Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Tuesday blasted President Trump over a Monday memo calling for a federal loan and grant pause. “Bottom line: This unconstitutional memo must be rescinded. The

The Vermont senators and representative gave a joint statement expressing their concern of this "authoritarian" decision to freeze federal grants.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt vehemently defended the administration’s sweeping freeze on federal aid, arguing Tuesday in her first press briefing that it was critical to scrutinize the scope of the government’s spending.

The freeze on hundreds of billions of dollars of federal grants had been temporarily halted by a judge on Tuesday.