Following Federal Court Order, Democrats Demand Trump Administration Restore MBDA Personnel & Grants it Unlawfully Dismantled

Summary

Press release dated May 28, 2025 in which Ranking Member Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and Senators Maria Cantwell, Tammy Baldwin, Lisa Blunt Rochester, Ben Ray Lujan and Martin Heinrich write to Keith Sonderling, Acting Under Secretary for MBDA, after a federal court injunction dated May 13. The injunction ordered the administration to stop dismantling the Minority Business Development Agency and restore its personnel and grants. The letter notes that an Executive Order in March eliminated the agency and that twenty-one states sued. It demands a description of actions taken to address staffing gaps. The accusations of unlawful conduct are the senators' own.

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Title: Following Federal Court Order, Democrats Demand Trump Administration Restore MBDA Personnel & Grants it Unlawfully Dismantled
Date: 2025-05-28

Following Federal Court Order, Democrats Demand Trump Administration Restore MBDA Personnel & Grants it Unlawfully Dismantled

May 28, 2025

Trump’s Commerce Sec. Lutnick continues to betray his own testimony before Commerce Committee that he would NOT support gutting MBDA

Senators have demanded answers, documents, DOGE details since Trump issued illegal EO

(Washington, May 28) – Ranking Member Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), Senators Maria Cantwell, Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Science, Manufacturing and Competitiveness, Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.), Ben Ray Lujan (D-N.M.) and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) demanded the Trump Administration detail its compliance with a May 13 federal court injunction ordering it to stop the illegal dismantling of the Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) and restore the agency’s personnel and grantmaking capacities.

Despite the clear authority of Congress to establish and appropriate funding for the MBDA, President Trump issued an Executive Order in March eliminating it. The Department of Commerce then fired virtually the entire workforce and cancelled the MBDA’s grant programs.

“Twenty-one states sued the Administration, seeking a preliminary injunction to prevent the Administration from carrying out the Executive Order,” the senators wrote in a letter to Keith Sonderling, Acting Under Secretary for MBDA. “The states argued that implementation of the Executive Order violates the Administrative Procedure Act, the Constitution’s Take Care Clause, and separation of powers principles under the Constitution.”

The Senators underscored that in granting the injunction, the Court said President Trump’s Executive Order usurped Congress’s “power of the purse, by disregarding congressional appropriations” and its “vested authority to create and abolish federal agencies.”

“The Court’s order detailing how the Trump Administration must comply with the Injunction makes it clear that the MBDA’s personnel and grantmaking capabilities must be restored,” they wrote, and asked the Under Secretary to provide “a complete description of all actions taken by the Department or MBDA ‘to reverse any policies, memoranda, directions, or actions issued before’ the Injunction, intended to implement the Executive Order.”

Today’s letter follows a May 1, 2025 inquiry to Sonderling and two previous letters to Sec. Lutnick in March and April on his failure to protect the agency, as he claimed he would in testimony before the Committee.

The full letter can be found HERE and below.

Acting Under Secretary Sonderling:

On May 13, 2025, the United States District Court for the District of Rhode Island issued a preliminary injunction in State of Rhode Island, et al. v. Donald J. Trump, et al. ordering the Department of Commerce (Department) to halt its unlawful dismantling of the Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) pursuant to President Trump’s Executive Order 14238, “Continuing the Reduction of the Federal Bureaucracy” (Executive Order). We write to ensure that the Department is complying with its obligations under the preliminary injunction.

In 2021, Congress permanently authorized the MBDA in bipartisan legislation, the Minority Business Development Act of 2021 (MBDA Act), which was enacted as part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Last year, Congress funded the MBDA pursuant to the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024, which appropriated $68.25 million for the “necessary expenses of the Minority Business Development Agency in fostering, promoting, and developing minority business enterprises, as authorized by law.” That same level of funding has been appropriated through the Full-Year Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2025 (P.L. 119-4)

Despite the clear directive and appropriations by Congress, President Trump’s Executive Order, issued on March 14, 2025, called for effectively eliminating the MBDA, among other agencies. Following the issuance of the Executive Order, the Trump Administration unilaterally dismantled the MBDA—terminating virtually all its staff, canceling its grant programs, and removing its signage from the Department.

Twenty-one states sued the Trump Administration, seeking a preliminary injunction to prevent the Administration from carrying out the Executive Order. The states argued that implementation of the Executive Order violates the Administrative Procedure Act, the Constitution’s Take Care Clause, and separation of powers principles under the Constitution. The Court found that the state plaintiffs are likely to succeed on all of their claims and granted the injunction, halting implementation of the Executive Order. In its analysis of the states’ Constitutional claims, the Court said the following:

By issuing the [Executive Order]—which effectively directs withholding the funds that Congress recently statutorily appropriated to [MBDA], resulting in the cessation of several of their programs, see supra—the Executive is usurping Congress’s: (1) power of the purse, by disregarding congressional appropriations; and (2) vested legislative authority to create and abolish federal agencies.

The Court’s order detailing how the Trump Administration must comply with the preliminary injunction makes it clear that the MBDA’s personnel and grantmaking capabilities must be restored. This is good news for the American public. In Fiscal Year 2024 alone, the MBDA helped the country’s more than 12 million minority businesses access over $1.5 billion in capital and create or retain approximately 23,000 jobs.

Given the important mission of the MBDA, it is essential that Congress and the public understand how the Trump Administration is complying with the preliminary injunction. Therefore, we are requesting you to report on the following by June 9, 2025:

A complete description of all actions taken by the Department or MBDA to enjoin the implementation of Section 2 of the Executive Order.

A complete description of all actions taken by the Department or MBDA “to reverse any policies, memoranda, directions, or actions issued before” the injunction, intended to implement the Executive Order.

Confirmation that the Department or MBDA has “not take[n] any further actions to eliminate [the MBDA] pursuant to” the Executive Order.

A complete description of all actions taken by the Department or MBDA to take “all necessary steps to restore all [MBDA] employees and personal service contractors, who were involuntarily placed on leave or involuntarily terminated due to the implementation of” the Executive Order “to their status before March 14, 2025.”

Confirmation that the Department or MBDA “shall not further pause, cancel, or otherwise terminate [MBDA] grants or contracts or fail to disburse funds to recipients in plaintiff States according to such grants or contracts for reasons other than the grantees or contractors’ non compliances with applicable grant or contract terms.”

A complete description of all actions taken by the Department or MBDA to “take immediate steps to resume the processing, disbursement, and payment of already-awarded funding, and to release awarded funds previously withheld or rendered inaccessible due to or in reliance on Section 2 of the” Executive Order.

In addition, in the event that any MBDA employees or personal service contractors are unable to resume their roles lost due to their involuntary terminations and leave under the Executive Order, please provide a complete description of all actions taken to address any gaps in staffing at the MBDA following implementation of the preliminary injunction.

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