 |
| CLICK HERE TO VIEW CURRENT ISSUE |
 |
| Best of NAMA 2025 |
|
 |
|
JUDGE ORDERS USDA TO ISSUE WITHHELD CONSERVATION FUNDS
Apr. 17, 2025
by Chris Clayton, DTN
 |
|---|
| DTN file photo by Kurt Lawton | | A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to release funding under the Inflation Reduction Act for several departments, including USDA. The IRA provided $19.5 billion for programs under the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) along with funding for renewable energy and forestry. |
OMAHA -- USDA must release billions of dollars to farmers, non-profit groups and others funded under the Inflation Reduction Act, a federal judge ruled Monday.
USDA, EPA, and the departments of Energy, Interior and Housing and Urban Development are enjoined from freezing, halting or pausing funding that "has already been awarded" under the Inflation Reduction Act or the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The agencies were ordered to immediately resume processing, disbursement and payment of funding under the two laws.
U.S. District Judge Mary S. McElroy, a Trump appointee in the U.S. District Court of Rhode Island, handed down the preliminary injunction against the federal departments stemming from a lawsuit from a collection of conservation and non-profit groups.
McElroy wrote the Trump administration can implement its agenda but cannot pull federal funding granted under the past administration from a law passed by Congress. "The Court wants to be crystal clear: elections have consequences and the President is entitled to enact his agenda."
Still, McElroy added, "Agencies do not have unlimited authority to further a President's agenda, nor do they have unfettered power to hamstring in perpetuity two statutes passed by Congress during the previous administration."
The way funding cuts were enacted shows the agencies did not consider the consequences of their "broad indefinite freezes: projects halted, staff laid off, goodwill tarnished." Instead agencies "essentially adopted a 'freeze first, ask questions later' approach."
The judge ordered the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the National Economic Council to provide a written notice of the court's preliminary injunction to all agencies that had blocked funding of the IRA or infrastructure law.
The agencies are also ordered to provide a notice of the preliminary injunction to all grantees that have been awarded funds under the two acts.
To read the entire article click here.
|
|
|
|
|
