ANNAPOLIS–Gov. Wes Moore issued a scathing rebuke of Trump’s federal funding freeze Tuesday, calling the decision “irrational” and vowing that Maryland will stand against it.
“We have to make sure that we’re protecting the people of our state,” Moore told reporters Tuesday in Annapolis, “because the decisions that we saw from the White House are ones that are not going to go without a response from us.”
The funding freeze was supposed to take effect at 5 p.m. Tuesday before a temporary stay issued by a federal judge pushed it to next Monday. The pause would cut off a wide river of federal funding that flows into programs across the United States, though it is unclear which specific programs would be affected.
In an official statement released Tuesday, Moore said that the state is “still evaluating” how the freeze would impact the people of Maryland, but that it has caused “unnecessary confusion” and fear in Marylanders.
Maryland is one of more than twenty states that plan to sue to stop the order.
Rep. Sarah Elfreth, D-Maryland, took issue with the Trump administration taking such dramatic action.
“Congress holds the power of the purse, which means this funding has already been signed into law and appropriated by Congress for this specific purpose,” Elfreth said in a statement sent to Capital News Service. “His actions put every family, nonprofit organization, and state and local government that depends on these funds in a state of uncertainty.”
“This,” Elfreth said, “is governance by chaos.”
Trump’s order amounts to “executive branch overreach,” Rep. Gerald Connolly, D-Virginia, ranking member of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, said in a written statement.
“Donald Trump is unleashing the carnage he says he deplores,” Connolly said.
With Maryland, and the country as a whole, suspended in a state of confusion, Moore called for coordinated, “calm” leadership at the state level. Moore said that he will meet with county leaders across the state to plan for the potential impact of the freeze.
“While we will continue to monitor the situation, I want people to know this,” Moore said. “This chaos will not go unanswered.”