Even Michael Baumgartner, recently elected U.S. Representative (R-CD5) from Eastern Washington seemed slightly taken aback:
“I wish Congress had been given a heads-up just so that we could have worked with our constituents and there wouldn’t be the degree of uncertainty that there is,” Baumgartner said, adding that “our phones have been ringing off the hook” with calls from concerned Eastern Washington residents.
“I’m an Article I guy,” he said, referring to the part of the U.S. Constitution that establishes the authority of Congress. “It’s Congress that controls the purse strings, and if Congress makes a spending decision, you want the executive branch to be executing on it, so I do have some concerns when the constitutional roles aren’t followed as they should be.”
It is good to hear that “our phones have been ringing off the hook.” As a first term U.S. Representative Mr. Baumgartner has to be mindful that he will be more vulnerable than most in the 2026 election cycle, especially if Trump’s approval ratings continue to plummet like they have in the last week. Baumgartner could be swept out in an anti-Trump reaction and he is, therefore, slightly more likely than most Republicans to listen to his constituents enraged over Trump’s threats.
Here is Baumgartner’s D.C. office phone number: (202) 225-2006. To submit an email click here. (They don’t make sending an email to him particularly easy, but that shouldn’t stop us.) Let Baumgartner know what you think of the destructive, unconstitutional, and illegal actions of the president he has seemed anxious to support.
For my readers who don’t live in WA State CD5 (Eastern Washington State) I urge you to do what I did: Go to Congress.gov and scroll down to “Current Members of Congress.” If you know the names of your congresspeople use the pull down menus. If you don’t, go to https://www.congress.gov/members and enter your address.
Keep to the high ground,
Jerry
Note: Yesterday (January 29) as I was trying to get my head around this mess the Washington Post published an article that immediately appeared on the Spokesman website entitled, “Trump White House rescinds freeze on federal grants; press secretary says it is only rescission of memo”. If you found it confusing, you’re not alone. The WaPo reported that the Trump administration “withdrew the order” the day after a federal judge “temporarily [until Feb. 3] halted its implementation.”
Then in the last paragraph of the article:
“It is simply a rescission of the OMB memo,” Karoline Leavitt wrote. “Why? To end any confusion created by the court’s injunction. The President’s EO’s [sic] on federal funding remain in full force and effect, and will be rigorously implemented.”
It helps a little to read the original memo issued by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) that precipitated this mess. You can read it here. It’s only two pages. Specifically citing eight of Trump’s “executive orders to protect the American people and safeguard valuable taxpayer resources,” the memo illegally impounds a vast array of Congressionally appropriated government funding for an unspecified “temporary” period “effective on January 28, 2025 [last Tuesday], at 5:00 PM”. There is no indication of when the impoundment would end, but during the “pause” (and, presumably, the ensuing chaos) all federal agencies are required to comb through all the federal financial assistance they disburse and report how that assistance complies with Trump’s edicts (aka “Executive Orders”).
The OMB memo sheds some light on White House spokeswoman Karline Leavitt’s statement responding to the memo’s rescission. Really what she is saying is, “Oops, we stepped in it, but we’re going to pull back for a moment, regroup, and step in it again while we pursue of a wholesale trashing of federal government function.”