Hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding tapped for Colorado climate and health projects was still being withheld by the Trump administration, state and federal officials said, despite a judge ordering a halt to the new president’s broad funding freeze.
On Monday, the same federal judge who halted the administration’s funding pause ruled that officials under President Donald Trump were not complying with his previous order. He directed the federal government to release all suspended funds.
In Colorado, the missing money includes grants for clean water and pollution reduction, as well as money for reimbursement programs to encourage homeowners to electrify their homes and use solar panels. That’s according to a Friday legal filing by a coalition of state attorneys general, including Colorado’s Phil Weiser.
Colorado was awarded more than $640 million for those projects alone, according to the filing, though some of that money has already been dispensed to the state.
At least $570 million in funding set for Colorado is still in limbo, according to a Friday letter from Gov. Jared Polis and Democratic Sens. John Hickenlooper and Michael Bennet. The letter was sent to Russell Vought, the director of the federal Office of Management and Budget, which had issued a memo in January directing a broad freeze of federal funding.
“The consequences of this continued uncertainty are severe and could have a devastating effect on the programs and people this funding supports,” Polis, Bennet and Hickenlooper wrote. “Companies are considering staff furloughs. Employers in rural communities are rescinding job offers. Long-standing Colorado businesses, some with over 40 years of operation, now struggle to pay contractors working on facility expansions.”
A separate tally from the governor’s office listed $626.8 million worth of grants and programs that had been frozen as a result of the memo. As of Monday afternoon, most of that money remained in limbo, even after the court order, though some had been released. More than $185 million was for solar and pollution prevention programs.
Polis’ office was still trying “to understand the extent of the funding impacted by the Trump administration’s reckless and sloppy attempt to withhold funds from Coloradans and our communities,” according to a Monday statement from spokeswoman Shelby Wieman.
The memo and the funding freeze were intended to ensure that federal spending fit with Trump’s agenda. But it sent Colorado officials into a confused frenzy, as policymakers, nonprofits and legislators scrambled to gauge the impact of the far-reaching order on an already cash-strapped state.
Then a federal judge swiftly suspended the freeze, and the Office of Budget and Management rescinded it. Still, funding freezes have persisted, officials say, sparking the coalition of attorneys general to seek additional orders from the court.
The funds listed in their recent filing were specifically from the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, both of which Congress passed under former President Joe Biden.
“This illegal freeze on funding is already having a negative impact on Coloradans,” said Will Toor, the executive director of the Colorado Energy Office, in a statement, which noted that his office was unable to access “the vast majority of funds” it was set to receive. “The federal government has signed contracts granting more than $500 million to Colorado through the (inflation and infrastructure laws) and, by not meeting these contractual obligations, the federal government is inflicting real harm on our state.”
In a separate statement, Weiser’s office said the state Department of Public Health and Environment “has experienced disruption in funding for critical public health programs such as reducing lead in drinking water, hospital emergency preparedness, cancer prevention and control, immunizations, and HIV/AIDS care.”
U.S. District Court Judge John McConnell, who ordered the Trump administration to release the still-suspended funds, said his ruling also blocked the federal government from making billions of dollars in cuts to the National Institutes of Health.
Those cuts were announced Friday, and Weiser’s office said Monday that it was joining a separate lawsuit to stop them from going into effect.
In a statement announcing that effort, Weiser’s office wrote that the NIH cuts would strip nearly $90 million in funding from Colorado State University, the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus and the University of Colorado Boulder.
Amid his flurry of legal filings against the Trump administration, Weiser’s office also announced Friday that he was joining another multistate lawsuit, this time aimed at billionaire Trump advisor Elon Musk. The suit sought to block Musk and his “Department of Government Efficiency” from accessing American citizens’ sensitive information, including Social Security numbers.
On Saturday, the judge in that case issued an emergency order blocking their access to that data.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
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