The funding freeze on some major projects, particularly those associated with the Environmental Protection Agency, continues despite a federal judge's injunction.

Nonprofits and state agencies still lacked access Monday to EPA grant awards funded through the Inflation Reduction Act. Two district court judges have issued orders to reverse such spending freezes — with U.S. District Judge Loren AliKhan reinforcing her order Monday.

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EPA program recipients told POLITICO’s E&E News on Monday that the inability to access funds was already having an impact after one week. The recipients, granted anonymity to avoid retribution, said they have had to lay out money for expenses, like payroll or rent, without knowing if and when it would be reimbursed. The freeze has also prompted some recipients to pause hiring — and worry about how long they could pay existing staff.

While Biden-appointed Judge Loren AliKhan directed the White House to notify all federal agencies of the terms of the injunction (see Biden Judge Puts Trump's Spending Freeze on Hold and Orders the Feeding Trough Opened), the Trump administration's memo said, “[a]gencies may exercise their own authority to pause awards or obligations, provided agencies do so purely based on their own discretion — not as a result of the OMB Memo or the President’s Executive Orders — and provided the pause complies with all notice and procedural requirements in the award, agreement, or other instrument relating to such a pause.”

Every day that goes by is vital. Every day without funding means non-profit employees won't get paid, and contractors will have to decide if they are willing to cover the immediate expenses in anticipation that the grants will eventually resume. Then, everyone has to consider whether working on projects the administration opposes is a great career path or business model.

I'm sure Judge AliKhan will be perturbed at the next hearing when she finds out that she isn't quite as powerful when going against the Executive Office of the President as she is when bashing some poor mope who entered the US Capitol on January 6.