Washington sued the Trump administration Wednesday, accusing it of illegally withholding billions of dollars of congressionally approved funding to build electric car infrastructure across the country.
President Donald Trump, on the first day of his second term, issued an executive order saying he was eliminating the “electric vehicle mandate” and telling all agencies to “immediately pause” sending out funds authorized by the climate and infrastructure laws passed under former President Joe Biden.
The lawsuit, filed by Washington and 15 other states plus the District of Columbia, argues that Trump made up a “fictional mandate” that never existed as a pretense to usurp the spending powers reserved for Congress.
The federal government has never adopted an electric vehicle mandate, although Republicans have argued that subsidies for electric vehicles and regulations that require vehicle makers to cut emissions serve as a mandate.
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, passed in 2021, included $5 billion to build electric vehicle charging stations and other infrastructure across the country. It included a formula to distribute that money to the states.
“Congress required the distribution of this $5 billion among the States,” the lawsuit, filed in federal court in Seattle, says. But the Federal Highway Administration, rather than distribute the money, carried out Trump’s order “in diametric opposition to the statutory mandate.”
“The president’s illegal claw-backs aren’t spending reductions — they’re cash grabs that rob taxpayers, steamroll Congress, and stifle critical economic development,” Washington Attorney General Nick Brown said in a prepared statement. “Washingtonians are switching to electric vehicles at one of the highest rates in the nation. They deserve safe, reliable infrastructure to get their families from Point A to B.”
Washington stood to get $71 million to build electric car infrastructure, according to the lawsuit, but most of it is being withheld. The state has been forced to stop ongoing work related to the program and has not been able to award a contract for work that had already been approved.
“All proposed EV charging infrastructure projects in Washington are therefore on hold indefinitely,” the lawsuit says.
Washington state laws require a gradually increasing percentage of vehicles sold in the state to be zero-emission, starting this year. All new cars and light trucks sold in Washington need to be zero-emission by 2035.
Trump, in his executive order, said he was “removing regulatory barriers to motor vehicle access; by ensuring a level regulatory playing field for consumer choice in vehicles.”
This is the 16th time Brown has sued the Trump administration. Most of those lawsuits accuse the administration of withholding funds or shuttering or dismantling agencies in opposition to acts of Congress.
