Gov. Josh Shapiro Says Over $2 Billion of Federal Funding Is Unfrozen for Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) said Monday that the more than $2 billion in federal funding for his state has been unfrozen after he filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration.
In the Feb. 13 lawsuit, Shapiro alleged that despite two different judges ordering the administration to unfreeze federal funding, access had not been restored.
The congressionally-approved funding to Pennsylvania helps agencies in “protecting public health, cutting energy costs, providing safe, clean drinking water, and creating jobs in rural communities,” Shapiro said.
Feb. 13
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro Sues Trump Administration To Release Over $3 Billion in Federal Funds
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) sued President Donald Trump’s administration Thursday to get them to unfreeze over $3 billion of federal funding allocated to his state’s agencies over the next several years.
Trump’s Office of Management and Budget issued a Jan. 27 memo announcing a funding freeze for federal government agencies and quickly rescinded the memo two days later. However, the administration clarified that the funding freeze was still in effect, pursuant to the previous executive orders Trump issued regarding federal department and agency spending.
In the following week, two federal judges in Rhode Island and Washington, D.C. granted requests for temporary restraining orders, which halted the funding freeze while litigation continues in the lawsuits.
“While multiple federal judges have ordered the Trump Administration to unfreeze this funding, access has not been restored, leaving my Administration with no choice but to pursue legal action to protect the interests of the Commonwealth and its residents,” Shapiro said in a Thursday statement.
The congressionally-approved funding to Pennsylvania helps agencies in “protecting public health, cutting energy costs, providing safe, clean drinking water, and creating jobs in rural communities,” Shapiro said.
He explained in the lawsuit that one grant program designates billions of dollars to Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection over the next 15 years to repair former mining sites because if left abandoned, they can cause sinkholes which can and have caused significant property damage and deaths.
Additionally, the funding is used to maintain over a dozen water treatment systems that deal with toxic runoff from abandoned mines. The department also has funding dedicated to plugging abandoned oil and gas wells, which create greenhouse gas emissions and could even cause explosions.
Two other grant programs each allocate $126 million to allow 28,000 low-income households to perform work on their homes to lower utility bills.
Shapiro said in the lawsuit that he and members of Pennsylvania’s agencies “have been working with federal partners and legislators to try to fully restore access to these funds,” but their efforts have been unsuccessful.
He argued that federal agencies have violated the Administrative Procedure Act because they “possess no authority to refuse to disburse funds authorized and appropriated by Congress and obligated to Pennsylvania agencies.”
Also, Shapiro claimed the Trump administration is not properly performing its constitutional duty to “take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed.” He argued the Executive Branch is not properly implementing spending bills passed by the Senate appropriating federal funds.
He asked a federal district court in Pennsylvania to block the Trump administration from “freezing, pausing, conditioning, or otherwise interfering with” federal funding dedicated to Pennsylvania agencies.