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With federal funding freeze uncertain, Mayes joins opposing suit

Then-Democratic candidate Kris Mayes speaks with the media after a televised debate against Republican Abraham Hamadeh for Arizona attorney general, Wed, Sept. 28, 2022.
Ross D. Franklin/AP
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AP
Then-Democratic candidate Kris Mayes speaks with the media after a televised debate against Republican Abraham Hamadeh for Arizona attorney general, Wed, Sept. 28, 2022.

The Trump administration has backed down on a plan to freeze federal grants and loans.

Yesterday Attorney General Kris Mayes and other state attorneys general challenged the order in a federal lawsuit.

Mayes said Trump’s order would have sapped more than $200 million from the state Department of Economic Security for affordable housing and food programs like SNAP.

At a Tuesday press conference, she also said it would have eliminated pay for more than 700 drug enforcement officers and caused the closures of dozens of rural healthcare facilities.

“These are funds that were authorized by congress and that Donald Trump just decided to shut off on his own, that is not the way it works in our country, so it is blatantly, flatly unconstitutional," Mayes says.

The Trump administration memo says the halt would have allowed agencies to ensure federal spending doesn’t support, quote, “wokeness.”

But the administration reversed the funding freeze after a federal judge blocked the order Tuesday.