The Trump administration has until 5 p.m. Wednesday to detail its compliance with a sweeping federal court order to immediately lift a nationwide funding freeze on climate-related grants.
Judge Mary McElroy of the U.S. District Court for Rhode Island on Tuesday ordered several agencies, including EPA and the Energy and Interior departments, to take “immediate steps” to resume processing grants that were awarded under the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act and the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. She found the agencies had no authority to put the funding on ice.
Federal agencies do not “have unlimited authority to further a president’s agenda, nor do they have unfettered power to hamstring in perpetuity two statutes passed by Congress during the previous administration,” McElroy wrote in a 63-page decision that ordered the administration to file a status report Wednesday on its compliance.
Her ruling comes after the administration has ignored other court decisions to unfreeze funds, prompting judges to warn that administration officials risk being held in criminal contempt. The administration has also continued to bar the Associated Press from the White House press pool, despite a court order.
