The Trump administration isn’t complying with a judge’s order to unfreeze $3 trillion in federal funds, California Attorney General Rob Bonta said Friday, citing a number of projects that continue to be locked out of federal funds.
A coalition of Democratic-led states, including California, filed a motion in Rhode Island federal court on Friday to enforce the temporary restraining order.
State agencies have “received inconsistent guidance, cancelled and un-cancelled meetings, and inexplicably patchwork restorations of some grants but not others,” the emergency motion said.
Funds supporting greenhouse gas reduction, air monitoring, and solar energy are still frozen, according to the motion. Dementia research and global HIV prevention programs at universities are still halted, the motion said.
“If the Trump administration doesn’t comply, we’ll be forced to take further action,” Bonta said.
A Rhode Island federal judge on Jan. 31 paused the Trump administration’s plan to withhold spending on trillions of dollars in grants and loans, saying a group of Democratic-led states are likely to succeed in their legal challenge.
States sued the day after the White House Office of Management and Budget on Jan. 27 directed agencies to hold federal funds to ensure they’re aligned with a heap of Trump executive orders.
Trump days later rescinded the memo, but a post by White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt made it appear the pause was still active, leading Chief US District Judge John McConnell of the US District Court of Rhode Island to issue the temporary restraining order.
The administration said it believes certain funds fall outside of the temporary restraining order’s scope, like those frozen in an earlier order for “supporting the Green New Deal,” according to the Friday emergency motion by plaintiff states.
“That an earlier directive also directed a categorical funding freeze does not alter or amend the text of this Court’s Order, which restrains Defendants from categorically freezing duly appropriated and obligated funds,” the emergency motion said.
At stake in California is $107.5 billion in Medicaid funding for 14.5 million residents, Bonta said in the Friday news conference, as well as billions of dollars in infrastructure and climate funding, and funds for education, child care, and food services.
“All told, we’re talking 34%—over a third—of our state budget,” Bonta said. “A massive, irreplaceable chunk.”
The case is New York v. Trump, D.R.I., No. 1:25-cv-00039, 2/7/25.
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