Urban tree plantings, lead pipe education for landlords and local composting are already suffering from the Trump administration’s federal funding freeze, a new lawsuit filed in federal court in Providence contends.
The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Rhode Island on March 14, followed by an amended complaint filed Monday, is the latest legal dispute over federal grants and aid rendered inaccessible since mid-January. Led by a group of Rhode Island and national nonprofits, the lawsuit centers on federal funding under the Inflation Reduction Act and Infrastructure Investments and Jobs Act set aside for environmental, health and safety projects.
In the wake of Donald Trump’s Jan. 20 order “Unleashing American Energy” seeking to pause funding approved under a pair of spending packages, nonprofit recipients have been forced to halt projects and contemplate layoffs, the complaint states.
“The result of Defendants’ unlawful funding freeze has been real and irreparable harm to the recipients of that funding in this District and across the country, as well as to the people and communities they serve,” states the complaint filed by D.C. nonprofit Democracy Forward and Providence firm DeLuca, Weizenbaum, Barry & Ravens.
Just ask Alicia Lehrer, executive director of the Woonasquatucket River Watershed Council, which was suddenly unable to collect a $1 million subgrant authorized by Congress in 2022.
The watershed council, one of the leading plaintiffs in the lawsuit, had already signed a contract to hire new staff, buy and plant trees and develop stewardship training to serve the 7-mile Woonasquatucket Greenway.
Now, Lehrer is stuck in limbo, unable to access the funds needed to start buying products and developing the training program in time for spring tree planting. Even a fall start date looks uncertain.
“Everyone is pretty stressed,” Lehrer said in an interview on Tuesday. “It’s mostly about the uncertainty. We have been planning this for a year.”
The abrupt halt to the project has created ripple effects for Watershed Council partners, including the Providence Neighborhood Planting Program, which collaborates with the Council on urban forestry projects in Providence, Lehrer said.
“This is not just about adding a tree to the greenway,” Lehrer said. “We already have a lot of trees, but we need a team of people who can take care of them. Trees are critical especially as we face summers of extreme heat and can help with managing stormwater runoff.”
The Providence Neighborhood Planting Program is not named in the lawsuit, even though $700,000 in federal funding for the PVD Tree Plan has been paused or canceled as of last week, said Cassie Tharinger, executive director.
“We are a tiny organization with four staff, so we’re just in scramble mode,” Tharinger said in an interview Tuesday. “We’re just trying to be like, how do we not lay anyone off and not let down people in the community who were poised to be community ambassadors and tree liaisons.”
A separate U.S. Environmental Protection Agency grant awarded to the Watershed Council just before the November election to create an environmental justice education program has also been pulled, Lehrer said. She has been unable to get more details since the EPA put its environmental justice workers on leave and closed its D.C. offices in early February.
“Congress voted to support the work of nonprofits like the Woonasquatucket River Watershed Council,” Miriam Weizenbaum, one of the lawyers for the nonprofits, said in a statement. “Our Constitution gives our representatives and senators, and not the executive, the authority to do exactly that job.”
Weizenbaum previously served as the Rhode Island Office of the Attorney General’s Civil Division Chief until April 2024.
The Watershed Council has other projects and funding sources to stay afloat. But that’s not the case for other nonprofits.
Roughly 80% of the budget for Green Infrastructure Center comes from federal funding now in question, the complaint states. The Virginia-based tree planting and conservation group, which has offices and employees in Rhode Island, has already furloughed some of its new workers after funds dried up; if the funding freeze continues, they will have to lay off their entire staff, according to the complaint.
Meanwhile, the Eastern Rhode Island Conservation District can’t forge ahead with plans to set up the first municipal composting site in Bristol and Newport counties due to the on-again, off-again nature of a $350,000 federal grant, the complaint states. And Providence-based Childhood Lead Action Project can’t access a $500,000 award for worker and landlord training about lead safety laws.
Nationwide, consequences have hit nonprofit projects dealing with wildfire prevention, protecting national parks from invasive species, and weatherization training classes for low-income residents looking to lower their utility bills, the complaint states.
“Across the country, congressionally-approved infrastructure resources are being held up by this lawless Administration,” Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward said in a statement.
“This administration is literally taking money away from the communities who have been waiting for needed infrastructure improvement. We are fighting back on behalf of the nonprofit organizations and communities that rely on these critical investments to improve public health, create jobs, and protect our environment. The law is clear: these funds must be released, and we will hold this administration accountable in court.”
Attorneys for the nonprofits have asked U.S. District Court Judge Mary McElroy to order federal cabinet agencies to unfreeze funds now as the case proceeds through court. The U.S. Department of Justice, which is representing the host of federal agencies named as defendants, has until March 27 to respond to the request for a preliminary injunction under court orders issued Tuesday.
The DOJ did not immediately respond to inquiries for comment on Tuesday.
Already in federal court in Providence, Chief Judge John McConnell Jr. has ordered federal agencies to make funding available to state governments, following a Jan. 28 lawsuit filed by 23 Democratic attorneys general, including Rhode Island’s Peter Neronha. Despite McConnell’s March 6 order, some federal funds, including 215 grants through the Federal Emergency Management Agency, were inaccessible as of March 12, according to new court filings by the AGs.
This story was originally reported and published by the Rhode Island Current.
