directed that \u201call agencies shall immediately pause the disbursement of funds appropriated through the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 or the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act,\u201d but the plaintiffs argue that a unilateral suspension of state funds already appropriated and obligated by Congress violates the U.S. Constitution.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\nThe suit was filed in the U.S.\u00a0District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Shapiro, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, or DEP, the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, the Pennsylvania Department of <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>Transportation, and the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development are named as plaintiffs.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\nShapiro is the first governor to initiate a lawsuit against the Trump administration over the funding freeze, but Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, D, on Thursday joined a suit filed by attorneys general representing 22 states.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The defendants named are the U.S. Department of the Interior, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Department of Transportation, and the Office of Management and Budget, as well as the head of each department or agency.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\nDespite \u201ctwo temporary restraining orders requiring federal agencies to restore access to suspended funds,\u201d the plaintiffs are not able to access the funding appropriated to these programs, the lawsuit asserts.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\nThe lawsuit also claims that federal agencies have threatened to not reimburse Pennsylvania agencies if the federal agency doesn\u2019t support the activities of subrecipients who received grants allocated by the IRA and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\u201cThe Commonwealth thus either violates its obligations to subrecipients by withholding money, or it risks being denied reimbursement later by the federal government,\u201d says the complaint.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\nThe lawsuit says that DOE is withholding reimbursement for two DEP grants for $127 million to improve energy efficiency in low income<\/span> homes, as well as an $186 million grant for the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development\u2019s weatherization assistance program, until DOE completes a review of the grants.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\nDEP is also unable to receive reimbursements for expenditures of the remaining $76 million in funding that the IIJA allocated to the agency for \u201cplugging, remediating, and restoring orphaned well sites\u201d which, without remediation, serve as a source of greenhouse gas emissions, the lawsuit alleges.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\nAn OMB document issued Jan. 28 stated that the administration\u2019s pause on the disbursement of federal funding is \u201climited to programs, projects, and activities implicated by the President\u2019s Executive Orders,\u201d including \u201cthe Green New Deal,\u201d a phrase which Trump has used to refer to the IRA as well as parts of the IIJA.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n