A U.S. District judge on Tuesday ordered the Trump administration to unfreeze billions of dollars allocated in the Inflation Reduction Act and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act intended to help cities improve air quality, safe water systems and resilience to natural disasters and cyberattacks.
Judge Mary McElroy issued the temporary injunction in response to a lawsuit filed last month in U.S. District Court in Rhode Island by the nonprofit Democracy Forward, representing six nonprofit environmental groups, asking the court to unfreeze funds Trump halted in his “Unleashing American Energy” executive order on Jan. 20. Section 7 of that order, titled “Terminating the Green New Deal,” directed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and departments of Agriculture, Energy, the Interior and Housing and Urban Development to immediately pause disbursement of IIJA and IRA funds.
In targeted funding appropriated by the IRA and IIJA, the lawsuit states, Trump administration officials “have acted arbitrarily, capriciously, without statutory authority and contrary to law.” The result, the plaintiffs stated, “has been real and irreparable harm to the recipients of that funding in this District and across the country, as well as to the people and communities they serve.”
Funds halted by the executive order included $97 billion to upgrade the power grid to withstand wildfires, extreme weather and natural disasters and deploy cybersecurity technology to protect electric utility systems, as well as $69 billion in EPA funds to “help communities burdened by pollution,” the lawsuit states.
The plaintiffs argued the funding freeze “is arbitrary and capricious in multiple respects” and violates the Administrative Procedure Act by disrupting vital community-led projects and jeopardizing jobs, public health initiatives and climate-resilience efforts.
McElroy ruled the nonprofits “have adequately demonstrated irreparable harm in several forms” and said “the balance of equities and the public interest weigh heavily in their favor.” Adding that Trump is entitled to enact his agenda, McElroy made clear she was not ruling on the wisdom of his decisions but on “the procedure (or lack thereof) that the Government follows in trying to enact those policies.” Agencies don’t have unlimited authority to enact Trump’s agenda, “nor do they have unlimited power to hamstring in perpetuity two statutes passed by Congress during a previous administration,” she wrote.
“Today’s ruling marks a crucial victory for the rule of law and ensures these vital resources will flow to the people and projects Congress intended to support,” Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward, said in a statement.
Editor's note: We have updated this story with the date the temporary injunction was issued.
