Trump Administration Illegally Withheld Education Research Funding, Federal Court Rules in Part

Judge grants partial summary judgment for plaintiffs, narrowing OMB’s attempt to override some Congressional funding decisions for education research programs. 

Boston, MA – September 18, 2026  The Trump Administration must make good on their promises to spend hundreds of millions in education research funds before they expire on September 30, 2026, a federal judge in the District of Massachusetts ruled yesterday. The ruling also prohibited OMB from using apportionment footnotes to apply policy directives from Executive Orders to hundreds of millions of dollars in Congressionally appropriated funding for education research programs.

The ruling came in a lawsuit brought by Protect Democracy and Jacobson Lawyers Group on behalf of the National Center for Learning Disabilities, the Massachusetts Teachers Association, and other stakeholders against OMB Director Russell Vought, Education Secretary Linda McMahon, and acting IES Director Matthew Soldner in June, to ensure students, schools, and education organizations across the country can receive hundred of millions of dollars already appropriated for students. The suit argued that the funding freeze violated the Anti-Deficiency Act, the Administrative Procedures Act, and the Constitution’s separation of powers. 

Today’s order holds that OMB acted unlawfully in using apportionments to forbid the Department of Education from spending education research funds on purported DEI activities, and to require the Department to give political appointees control over the awarding of grants. Setting aside the imposition of these Executive Order policy directives through the apportionment process ensures that OMB cannot leverage the apportionment process — and threaten agency officials with administrative and criminal penalties tied to that process — in order to dictate how congressional appropriations are spent.

The court also ordered the Department of Education to update the court as the end of the fiscal year nears, to ensure that all the funds appropriated by Congress are obligated before they expire.

The Constitution gives Congress the power of the purse. When Congress appropriates funding and directs that it be used for specific programs, the executive branch must faithfully ensure that funding goes to the programs for which it is intended. Congress, not the President, or his budget office, decides how federal money is spent. Today’s ruling makes clear that principle on a few of OMB’s misuses of the apportionment process even if it left the question of enjoining OMB’s ability to continue such misuses for another day. 

“Today’s ruling affirms an important principle: funding that Congress has appropriated for education research, data, and programs must be used as Congress intended. This funding supports the research and information that families, educators, and policymakers rely on to understand what students need and how we can better serve them. We are encouraged by today’s decision and what it means for protecting these critical resources,”  said Dr. Jacqueline Rodriguez, Chief Executive Officer at the National Center for Learning Disabilities.

“For decades educators and researchers have counted on this funding to do their jobs, and this administration held it back,” said NEA President Princess Moss. “Today’s ruling makes clear that the administration cannot rewrite the programs Congress funded, and OMB cannot force researchers to strip out any mention of diversity, equity, or disability to get funding. This is a real step forward for the families and educators across the country who have been carrying the burden of this unnecessary delay.  Our thanks to the 117,000 members of the Massachusetts Teachers Association who stood up as plaintiffs. We will be watching to make sure every dollar reaches the students Congress intended to support.”

“This ruling is a reality check for OMB officials who tried to get away with a constitutional purse snatching,” said Cerin Lindgrensavage, Counsel at Protect Democracy. “The court confirmed our core principle, that Congress decides how money is spent, and the executive branch needs to follow the law, not keep trying to find new ways around it.”

“The court affirmed today that OMB cannot abuse obscure administrative processes to supplant Congress’s sole authority to dictate how federal funds are spent.” said Dan Jacobson, Jacobson Lawyers Group PLLC.

Click to read more about this case and view related documents on Protect Democracy’s website here.