AG Frey filed a complaint today in federal court in Maine against 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. 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. 

“Under the banner of keeping children safe, the Trump Administration is illegally withholding grant funds that go to keeping children fed. 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.”- AG Frey