Judge Orders Release of Frozen IRA, IIJA Funding

A judge ordered the Trump administration to release funds frozen under the “Unleashing American Energy” executive order. As Robyn Griggs Lawrence explains in Smart Cities Dive, the funds were allocated under the Inflation Reduction Act and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act for air quality, water treatment, and disaster resilience programs. “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 move came in response to a lawsuit filed by a group of six environmental organizations. According to the suit, freezing the funds “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.”

According to the judge, “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.’”