A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to stop withholding more than $9 million for climate resilience projects in Washington state.
Judge Marsha Pechman of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington sided with the state on Wednesday, granting a preliminary injunction that blocks NOAA from scrapping the Biden-era awards.
The decision comes as states and other federal grant recipients battle the administration over its efforts to slash billions in funding it deems not aligned with its priorities.
Attorney General Nick Brown, a Democrat, sued the government in August, arguing that withholding $9.3 million for a tribal stewards program and $114,000 for a coastal resilience program run by the state Department of Ecology violated the law.
