A Constitutional Crisis Is Happening Right Now — I Need You to Act

The Trump administration is withholding $259.5 million in Medicaid funds from Minnesota — not because a court ordered it, not because Congress authorized it, but because Minnesota’s governor refused to use local police to carry out federal immigration raids. That is punishment. And it is being collected from the sick, the elderly, and the poor. This isn’t a policy dispute. It’s a constitutional crisis. Congress appropriated these funds. The President does not have the unilateral authority to freeze them as political leverage — that violates the Medicaid Act, the Impoundment Control Act, and the Supreme Court’s own ruling in NFIB v. Sebelius, which prohibits the federal government from using funding as a weapon to coerce states. What’s happening to Minnesota today can happen to my state tomorrow. All it takes is one decision my governor makes that this President doesn’t like. I am asking you to take three concrete steps: 1. INVESTIGATE. Call for a joint investigation by the Senate Finance Committee and House Energy & Commerce Committee into whether this freeze is lawful. 2. DEMAND ANSWERS. Require HHS and CMS to publicly disclose the specific legal authority under which these funds are being withheld. 3. ENGAGE THE GAO. Request a formal Government Accountability Office review of whether this is an unlawful impoundment of congressionally appropriated funds. The power of the purse belongs to Congress. That is not a Democratic principle or a Republican principle — it is in the Constitution. I urge you to defend it.