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California, six other states sue Trump administration over federal funds · GNN Daily Breaking News

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  Speaker 1: California and six partner states filed a major federal lawsuit
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  Speaker 1: against the Trump administration, alleging that the executive branch unlawfully
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  Speaker 1: withheld more than $ 800 million in congressional appropriations in direct
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  Speaker 1: violation of the United States Constitution. Led by California Attorney
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  Speaker 1: General Rob Bonta The coalition submitted the legal challenge in
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  Speaker 1: the United States District Court for the Northern District of
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  Speaker 1: California following the administration's decision to freeze designated federal funding
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  Speaker 1: through a procedural maneuver known as a pocket rescission. The
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  Speaker 1: lawsuit contends that the White House's refusal to disburse funds
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  Speaker 1: allocated for foreign assistance, minority business development, and public health
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  Speaker 1: initiatives breaches the fundamental separation of powers, the Appropriations Clause.
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  Speaker 1: and the Presentment Clause. The legal confrontation underscores a deepening
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  Speaker 1: institutional battle over the constitutional power of the purse. Under
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  Speaker 1: the legal framework established by the Impoundment Control Act, the
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  Speaker 1: executive branch must submit spending cancellation requests early enough in
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  Speaker 1: the legislative calendar to allow Congress a full 45-day period
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  Speaker 1: to review and vote on the proposals. State legal officials
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  Speaker 1: argued that the White House deliberately submitted its impoundment requests
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  Speaker 1: near the very end of the fiscal year to ensure
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  Speaker 1: the funds would lapse unspent before lawmakers could formally respond.
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  Speaker 1: In public statements accompanying the filing, state prosecutors asserted that
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  Speaker 1: executive disagreement with statutory programs does not grant the administration
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  Speaker 1: unilateral authority to defund initiatives authorized by bipartisan legislative majorities.
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  Speaker 1: The lawsuit joins a growing wave of state-led legal challenges
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  Speaker 1: aimed at restraining executive impoundments and funding conditions across federal programs.
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  Speaker 1: While White House representatives defended the spending freezes as a
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  Speaker 1: necessary measure to curb government waste and halt initiatives that
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  Speaker 1: conflict with administration policy goals, the state coalition asked the
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  Speaker 1: federal court for an immediate injunction compelling federal agencies to
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  Speaker 1: release the withheld allocations. As the district court prepares to
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  Speaker 1: consider emergency filings, the lawsuit sets up a pivotal judicial
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  Speaker 1: test regarding the limits of presidential discretion over mandatory federal expenditures.