NYC, Seattle and Portland Sue Trump on Funding Threat

(Bloomberg) -- New York City joined Seattle and Portland, Oregon, in suing the Trump administration over its threat to withhold federal funding after the president described them as “anarchist cities.”

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio called President Donald Trump's threats “a totally political action” that would undermine the cities' efforts to provide services as they contend with the economic and health consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic. The complaint was filed in Seattle on Thursday.

“It's morally wrong, it's legally unacceptable, it's unconstitutional, and we're going to fight it,” de Blasio said of Trump's threat. “He uses the government for political gain in a disgusting fashion.”

Justice Department spokesman Matt Lloyd declined to comment on the lawsuit, and instead cited a September statement in which U.S. Attorney General William Barr accused the cities' leaders of impeding law enforcement during protests marred by violence.

While no funds have been withheld from any of the cities on these grounds, the Trump administration has already taken “concrete steps” to deny what could amount to as much as $12 billion from New York by using the “anarchist designation” as a reason that could disqualify federal funding applications, said Jim Johnson, who heads the city's Law Department.

The phrase is not included in any federal legislation and is not a term of law, Johnson said. Trump's decision to deny such grants would violate the authority of Congress to appropriate funds and would encroach on municipalities' power to set local policy, Johnson said.

The administration's overt actions that led to the lawsuit, Johnson said, include the president issuing a memo early last month threatening to pull funding from cities experiencing Black Lives Matter demonstrations. Weeks later, Barr initiated a process designating Portland, Seattle and New York as such cities. Most recently, the U.S. Department of Transportation included the anarchist language in a grant application, Johnson said.

“We're not going to wait additional times for them to embed this provision in any other grants or opportunities for the city,” Johnson said.

In Seattle, which has budgeted more than $236 million from federal grants for this year, Mayor Jenny Durkan called the president's threat “unlawful and an abuse of federal power.” That city and Portland prevailed in court two years ago when the administration tried to withhold congressionally appropriated funds it spent to support immigrants and refugees, Seattle officials noted in a news release announcing the lawsuit.

Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler said the president had targeted the most vulnerable residents of three progressive cities, “restricting federal funds for coronavirus relief, funds for HIV treatment, and funds for newborn screenings,” according to a prepared statement forwarded by de Blasio's press office.

The anarchist designation is a phrase “made up out of whole cloth,” Johnson said. Aside from mass-transit money, other funds that would be at risk include money for police and other law enforcement and for health and human services, he said.

“The only anarchy in this country is coming from the White House and it's not anything we've seen from any Democratic or Republican administration ever before,” de Blasio said.

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