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Please share widely, especially with organizations who have federal funding.
GOOD NEWS! Yesterday, our allies at Democracy Forward helped to win a powerful preliminary injunction to stop all freezes, halts, or pauses carried out by the following defendant agencies until the case can be evaluated on its merits. This decision should apply to EPA, USDA, DOE, DOI, and HUD grants funded under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) and the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) that are currently frozen, but we do not know how long it will last.
Importantly, the decision ORDERS these agencies to take immediate steps to “RESUME the processing, disbursement, and payment of already-awarded funding appropriated under the Inflation Reduction Act or the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and to release awarded funds previously withheld or rendered inaccessible.” (Preliminary Injunction, p. 61.)
This current win is potentially HUGE, and we want you to take advantage of it! Below are steps you can take RIGHT NOW to leverage this decision to try to reinstate your funding.
If you do three things TODAY to protect your funding, please consider:
- Send a revised email template to your PO and the applicable agency higher-ups tailoring the highlighted sections to your individual circumstances.
- If you need contact information, this document includes email addresses for each of the agencies listed above; you just need to add your specific project officer.
- We recommend that grantees send their email immediately (TODAY if possible) to their project officer as well as to the applicable higher-ups for your agency.
- Continue to be vigilant in tracking harms and make sure to add those to your email template before sending the note to agency officials.
- Be sure to continue checking access to your funding, as the named agencies have to provide a status update to the court by 5 PM EST today.
- Be sure to check in with your attorney (including any pro bono assistance you are receiving through L4GG’s Fund Protection Clinic!) or any in-house counsel if you have any questions or need assistance. If you have not yet applied for L4GG’s pro bono assistance, you can do so here. And please reach out to FPC@L4GG.org with any questions.