'We Do Not Consent,' Says Warren of Illegal 'Power Grab' as Judge Halts Trump Order

Amid a flurry of sharp remarks from U.S. lawmakers in response to President Donald Trump's order to halt federal grant and loan funding across a wide swath of government programs and agencies, Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Tuesday demanded action from her colleagues on Capitol Hill.

"While President Trump illegally pauses federal funding from Congress, the Senate must not be business as usual," Warren (D-Mass.) argued on social media before the freeze was supposed to take effect. "We do not consent to this lawless power grab."

The U.S. Senate on Tuesday confirmed Sean Duffy, Trump's pick for secretary of transportation, and is set to consider various other controversial nominees—including Doug Burgum for interior secretary and Chris Wright for energy secretary—this week.

After the freeze was announced in a memo by Matthew Vaeth, acting director of the Office of Management and Budget, Democrats called for halting the Senate Budget Committee's consideration of Russell Vought, Trump's choice to lead OMB, but according to a spokesperson for the GOP-led panel, it "will proceed with Mr. Vought's nomination as scheduled."

The freeze was set to begin at 5:00 pm ET Tuesday, but nonprofit and business groups took legal action, which led Washington, D.C.-based U.S. District Judge Loren AliKhan to direct the Trump administration not to block funding until a February 3 hearing.

Democratic state attorneys general are also working on a case. That lawsuit, The New York Timesnoted, "opens up another front in what will be a long legal fight led by Democrat-led states and progressive activists to stop President Trump's aggressive second-term agenda in the federal courts."

Some activists and lawmakers—including Warren—also want members of Congress to more forcefully fight back against illegal moves by the Trump administration, even though the president's party has narrow majorities in both chambers.

The president and executive branch "can only erode the checks and balances and grab power from another branch with House and Senate Republicans' consent," Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.) said on social media. "I encourage my Republican colleagues to grow a spine and affirm that we're a co-equal branch of government and not just a dictator's advisory committee."

"And no... I'm not actually holding my breath here for these folks," the progressive lawmaker added.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016 and 2020, said in a statement: "Bottom line: This unconstitutional memo must be rescinded. The American people—Democrats, Republicans, and Independents—must come together to defeat this move towards authoritarianism. If President Trump wants to change our nation's laws he has the right to ask Congress to change them. He does not have the right to violate the United States Constitution. He is not a king."

Since the November elections that led to Republicans controlling the White House and Congress, Sanders has joined voters and grassroots organizers in urging the Democratic Party to learn from its devastating losses and actually deliver for working people. Those same voices have urged Democrats to actually serve as an opposition party while Trump is in office.

Joseph Geevarghese, executive director of Our Revolution, a group that came out of Sanders' 2016 run, said in a Tuesday statement that "Trump's unilateral freeze on federal aid is an assault on working families, public programs, and the pillars of our already fragile social contract. This is a hair-on-fire moment, and Democrats must act accordingly."

"Halting funding for life-or-death programs like Medicaid, school meals, housing, childcare, and other public services is a calculated effort to dismantle government services and public goods," he added. "With Trump prioritizing the billionaire class over the needs of everyday Americans, Democrats must be relentless in standing up for the people. This is policy violence, plain and simple."

Ahead of 5:00 pm, as the Medicaid payment portals across all 50 states went down, and White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt dodged questions about which programs would be impacted during a press briefing. She later said on social media that "the White House is aware of the Medicaid website portal outage. We have confirmed no payments have been affected—they are still being processed and sent. We expect the portal will be back online shortly."

After the briefing, ABC Newsreported on another memo from OMB:

An OMB memo obtained by ABC News senior political correspondent Rachel Scott also sought to shed light on the freeze's implications.

According to the memo, "In addition to Social Security and Medicare, already explicitly excluded in the guidance, mandatory programs like Medicaid and [Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program] will continue without pause."

"Funds for small businesses, farmers, Pell grants, Head Start, rental assistance, and other similar programs will not be paused," the document read. "If agencies are concerned that these programs may implicate the president's executive orders, they should consult OMB to begin to unwind these objectionable policies without a pause in the payments."

"Still, the pause could have sweeping implications," ABC pointed out, "as the federal government funds thousands of programs, including housing subsidies and educational grants."