To fight Trump's funding freezes, states propose a new gambit: Withholding federal payments
Source: NBC News
June 29, 2025, 5:30 AM EDT
Democratic legislators mostly in blue states are attempting to fight back against President Donald Trump’s efforts to withhold funding from their states with bills that aim to give the federal government a taste of its own medicine.
The novel and untested approach — so far introduced in Connecticut, Maryland, New York and Wisconsin — would essentially allow states to withhold federal payments if lawmakers determine the federal government is delinquent in funding owed to them. Democrats in Washington state said they are in the process of drafting a similar measure.
These bills still have a long way to go before becoming law, and legal experts said they would face obstacles. But they mark the latest efforts by Democrats at the state level to counter what they say is a massive overreach by the Trump administration to cease providing federal funding for an array of programs that have helped states pay for health care, food assistance and environmental protections.
“Trump is illegally withholding funds that have been previously approved,” said David Moon, the Democratic majority leader in Maryland’s House of Delegates. “Without these funds, we are going to see Maryland residents severely harmed — we needed more options on the table for how Maryland could respond and protect its residents.”
Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/trumps-funding-freezes-states-new-gambit-withholding-federal-money-rcna215212
This has been a popular DU refrain but many of us had no idea how something like this could be accomplished when employers were doing the withholding and sending to the IRS (for the Treasury). But per the article, one of the options is to hold state employee withholding payments as well as any grant payments (am guessing unused? ) due back to the federal government.
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