NEW YORK, New York – New York Attorney General Letitia James on Friday won a court order preventing the Trump administration from freezing over US $10 billion in critical funds to programmes that support childcare and other assistance to low-income families.
“This decision is a critical victory for families whose lives have been upended by this administration’s cruelty,” James told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC). “From childcare to shelter services for survivors of domestic violence, these funds provide resources that hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers depend on.
“This illegal funding freeze should have never happened, and I will keep fighting to uphold the law and protect funding that our communities need,” she added.
On January 8, James led four other states in suing the administration to protect three critical Programmes from a US$10 billion funding freeze. The freeze affects funds for the Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF), Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, and the Social Services Block Grant (SSBG) in the five states.
James and the coalition argued that freezing these funds will immediately jeopardize some of the most important anti-poverty Programmes in the states, putting vulnerable families.
They sought a court order declaring the funding freeze unlawful and preventing the administration from implementing it.
“If implemented, the funding freeze would be devastating for families in the coalition’s states,” James said. Families would lose access to reliable childcare, forcing parents and caregivers into an impossible choice of either missing work or leaving children in a potentially unsafe environment.
On Friday, the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York granted the states’ motion for a temporary restraining order, blocking the implementation of the funding freeze.
