State of Maine sues Trump administration for freezing funds used to feed children and vulnerable adults
On April 7, the Attorney General for the State of Maine, Aaron M. Frey, filed a complaint in federal court directed at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins for withholding funding used to feed children in schools, childcare centers, and after-school programming as well as disabled adults in congregate settings.
The complaint follows a letter received by the State on April 2 from Secretary Rollins announcing the freeze because of the State’s alleged violation of Title IX in educational programming.
In the letter, the Secretary threatened, “[t]his is only the beginning.” Secretary Rollins stated in her letter that the freeze would not impact programs providing food to children, however on April 3, the Child Nutrition Program of the Maine Department of Education was unable to access several sources of federal funding, all of which are necessary to feed children and vulnerable adults.
“Under the banner of keeping children safe, the Trump Administration is illegally withholding grant funds that go to keeping children fed,” said Attorney General Frey. “This is just another example where no law or consequence appears to restrain the administration as it seeks capitulation to its lawlessness. The President and his cabinet secretaries do not make the law and they are not above the law, and this action is necessary to remind the President that Maine will not be bullied into violating the law.”
In the complaint, Attorney General Frey states that the freeze was unlawful, following no legally required procedure to alter the Congressionally appropriated funds, including the USDA’s own regulations which require a hearing and a formal decision on the record before funds can be terminated. The Attorney General is also seeking a temporary restraining order preventing the USDA from withholding funds while the Court hears the matter.
The background for this lawsuit dates back to the earliest days of Trump’s second presidency when he went after Maine’s Governor Janet Mills when he was heading up a meeting with the National Governors Association in the White House on February 20.
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According to folklorist / writer Glee Violette, as Trump was reminding the Governors of his executive orders of declaring that there were only two sexes and ending the participation of transitioned students in women’s sports, he verbally singled out Governor Mills and demanded that she and her State comply with his order – as he was aware that there was a transgender student athlete in the state of Maine.
Mills replied to Trump’s unseemly and rudely stated demand by saying that that Maine’s schools were complying with all State and Federal Laws.
Donald Trump: “Well, we are the federal law,” he said. “You’d better do it. You’d better do it, because you’re not going to get any federal funding at all if you don’t.”
Governor Janet Mills: “We’re going to follow the law sir. We’ll see you in court,” she said sternly.
Since that encounter, Trump has been on a vendetta targeting Mills and Maine, demanding “a full throated apology” from the Governor for daring to speak up at the Governors Meeting. Mills wholeheartedly ignored Trump’s demand for that apology.
On February 22, X quoted Maine Governor Janet Mill as saying, “In America, the President is neither a King nor a dictator, as much as this one tries to act like it – and it is the rule of law that prevents him from being so.”
“Enjoy your life after governor, because I don’t think you’ll be an elected official afterwards,” Trump posted from Truth Social.
Later, Trump issued a statement from the White House, saying, “This will not end well for the Governor and the people of Maine.”
And it’s not going well for Maine thanks to the president. Recently, Glee Violette went on to share that Trump’s Department of Education head, wrestling queen Linda McMahon, launched an inquiry against Maine’s Department of Education last week. Then, The New York Times reported that Trump’s Department of Agriculture said that it had “frozen federal funding for education programs in Maine, the latest in a barrage of actions targeting the state.”
MSNBC reported that “in case that weren’t quite enough, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration sent a letter to Maine cancelling funding for Maine Sea Grant.” Maine Public Radio says that in recent days, both the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Department of Education have declared that Maine is violating Title IX. The agencies have given the state 10 days to come into compliance with the Trump administration’s interpretation of the law and make other changes or risk referral to the U.S. Department of Justice for additional potential sanctions.
And now we’re learning that it’s taking a lawsuit filed against the Trump administration because the federal government has cut Maine’s funding used to feed children and vulnerable adults – allegedly because the State is in violation of Title IX in educational programming.
Opinion: No matter how you may feel about transgenders in general or transitioned students participating in women’s sports, the bigger problem here is an unethical president lacking in humanity and the politically based social graces who thinks nothing of going full tilt into revengeful vendettas when others don’t swear their undying loyalty to him. He really is more autocrat than president – and what we need right now is a caring individual leading the country – not whatever he is.
For more on Maine’s lawsuit filed against the Trump administration for freezing funds crucial to feeding children and disabled adults, see the video below.
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(Source: Office of the Maine Attorney General)
(Cover photo: Janet Mills and Donald Trump, Image credit: X)
Posted by Richard Webster, Ace News Today
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