President Donald Trump signed a five-page memo Wednesday to start the process of defunding New York City, Portland, Seattle and Washington D.C., where officials have allowed “lawless” protests to run rampant for the past three months.
The memo ordered federal agencies to send reports to the White House Office of Management and Budget that outline what funds are provided to the four cities and how funds can be redirected away from them.
“My Administration will not allow Federal tax dollars to fund cities that allow themselves to deteriorate into lawless zones,” the memo said.
“To ensure that Federal funds are neither unduly wasted nor spent in a manner that directly violates our Government’s promise to protect life, liberty, and property, it is imperative that the Federal Government review the use of Federal funds by jurisdictions that permit anarchy, violence, and destruction in America’s cities,” it continued.
“As a result of these State and local government policies, persistent and outrageous acts of violence and destruction have continued unabated in many of America’s cities, such as Portland, Seattle, and New York,” the memo said.
Attorney General Bill Barr must create a list within 14 days of “anarchist jurisdictions” that “permitted violence and the destruction of property to persist and have refused to undertake reasonable measures” to restore order, according to the memo.
Within 30 days from the issuance of the memo, White House budget director Russ Vought has to give guidance “to the heads of agencies on restricting eligibility of or otherwise disfavoring, to the maximum extent permitted by law, anarchist jurisdictions in the receipt of Federal grants.”
“American taxpayers who fund the great programs that our city rely on deserve to be protected by their local city officials. We are taking action by exploring all options to ensure Federal resources flowing to lawless cities aren’t being squandered. The lack of law and order surrounding these riots, and response from local leadership, is a dereliction of duty. Our men and women in blue cannot be handcuffed by local leadership in their efforts to respond to riots and protect their fellow citizens,” Vought said in a statement to the Daily Caller.
New York City, one of the four cities explicitly mentioned, receives upwards of $7 billion a year in federal aid, according to the New York City Council.(RELATED: 49 Shot In 72 Hours In New York City As Violence Continues To Surge)
Trump took aim at the city after Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio and Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo rejected Trump’s offer of federal assistance to curb the “unconscionable rise in violence.”
New York City saw a 177% increase in shootings in July 2020 compared to July 2019, according to Fox News. The city council also slashed $1 billion from the New York Police Department’s annual budget.
“While violence has surged, arrests have plummeted,” the memo read. “In a 28-day period during the months of June and July, arrests were down 62 percent from the same period in 2019. Amidst the rising violence, Mayor Bill de Blasio and the New York City Council agreed to cut one billion dollars from the New York Police Department (NYPD) budget, including by cancelling the hiring of 1,163 officers.”
However, some are questioning the legal authority of this memo and whether or not it has any basis.
Bill Neidhardt, press secretary for de Blasio, also said the policy cannot “stand” in a Wednesday tweet.
“As much as Donald Trump wants New York City to drop dead, we will never let this stand. This has nothing to do with ‘law and order.’ This is a racist campaign stunt out of the Oval Office to attack millions of people of color.”
As much as Donald Trump wants New York City to drop dead, we will never let this stand.
This has nothing to do with “law and order”. This is a racist campaign stunt out of the Oval Office to attack millions of people of color. https://t.co/w7tzJxc8wW
— Bill Neidhardt (@BNeidhardt) September 2, 2020
Cuomo also pushed back against the memo, saying, “President Trump has been actively trying to kill New York City ever since he was elected.”
According to the Supreme Court case of South Dakota v. Dole, the federal government can condition federal funds going to state or local governments only if the conditions are “unambiguous,” “germane,” “non-coercive” and otherwise constitutional, according to Congressional Research Service.