“Clear and unambiguous.”
That’s how a federal judge in Rhode Island is describing his prior block of a federal funding freeze. Despite the perceived clarity of Chief Judge John McConnell Jr.’s Jan. 31 order granting the request of 23 Democratic attorneys general, billions in federal grants and aid — including to Rhode Island — have still been inaccessible.
The AGs filed an emergency motion Friday, asking McConnell to reinforce his existing, temporary restraining order, unleashing a mountain of evidence showing critical state programs and funding beneficiaries were still not receiving necessary federal funds. McConnell on Monday doubled down, again ordering the federal administration to end its funding pause and restore money that was previously frozen.
“The broad categorical and sweeping freeze of federal funds is, as the Court found, likely unconstitutional and has caused and continues to cause irreparable harm to a vast portion of this country,” McConnell wrote. “These pauses in funding violate the plain text of the TRO.”
Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha, one of six co-leads in the lawsuit, called McConnell’s ruling “swift and unsurprising.”
“Judge McConnell’s Order confirmed what we have been saying from the beginning,” Neronha said in a statement Monday. “It is now time for the Administration to come into full compliance. This is a country of laws. We expect the Administration to follow the law. Our Office and attorneys general across the country stand ready to keep careful watch on the actions of this Administration that follow, and we will not hesitate to go back to Court if they don’t comply.”
McConnell dismantled arguments made by Daniel Schwei, the U.S. Department of Justice attorney representing the Trump administration. Schwei in a response on Sunday said the limited pauses in federal funding to specific programs were standard protocol to ensure funds were “distributed appropriately.” In previous court documents, Schwei also indicated the administration did not think McConnell’s order applied to funding under the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
The suspension of funding from the Biden-era programs came as a result of a Jan. 20 executive order from President Donald Trump, not the infamous White House budget memo that prompted a flurry of lawsuits and protests, including by AGs. But both are subject to McConnell’s order, along with other federal funding through the National Institutes of Health and other federal agencies.
Brown University relies on NIH funding for its research, including a $71 million dementia research grant, a renewal meeting for which was recently canceled, according to evidence submitted by the AGs on Friday. Meanwhile, Rhode Island’s Office of Energy Resources has been unable to access $125 million in federal funds for renewable energy and energy efficiency incentives.
McConnell has separately scheduled a hearing in federal court in Providence on Feb. 21 to hear arguments on the AGs’ request for a longer term and more broad-sweeping block on a funding freeze.
On Monday, Neronha also joined with 22 other AGs in a separate federal lawsuit filed in Massachusetts, aiming to stop the Trump administration, the Department of Health and Human Services and NIH from “unlawfully” cutting funding for medical and public health research.
NIH on Friday announced it was capping reimbursement rates for overhead costs associated with research at 15%, prompting swift backlash from education and research institutions. In Rhode Island, the proposed rate cap would “significantly disrupt important research operations” at Brown, the University of Rhode Island and the state’s two largest hospital operators: Brown University Health and Care New England, according to the Rhode Island Office of the Attorney General.
“This Administration seems hell-bent on upending advancement in this country, and in this instance, that means defunding major medical research initiatives, including those which study diseases that affect many, many Americans,” Neronha said in a statement Monday. “This reduction in funding would seriously threaten the future of this research. Further, these funding cuts would lead to Rhode Islanders losing their jobs, thereby negatively impacting their lives and our state economy.”
This story was originally published by the Rhode Island Current.
