The federal District Court in Rhode Island (Mary S. McElroy) has granted a motion by several nonprofits, including the National Council of Nonprofits, for a nation-wide preliminary injunction to stop five federal departments from freezing funds authorized under the Biden era Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and ordered them to take “immediate steps to resume processing, disbursement, and payment of already-awarded funding.”
The Court also directed the Office of Management and Budget and National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett to provide written notice of the injunction to all agencies that received the original Memorandum-25-11 requiring the pause.
The Court found that the nonprofits had shown a “strong likelihood” that they could prove that the freeze was arbitrary and capricious and was neither reasonable nor reasonably explained. It said the broad powers claimed by OMB, the NEC and the defendant agencies “are nowhere to be found in federal law.” (Woonasquatucket River Watershed Council v. U.S. Department of Agriculture, D. RI, No. C.A. No. 1:25-cv-00097, 4/15/25.)
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