Senate Democrats vowed to fight a White House freeze on federal financial assistance, calling for a delay in the confirmation of President Donald Trump’s nominee for White House budget chief, threatening potential court actions and warning Republicans about potential impacts on their own states.

The Office of Management and Budget on Monday night issued a halt on “all federal financial assistance,” effective 5 p.m. Tuesday, that could be targeted under executive orders he’s already signed pausing funding for foreign aid, diversity programs and energy projects.

"It's a dagger at the heart of the average American family in red states and blue states, in cities, in suburbs, in rural areas," said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.). “It is just outrageous.”

Democrats said the sweeping funding freeze is unlawful under the Impoundment Control Act of 1974, a law that Trump and his allies in turn call unconstitutional.

“We have a constitutional crisis,” said Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), the top Democrat on the Senate Budget Committee, which is scheduled to vote Thursday on Russ Vought, Trump’s White House budget chief and an architect of the spending freeze.

“Congress holds the power of the purse,” added Senate Appropriations Vice Chair Patty Murray (D-Wash.). “That is very clear in the Constitution.”

Republican leaders are so far defending the move.

“I think that's a normal practice at the beginning of administration, until they have an opportunity to review how the money is being spent,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters Tuesday morning.

“We'll see kind of what the extent of it is, and … what they intend to do in a more fulsome way. But for now, I think it's just, it's just kind of a preliminary step that I think most administrations take,” Thune continued.

But Democrats are preparing for action. Schumer said that he has already been in touch with New York Attorney General Letitia James. She plans to go to court, he said, “right away on this horror.”

While states are expected to take the lead with lawsuits, organizations representing people impacted by the funding freezes could also have legal standing to sue.

In addition to throwing U.S. agencies, states and localities into confusion over the fate of their federal funding, this move could jeopardize congressional efforts to keep the federal government funded past a March 14 shutdown deadline.

Murray warned that the White House’s move amounted to “massive, massive overreach” that could imperil the traditional bipartisan negotiations over federal funding.

“Can you imagine what it's going to be like … if those agreements mean nothing? That somebody can sit back and say, ‘Sure, I'll give you that,’ knowing full well that their president's in power and they will keep the funding out?” Murray said Tuesday. “We cannot function as a democracy in this country if we cannot respect and abide by our ability to make agreements in Congress.”

DORAL, Florida — As they work through a sweeping "menu" of potential spending cuts, House Republicans are facing growing anxiety in their ranks about slashing away at key safety-net programs. But there is one proposal that enjoys broad support inside the GOP: instituting new and expanded work requirements for some of those programs.

According to three Republicans who attended a closed-door session at the House GOP retreat Tuesday, members there appeared to coalesce around the work requirements idea — which would generate less savings than other, more far-reaching proposals but is seen as more politically palatable in swing districts.

Speaker Mike Johnson said in a brief interview leaving the meeting that work requirements are “a very popular measure.”

“We haven’t made the final determinations yet, but I think it's going to be part of it,” he added.

Inside the meeting, held at President Donald Trump’s Miami-area resort, GOP chairs presented updated fiscal and political feasibility estimates as they gauged their colleagues' sentiments on the spending offsets.

Vulnerable House Republicans are deeply wary of massive cuts to programs like Medicaid, food aid benefits and, to some extent, another program known as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, which provides direct cash assistance to low-income families who qualify.

But they are more open to enacting new work requirements for Medicaid and TANF and expanding current work requirements for SNAP beneficiaries — potentially to include parents of children over 7 years old for the first time.

A batch of Democrats incensed with President Donald Trump's latest decision to pause federal spending voted against his otherwise benign nominee for Transportation secretary on Tuesday, the first brick in what some of them promise will be a wall of opposition until funds are uncorked.

An OMB memo stipulating that federal agencies should temporarily halt paying out grants and loans as of 5 p.m. Tuesday threw Washington into chaos amid a scramble to figure out what exactly is being impacted. As the Capitol reeled, many Democratic lawmakers took their frustration out by voting no on Sean Duffy's nomination to head the Transportation Department — despite having unanimously voted to move his nomination forward less than 24 hours before.

“Until I get clarity from this administration about their plans to continue implementing this order, I'm going to vote against nominees. Until I hear some better path forward on this,” said Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), adding that a federal court injunction would be necessary to ameliorate his concerns. And he questioned whether Duffy would simply be a vessel to implement the order.

"My core question is, well, will he implement this unconstitutional order to freeze all transportation project funding, like I've heard from the governor, the mayor, the county executive, the Department of Transportation in Delaware, saying, ‘Wait, what? You're gonna lay off the........

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