Attorney General Bonta: Court Orders Trump Administration to Immediately Restore All Frozen Federal Funding

State attorneys general continue to secure favorable decisions reining in Presidential overreach 

OAKLAND – California Attorney General Rob Bonta today issued the following statement in response to a decision by the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island to enforce the court’s prior order preventing the Trump Administration from implementing its freeze of up to $3 trillion in federal funding. The decision follows a motion to enforce filed by state attorneys general on Friday in light of evidence that the Trump Administration was continuing to block the disbursement of important state funding, including funding under the Inflation Reduction Act and Infrastructure, Investment, and Jobs Act, and for the National Institutes of Health. 

“The Trump Administration continued to improperly freeze vital federal funding more than a week after a court ordered it not to, jeopardizing California’s efforts to strengthen domestic energy security and the construction of critical infrastructure projects,” said Attorney General Bonta. “No Administration is above the law. In every case we’ve filed to date, state attorneys general have successfully restrained the President’s abuse of executive power – and we will continue to hold him accountable; our democratic institutions depend on it. The court’s decision today is unequivocal: The Trump Administration must fully comply with the court’s order and immediately restore all federal funding while our litigation continues."

Attorney General Bonta is leading a coalition of 23 attorney general, along with the attorneys general of New York, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Illinois, in bringing this litigation.

A copy of the court’s decision in available here.