The Trump administration is defying a judge’s order to restart billions of dollars in federal spending the White House tried to put on hold, a federal court ruled Monday.

Judge John J. McConnell Jr. had issued an earlier temporary restraining order blocking the funding pause and instructing the government to restart all the spending. He said Monday it’s clear that the president’s team hasn’t done that.

He ordered money restarted across the board, including specifically at the National Institutes of Health and money that was to be spent under the Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act.

“The Defendants must immediately restore frozen funding during the pendency of the TRO until the court hears and decides the preliminary injunction request,” ruled Judge McConnell, an Obama appointee to the federal court in Rhode Island.

President Trump’s budget office had ordered the freeze on Jan. 27, saying agencies needed to halt most grant and contract assistance money until they could review it and make sure it complied with Congress’s intent and the new White House’s priorities.

Several federal judges weighed in with orders halting the pause, and the Office of Management and Budget later rescinded the pause.

Trump administration lawyers told courts they had restarted the money that was paused because of the Jan. 27 order, but said other money was still on hold based on other authorities, including Mr. Trump’s executive orders and agencies’ independent power to root out fraud.

“Defendants have worked in good faith to interpret the scope of the court’s TRO and expeditiously resume any funding that is subject to it,” Daniel Schwei, a Justice Department lawyer, told the judge.

Judge McConnell, though, said the Jan. 27 pause was still at the root of things.

“But the freezes in effect now were a result of the broad categorical order, not a specific finding of possible fraud,” he wrote. “The broad categorical and sweeping freeze of federal funds is, as the court found, likely unconstitutional and has caused and continues to cause irreparable harm to a vast portion of this country.”

He pointed to evidence submitted in the case by Oregon, one of the states that sued to block the pause, that showed money was still on hold for Labor Department grants, an Energy Department rebate program and Head Start program money from the Health and Human Services Department.

• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.