The ripple effects of moves by President Donald Trump’s administration to freeze over $1.2 billion in federal assets is being met with a lawsuit by Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro – a lawsuit some representing Lycoming County in Harrisburg and Washington, D.C., said is wasteful spending in its own right.

Shapiro said the lawsuit was needed as an attempt to “unfreeze these assets because the federal government has entered into a contract with the commonwealth promising to provide billions of dollars in congressionally approved funding that the state committed to serious needs such as protecting public health, cutting energy costs, providing safe, clean drinking water, and creating jobs in rural communities.

State agencies have been unable to access $1.2 billion in congressionally appropriated federal funding.

This freeze includes an additional $900 million requiring an undefined review by federal agencies before it can be drawn down, the governor said.

Despite efforts to work with Pennsylvania’s congressional delegation and multiple court rulings ordering federal agencies to restore access to funding, dollars for critical state-based initiatives remain frozen, Shapiro said.

State and federal lawmakers whose districts include Williamsport take a different view.

“Governor Shapiro should stop playing politics and stop wasting taxpayer money on suing President Trump,” said state Rep. Joe Hamm, R-Hepburn Township, who represents 64,000 constituents in Lycoming and Sullivan counties.

“The Governor should focus on making Pennsylvanians’ lives better. Hard working Pennsylvanians are struggling to make ends meet and we are tired of the politics. It is past time to work for the people and not against them,” Hamm said.

State Rep. Jamie Flick, R-South Williamsport, representing Lycoming and a part of Union counties in the state’s 83rd House district, said he was doing more research on the specifics but, that being said, noted “the winners of these lawsuits are always the lawyers.”

“Governor Shapiro’s lawsuit against the Trump administration is an attempt not to resolve the unaccountable spending of the Biden-Harris administration but to exploit it,” U.S. Rep. Dan Meuser, R-Dallas, who represents the state’s 9th Congressional district, and who was co-chair of Trump’s election campaign in Pennsylvania, said in an emailed statement.

He continued to say the Trump administration’s funding pause is legal and “an absolutely necessary action to ensure taxpayer dollars serve America’s real priorities – not the left’s extreme agenda.”

“This isn’t a cut, or politics; it’s a common sense pause to review how huge levels of taxpayers’ dollars are being spent,” Meuser said, adding how the president had “every right to ensure these funds go where they were intended to be allocated, not to the waste and misdirection we have seen in recent days such as the $59 million to luxury hotels housing illegals in New York City.”

“The American people elected accountability, and some in Washington and the governor’s office don’t like that. They’d rather keep the status quo than have anyone question where the money is going. President Trump is doing exactly what voters asked for — ensuring federal funds are spent wisely and that taxpayer dollars aren’t being mismanaged or wasted.”

“If Shapiro actually wanted to fix the problem, he’d work with the administration to ensure these funds are spent properly — instead, he’s running to the courts for a political stunt.”

Timeline of the legal action

Almost immediately after the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued a directive on Jan. 27, commonwealth agencies realized that billions in federal funding appropriated by Congress to Pennsylvania were no longer accessible.

Federal agencies suspended access to billions of dollars in funding without supplying a plausible explanation as to why certain funds are being suspended, giving any consideration to the harm their action would cause, or considering how commonwealth agencies have relied on receiving that committed funding, according to Shapiro.

Since then, Shapiro’s administration was said to have worked with its federal partners and Pennsylvania’s Congressional delegation in an attempt to fully restore access to these funds. Simultaneously, multiple federal judges have ordered the Trump Administration to unfreeze this funding — however, because Pennsylvania was not involved in previous litigation, it is not guaranteed that future litigation in those cases will protect Pennsylvania’s interests and funding.

“With this funding freeze, the Trump Administration is breaking that contract – and it’s my job as Governor to protect Pennsylvania’s interests,” Shapiro said.

“Over the past two weeks, my team and I have engaged with our Congressional delegation to try to restore access to all the federal funding Pennsylvania has been promised under law – but despite those efforts, state agencies remain unable to draw down these critical dollars,” Shapiro said.

“While multiple federal judges have ordered the Trump administration to unfreeze this funding, access has not been restored, leaving my administration with no choice but to pursue legal action to protect the interests of the commonwealth and its residents.”

As of Thursday, despite those multiple court orders, over $1.2 billion in federal funding owed to Pennsylvania agencies remains suspended — and more than $900 million in funding is now marked as requiring further (but unarticulated) federal agency review before reimbursement requests can be approved.

While commonwealth agencies cannot draw from certain federal accounts, they are stuck incurring debts and obligations in federally approved projects that the Trump Administration currently is refusing to reimburse. While agencies have some reserves and discretionary dollars to cover small, unexpected debts, the scope of the federal freeze will far exceed those reserves.

Federal funding remains in jeopardy for critical Pennsylvania-based initiatives including reclaiming abandoned mine land, capping and plugging orphan wells, and lowering consumer costs. For example, abandoned mine land dollars that are currently frozen will allow the commonwealth to reclaim 24,000 acres of abandoned mine land across Pennsylvania, construct or maintain 16 water treatment systems that deal with toxic runoff from abandoned mines, and respond to about 60 emergency events per year. Left unaddressed, abandoned mines can cave in and form sinkholes, causing significant property damage and even death – as happened in Westmoreland County in December 2024.

Additionally, the federal funding freeze has restricted access to funding that would help plug more than 500 orphaned and abandoned wells that are releasing toxic chemicals in Pennsylvania communities, as well as funding that would help up to 28,000 Pennsylvania households lower their utility bills.

Shapiro believes he has legal standing to file the suit. The U.S. Constitution clearly states that federal agencies do not have the power to suspend states’ access to money that Congress appropriated or to impose new conditions on money already appropriated and obligated, Shapiro said.

Shapiro said the lawsuit is to make certain the state is legally protected so that commonwealth agencies can continue their work to improve Pennsylvanians’ lives.

Reporting by Marc Levy of the Associated Press contributed to this article