YOU LOVE TO SEE IT: Defrosting The Funding Freeze

Good things are happening! Trump is told to pony up the cold cash, vital care for youth moves forward, tycoons get taxed for the “missing middle,” and water gets revolutionized in the desert.

Funding Freezes Are Thawing

President Donald Trump’s attempts to swat trillions in federal funding away from state projects he doesn’t like have been stalled in court, and some states say that they are starting to see money trickle in again. 

In Pennsylvania, over $2 billion for clean energy initiatives are being restored. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) sued the Trump administration on Feb. 13 over a funding freeze that blocked more than $2 billion to clean up the state’s toxic abandoned mines, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and reduce energy costs for homeowners. Much of the money had been allocated to the state through former President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, a sweeping package to fund clean energy initiatives across the country. Shapiro has said the funds are “now unfrozen.” 

Alabama resumed a program that provided credit to thousands of working-class households that rely on power from a state utility company. The program had been canceled previously due to an executive order from Trump. Following Trump’s orders, more than 200 households received a notice from the company stating that they would be required to pay back the credits they received to help with their electricity bills. Two weeks after Trump’s order, a spokesperson for the state’s economic and community affairs department said that the program’s $53 million of funding has since been restored.