Trump Spending Freeze Appeal Complicated by NIH Grant Ruling

A US court’s lifting of President Donald Trump’s government-wide spending freeze stoked concerns months later as appeals judges weighed whether an intervening US Supreme Court ruling complicates the reprieve.

The US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit heard the Trump administration’s appeal of a Rhode Island federal judge’s order unblocking trillions of dollars in loans, grants, and other payments the government halted as part of the president’s broader effort to slash government spending and align expenditures with the president’s priorities.

Chief Judge David J. Barron pressed an attorney for the coalition of 24 states that challenged the spending freeze ...