Pennsylvania governor to sue Trump administration over federal spending freeze

Plus, South Dakota legislator removed from committee position over school defunding bill. 

On Thursday Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) announced he will take legal action against President Donald Trump’s efforts to restrict the federal government’s dispensing of state funding. 

This comes after two judges stayed the funding freeze when 22 state attorney generals and the District of Columbia filed lawsuits challenging the blockage of trillions of dollars in grants and loans, which was first declared in a controversial Office of Management and Budget memo in late January.  

“The federal government has entered into a contract with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, promising to provide billions of dollars in Congressionally-approved funding that we have committed to serious needs — like protecting public health, cutting energy costs, providing safe, clean drinking water, and creating jobs in rural communities,” Shapiro said in a statement. 

“With this funding freeze, the Trump Administration is breaking that contract — and it’s my job as Governor to protect Pennsylvania’s interests.” 

Such funds, according to Shapiro, are urgent. For example, congressional spending had been approved for Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection so it could prevent old mining sites from creating dangerous sinkholes , as well as finance water treatment plants that process toxic runoff from said mines. 

But Shapiro was not the only Heartland governor to publicize he’d be joining the fight against Trump’s funding freeze. Shortly thereafter, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D) threw his hat into the ring and shared that he would be engaging in a similar suit. 

"We deserve to be able to rely on the agreements that a federal government has made regardless of what party is in power. And I was raised to say, my word is my bond. And when I sign a contract, you know, I go through with it,” Beshear said. 

“When I sign an agreement, I go through with it. And this is just asking our federal government to do the same.”

South Dakota state Rep. Phil Jensen (R-Rapid City) was forced out of his House Education Committee vice chairmanship after introducing a bill that would defund a school hundreds of miles away from Jensen’s district. 

Jensen said that the bill, which was withdrawn, was a backlash to the Huron School District’s policy on transgender students using the bathroom which matches their gender identity. Huron lies some 300 miles east of Jensen’s district. 

“They allow boys to go in the girls’ bathrooms now,” Jensen said. “And that’s unacceptable.”

In response to Jensen’s demotion, House Education Committee Chairwoman Lana Greenfield (R-Doland) requested that the Rapid City representative avoid the committee’s Wednesday meetings. 

“I just thought instead of inciting any kind of a problem, it would be better if he would leave,” Greenfield told the South Dakota Searchlight.

LGBTQ+ activists in the state were quick to reply to Jensen’s conduct. 

“For almost a decade we have seen Rep. Phil Jensen propose hateful, discriminatory legislation that targets transgender South Dakotans,” Susan Williams, executive director of the Transformation Project in Sioux Falls, said in a statement. 

“His demotion after his latest incidence of transphobia is well deserved. Rep. Jensen’s desire to use his position to hurt marginalized people, rather than help them is deplorable.”

Jensen seemed comfortable rescinding his legislation because fellow South Dakotan Republicans had introduced a similar version that would deploy a statewide ban to what Jensen proposed. Indeed, Jensen himself cosponsored House Bill 1259. 

“The administrator of a public school shall designate any multi-occupancy student changing room, restroom, or shower room, located in the school, for use exclusively by females or for use exclusively by males,” the bill reads. Those who violate this policy in schools and government buildings could face a class two misdemeanor.