Washington has joined 21 other states in a lawsuit against the Trump administration’s recent order that goes after important government agencies. The attorneys general of New York, Hawaii, and Rhode Island are leading the lawsuit. Its goal is to stop the possible dissolution of the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), the Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA), and the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS). These are the organizations that help public libraries, museums, and minority-owned businesses.
People are now looking closely at Trump’s executive order to see what effects it has. Most of the people who work for the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), which gives funding to museums and libraries across the country, are on administrative leave. An announcement from the Attorney General’s office says that the Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) and the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS), which handles labor disputes, have cut their staff from 200 to less than 15, and they have also said they will be ending some important programs. The lawsuit says that the executive order may go beyond what the president can do when it comes to spending money on the government without getting proper approval from Congress. This makes people worry about the Constitution’s split of powers.
Attorney General Nick Brown and his colleagues say that this order might go too far and not meet the needs of communities that aren’t getting enough help. Brown said in the news release, “Communities throughout Washington benefit from the work of these agencies to support libraries, promote minority-owned businesses, and protect workers’ rights.” This shows how federal investments have an effect on the local level. For instance, last year the IMLS gave $180 million to states through its Grants to States Program. This money is now in danger.
To give you an idea of these changes, the MBDA now only has five employees instead of forty. Because of this cut, no new grants are being given out, which hurts small companies. The legal complaint that the state attorneys general filed shows that they are worried that this could hurt the economic growth in minority communities, which is what the MBDA was meant to do. The states say that the president may have gone beyond what he was allowed to do by affecting agencies that Congress set up to promote opportunity and fair settlement across the country.
Attorneys general from Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Vermont, and Wisconsin are also part of the case. This broad group shows that a lot of people are worried about what the executive order might do. The main points of the lawsuit are to deal with problems involving federal funding and running public programs.
