The state of Pennsylvania still couldn’t access more than $1 billion in funds as of this week — including infrastructure funds to address abandoned mine lands — according to a lawsuit the state filed against the Trump administration Thursday.
Gov. Josh Shapiro said Thursday that his administration had been working with Pennsylvania’s congressional delegation and the federal agencies to restore funding since the freeze began shortly after Donald Trump took office, but that $1.2 billion in funds still remained unavailable as of Wednesday. The state is claiming that the administration is still not obeying multiple judge orders to turn the federal spigot back on, according to the lawsuit.
Most — if not all — of the money that Pennsylvania alleges it cannot access comes from the Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure law, including part of the $3 billion awarded to Pennsylvania to repair abandoned mine lands, the $76 million for plugging oil and gas wells and the $126 million for home energy rebates, according to examples cited in the complaint. The state still does not have access to funds from more than a dozen programs between those two bills, according to the complaint.
“By conditioning, and possibly freezing access to appropriated and obligated funding, DOI has jeopardized work that is necessary to, for example, eliminate toxic emissions that result from unplugged and unproductive oil and gas well and to curtail stray gas from migrating into private homes and water wells, which risks home explosions,” Jacob Boyer, the governor’s deputy general counsel, wrote in the complaint.
Pennsylvania officials said they are also already dealing with issues around paying workers, keeping contracts and paying debts. Some contractors have informed the state that they won’t be conducting work until they are certain funds will be available, and some state agencies may have to consider furloughing employees, Boyer wrote.
“While Commonwealth agencies cannot draw from certain federal accounts, they are stuck incurring debts and obligations in federally approved projects that the Trump Administration currently is refusing to reimburse. While agencies have some reserves and discretionary dollars to cover small, unexpected debts, the scope of the federal freeze will far exceed those reserves,” the state said in the press release.
Pennsylvania is one of the largest state recipients of federal dollars. It joins in the flood of legal challenges led by other states that began just days after Trump took office.
On Monday, a federal judge in Rhode Island ruled that the Trump administration had not been complying with his orders to immediately unfreeze all IRA and IIJA funds. The judge’s ruling Monday followed exhibits in court that showed emails to states from the government, arguing that the Trump administration didn’t believe the climate and infrastructure dollars were subject to a temporary restraining order issued last week.
Multiple other states, including Arizona and New Mexico, told NOTUS over the past week that they still could not access many of their grant programs under the IRA and IIJA as well.
NOTUS requested comments from the Department of Energy, Department of the Interior, Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Management and Budget and Department of Transportation.
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Anna Kramer is a reporter at NOTUS.