Epa Lifts Spending Freeze On Some Environmental Funding

The Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday directed agency officials to allow the disbursement of funds from at least some programs under the bipartisan infrastructure law and Inflation Reduction Act that had been paused since Jan. 20, according to an internal memo viewed by POLITICO.

The memo cites a ruling by a federal judge on Monday that barred agencies from enforcing any remaining elements of the Trump administration’s spending freeze.

“Consistent with the Order, the agency’s financial system will now enable the obligation of financial assistance,” wrote EPA’s acting chief financial officer, Gregg Treml. “This includes programs within the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act, including federal financial assistance in the State and Tribal Assistance Grants, Brownfields, and Superfund.”

The memo states that EPA’s Office of Budget will follow up with a detailed list of the programs that should now receive disbursements.

One person who works with states on climate issues said the overwhelming majority of the unfrozen funding is directed at programs in the bipartisan infrastructure law, according to documents that person reviewed. That includes funding for restoring estuaries, revolving funds for states to improve drinking water, remediating brownfield sites and combating contaminants like PFAS “forever chemicals.” That list included one Inflation Reduction Act program on consumer education.

That will keep the spending freeze in place for a broad array of funding under the IRA, the Biden administration’s massive investment aimed at fighting climate change, said Sam Ricketts, co-founder of S2 Strategies, which works with state governments on climate policies. Ricketts said as of Tuesday evening that one of the states he works with is still unable to access funding from EPA’s $7 billion EPA’s Solar for All and its $5 billion climate pollution reduction grant programs.

“They are flagrantly disregarding the law. It is outrageous,” Ricketts said.

EPA did not immediately respond to a request for a comment.

Federal judges in Washington and Rhode Island last week barred the White House from enforcing a broad spending pause issued by the Office of Management and Budget, which had sparked widespread chaos before it was rescinded two days later.

But funding for energy and climate-related programs still appeared to be on hold under President Donald Trump’s Day One executive order suspending disbursement of so-called “green new deal” funds under the IRA and infrastructure law. Nonprofits and state agencies told the courts that they still could not access awards funded under the two laws.

In response, U.S. District Judge Loren AliKhan granted a temporary restraining order Monday that barred the administration from enforcing any remnants of the pause.

In the EPA memo, Treml appears to acknowledge that ruling, noting that the “Court directs that federal financial assistance shall not be paused based on the Office of Management and Budget’s direction in the rescinded OMB memorandum or the President’s Executive Orders, while ongoing litigation proceeds or until otherwise directed by a Court.”

Alex Guillén, Josh Siegel and Kelsey Tamborrino contributed to this report.