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BOSTON (AP) - Attorneys general from more than 20 states and Washington, D.C. submitted a federal claim Tuesday tough billions of dollars in funding cuts made by the Trump administration that would fund whatever from crime prevention to food security to scientific research.
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The lawsuit submitted in Boston is asking a judge to restrict the Trump administration from relying on an obscure clause in the federal guideline to cut grants that put on ´ t line up with its concerns. Since January, the claim argues that the administration has utilized that provision to cancel whole programs and thousands of grants that had actually been formerly granted to states and grantees.

"Defendants ´ choice to conjure up the Clause to end grants based on changed firm priorities is illegal several times over," the complainants argued. "The rulemaking history of the Clause makes plain that the (Office of Management and Budget) intended for the Clause to allow terminations in only restricted scenarios and provides no assistance for a broad power to end grants on an impulse based on newly recognized firm top priorities."

The suit argues the Trump administration has used the provision for the basis of a "slash-and-burn campaign" to cut federal grants.

"Defendants have terminated thousands of grant awards made to Plaintiffs, pulling the carpet out from under the States, and eliminating important federal financing on which States and their locals rely for necessary programs," the claim included.

The White House's Office of Management and Budget did not immediately react to a demand made Tuesday afternoon for remark.

Rhode Island Attorney General Neronha said this lawsuit was simply one of numerous the coalition of primarily Democratic states have actually filed over funding cuts. For the most part, they have actually mainly been successful in a string of legal triumphes to briefly stop cuts.

This one, though, may be the broadest difficulty to those funding cuts.

"It ´ s obvious that this President has gone to terrific lengths to obstruct federal financing to the states, however what might be lesser known is how the Trump Administration is trying to justify their unlawful actions," Neronha stated in a statement. "Nearly every lawsuit this union of Democratic attorneys basic has actually submitted versus the Administration is associated with its illegal and ostentatious efforts to rob Americans of basic programs and services upon which they rely. Most often, this can be found in the form of illegal federal financing cuts, which the Administration tries to justify by means of a so-called 'company priorities provision."

Connecticut Chief Law Officer William Tong stated the lawsuit intended to stop funding cuts he explained as indiscriminate and prohibited.

"There is no 'because I put on ´ t like you ´ or 'due to the fact that I don ´ t feel like it anymore ´ defunding provision in federal law that allows the President to bypass Congress on a whim," Tong said in a statement. "Since his very first minutes in workplace, Trump has actually unilaterally defunded our authorities, our schools, our health care, and more. He can ´ t do that, which ´ s why over and over again we have obstructed him in court and recovered our funding."

In Massachusetts, Attorney General Andrea Campbell stated the U.S. Department of Agriculture terminated a $11 million agreement with the state Department of Agricultural Resources connecting numerous farmers to hundreds of food circulation sites while the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ended a $1 million grant to the state Department of Public Health to reduce asthma triggers in low-income neighborhoods.

"We can not stand idly by while this President continues to launch unmatched, unlawful attacks on Massachusetts ´ locals, organizations, and economy," Campbell stated in a declaration.

The lawsuit argues that the OMB promulgated making use of the in question to justify the cuts. The stipulation in question, according to the suit, describes five words that state federal agents can terminate grants if the award "no longer effectuates the program objectives or firm top priorities."

"The Trump Administration has actually declared that 5 words in this Clause-'no longer effectuates ... firm top priorities'-provide federal firms with essentially unfettered authority to withhold federal financing whenever they no longer want to support the programs for which Congress has actually appropriated financing," the claim said.