U.S. Sen. Patty Murray was joined by Washington state officials Wednesday as she blasted the Trump administration’s “illegal” federal funding freezes that caused widespread “panic” and “confusion.”
In a video conference, Murray noted impacts on culvert replacements, electrical transmission and distribution upgrades, wildlife preservation and transportation projects across the state.
“The Trump administration is still holding up billions of dollars under Trump’s illegal day one executive orders,” Murray said. “We are talking about funding that Congress passed into law, funding that is owed to communities in Washington state and across the country.”
“The harm they are causing with these funding freezes is hard to overstate, because this has never been done before,” she said.
At least $200 million in federal money intended to reach Washington communities was locked up after President Donald Trump ordered federal agencies to claw back funding for efforts to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and reduce energy costs.
More than $156 million promised by the Biden administration to help make community and rooftop solar more affordable for Washington families, and $53 million to clean up legacy pollution and other related work was inaccessible, according to the state departments of Commerce and Ecology.
“This funding freeze isn’t just numbers on a page,” Ecology Director Casey Sixkiller said Wednesday morning. “It means projects that are vital to our state are stalled.”
Thirteen grants remain frozen, he said.
Millions more in federal funds intended for everything from wildfire prevention to disaster response may hang in the balance, state officials say.
“If this really does become a thing, then access to energy and our tribes will be impacted. Our communities will be impacted. Our infrastructure will be impacted,” Commerce Director Joe Nguyen said in a phone call Tuesday. “I’m not trying to be Chicken Little, but … federal funding is certainly a big part of how we get stuff done.”
On day one in office, Trump ordered federal agencies to suspend, revise or rescind efforts including rolling out “energy and infrastructure provisions” of the Inflation Reduction Act.
The Trump administration last week ordered a freeze of all federal grant spending, before the memo announcing the freeze was pulled back, and federal judges temporarily blocked the effort and ordered the flow of funding be restored. Some kind of funding freeze is still planned as part of Trump’s blitz of executive orders.
The funding should have been flowing. On the ground, it was a different situation.
“Although court orders last week and some agencies said they were going to turn the funds back on, many people are still calling us and saying the portals are not yet open, the funds are not yet flowing,” Murray said in response to a reporter’s question. “Even if they were trying to do this in the right way and turn it back on, you can’t just turn off funding and then say, ‘Oh, now here it comes.’”
Some of the most immediate impacts were felt by the states, local governments and nonprofits that received a share of $7 billion in funding intended to make rooftop solar more affordable.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency last spring awarded Solar for All funds, intended to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and reduce energy costs for low-income communities. Solar for All is funded by the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.
The EPA last week notified Solar for All recipients that the agency was pausing “all funding actions related to” climate and infrastructure laws enacted during the Biden administration, citing President Donald Trump’s “Unleashing American Energy” executive order.
Of that $7 billion, Washington state was awarded $156 million to create new or expand existing low-income solar programs. Commerce estimates this funding will reach around 5,000 Washington households.
The Washington Solar for All funds are intended to help roll out no-cost solar installations for income-qualified single-family homeowners, no-interest loans for solar for multifamily affordable housing, as well as investments in community and tribal solar projects.
Commerce’s plan, submitted to the EPA last fall, says the agency will target a goal of 50% utility bill savings for all households participating, with a required minimum of 20% bill savings.
Commerce plans to launch its programs in 2026 and the funds should be fully disbursed by 2029.
“We are hopeful the programs will move forward,” Commerce spokesperson Penny Thomas said in a statement.
Ecology said $53 million in EPA funding for the department was inaccessible as of Wednesday morning. Of that, $35 million was awarded and disbursed, but not currently available. Another $18 million was awarded, but not yet disbursed, said Andrew Wineke, deputy communications director for the agency.
Ecology has benefited greatly from the bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act, to the tune of about $180 million, Sixkiller said.
Projects including protecting salmon streams from toxic chemicals in Seattle are stalled, Sixkiller said.
Ecology had planned to use funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law for two stormwater projects designed to capture oil, metals, PCBs and PFAS before they reach salmon habitats in Thornton Creek and Puget Sound. Out of $16 million in state and federal funding, $4 million in federal funds is now frozen, he said.
Sixkiller said federal funding is on hold for cleaning up legacy pollution, removing toxic chemicals from public water systems, cleaning up arsenic and lead from former orchard lands and restoring contaminated land, among other things.
The state Department of Natural Resources also identified about $105 million in federal funding that could be at risk if the intentions of the executive orders are realized.
That includes money for firefighting and preparedness, including equipment and training for rural fire departments, thinning and burning to reduce fire risk, evacuation route planning for communities and efforts to clean up after debris flows from burn scars.
It also includes funding for some of the agency’s work to identify and address tsunami and landslide risks.
Unlike some other state agencies, DNR had not lost access to any funding as a result of the orders, DNR spokesperson Ryan Rodruck said.
As The Spokesman-Review reported, Trump, toward the end of his first term as president, withheld recovery funding that could have helped Whitman County’s Malden and Pine City rebuild after a devastating fire.
“It has been an exercise in frustration,” Rodruck said, “and is extremely confusing for us and our community partners.”
This story includes reporting from The Associated Press. Data Journalist Manuel Villa contributed reporting.
