


WASHINGTON >> The Trump administration has frozen, stalled or otherwise disrupted some $430 billion in federal funds — from disease research to Head Start for children to disaster aid — in what top Democrats say is an “unprecedented and dangerous” assault on programs used by countless Americans.
Sen. Patty Murray of Washington and Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut on Tuesday released an online tracker that is compiling all the ways President Donald Trump and his adviser Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency are interrupting the flow of federal funds, often going up against the law.
“Instead of investing in the American people, President Trump is ignoring our laws and ripping resources away,” said Murray and DeLauro, who are the top Democrats on the Appropriations committees in Congress.
“No American president has ever so flagrantly ignored our nation’s spending laws or so brazenly denied the American people investments they are owed,” they said.
The tally is far from complete or exhaustive, the lawmakers said, but a snapshot in time. It comes in a rapidly changing political and legal environment as the Trump administration faces dozens of lawsuits from state and local governments, advocacy organizations, employees and others fighting to keep programs intact.
At 100 days into Trump’s return to the presidency, the project showcases the extent to which the White House is blocking money that Congress has already approved.
— The Associated Press