Kaine: Trump’s Federal Funding Freeze Is an ‘Illegal Order’

Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) said Tuesday on MSNBC’s “Deadline” that President Donald Trump’s executive order freezing federal loans and grants was “illegal.”

Host Nicolle Wallace said, “Senator, your reaction to what’s happening and your latest intelligence about everything that has impacted?”

Kaine said, “I’ll give you the intelligence because calls are coming in from around Virginia from child care centers that worry that their funding is being cut off to the center or to parents who need it to help their kids with child care to universities that are doing medical research, who are, you know, billing the research institutions like the NIH for the research they’re doing, unsure whether they will get a reimbursement. I’ve got a nonprofit in Virginia that specializes in helping low income people and seniors apply for Medicaid. Some of their staff are funded by federal grant. They think those staffers will potentially lose their jobs.”

He added, “Veterans yesterday told me they had been unable to access the VA portal for even getting medical appointments at the VA, and I have a brand new VA clinic scheduled to open in Fredericksburg in February. The opening date is still scheduled, but they believe they’re under a hiring freeze and can’t hire the staff that they need to serve veterans in that population. This is all real time worries coming in from Virginians. It is an illegal order. The Budget Act of 1974 and the Constitution basically say that the budget is Congressional. It’s an Article One power. Once we do an appropriations deal and we reach a deal that is signed by the president, the executive has to spend those funds in accordance with the budget. The president can’t unilaterally decide no there’s a budget document but I’m going to ignore it.”

Follow Pam Key on X @pamkeyNEN

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