Congress has the “power of the purse.” So says the Constitution. And yet funds passed by Congress have now been frozen by the Trump administration without congressional approval. These include critical loans, grants, and tax credits that create jobs that feed our families, finance clean air programs that protect children’s little lungs, and bankroll solar and wind projects that will safeguard us all from climate-fueled extreme weather, from harrowing floods to raging wildfires.
It’s urgent that Congress assert its power. Congressional funds must be unfrozen and allowed to flow into our communities.
Tell Congress: Freezing Federal Funding Hurts Children
The U.S. has made unprecedented progress to reduce climate emissions in the past several years thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), which jumpstarted significant local and state clean air, energy, and transportation projects with federal funding. These projects were beginning to bring jobs, money, and security to families across the country and to make our neighborhoods healthier.
In the first 30 days of this new administration, this progress is under attack. As both parties scramble to assess just how wide-ranging the impacts of the frozen funds are for their constituents, organizations getting the funds are already cut off from promised support. So much is at stake here—from local economies to global stability.
- Without this funding, air quality monitoring programs will shut down, allowing industries to pollute local neighborhoods—and the backyards, parks, and school fields where children play—unchecked.
- Companies will pull out of major job-creating cleaner energy and transportation projects in communities across the country, putting thousands of jobs for local families at risk.
- There will be hundreds fewer zero-emissions school buses on the road to safeguard our children’s health from asthma-triggering diesel pollution.
- And much more.
It’s unclear where the federal funding freeze leaves projects already underway. This uncertainty, this chaos, is intentional.
IRA and BIL were signed into law long ago. The executive branch of the government cannot just step in and stop legislative progress. It’s time for Congress to stand firm and defend the investments they passed and the protections that help ensure a cleaner, healthier, and safer future for our children by demanding the funds be unfrozen.