Congresswoman Nellie Pou (D-NJ-09) today blasted an announcement by the Trump administration that it is freezing all legal federal grants, a blatantly illegal act that will imperil the lives of countless Americans and violates the separation of powers foundational to the Constitution.

“In the dead of night, the Trump administration announced a gross power grab the likes of which we have never seen in the United States before,” said Congresswoman Pou. “On a practical level, the illegal freezing of spending passed into law will threaten the lives of cancer patients, halt life-saving medical research, block aid to small businesses, and kill disaster relief, among countless immediate negative impacts. The suffering this illegal act will cause Americans will be catastrophic. Far from a measure to lower costs, this action will raise the cost of living for millions of families across the country. More broadly, what the administration is trying to do is nothing less than a complete subversion of Congress and a declaration of war on America’s very constitutional order. This illegal act must be struck down by the courts and opposed by elected officials across our political system, especially House Republicans who helped enact and fund these programs.”

Pou joined her House Democratic colleagues on a letter sent yesterday demanding an itemized list of programs, projects, and activities that have been put on hold because of an earlier executive order unconstitutionally withholding the disbursement of funds included in the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.