Some federal funding still frozen despite court orders, Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey's administration reports

Matthew Medsger, Boston Herald on Feb 13, 2025

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BOSTON — A judge’s restraining order has not prevented the Trump administration from holding up grant funding allocated for several programs in Massachusetts, according to the Healey administration.

Bay State Gov. Maura Healey’s staff says the Trump administration continues to defy the courts by withholding grant funds allocated for rape prevention programs and several environmental initiatives.

The Centers for Disease Control, in a Jan. 31 email shared with the Herald, told the Bay State that all Health and Human Services and CDC grant payments were being halted for the time being, including some already awarded funding.

“Regarding the Notice of Award (NOA) for Budget Year 2, we have received guidance from HHS and the CDC Office of Grants Services (OGS) indicating that there has been a halt in all grant transactions until further notice. OG47S will provide updates as more information becomes available,” the email read, in part.

Funding that program or similar programs offered in jurisdictions across the nation, according to the governor, is a matter of life and death.

“Rape victims and survivors depend on this funding to receive lifesaving services and support — and they’re not going to get them because President Trump has cut off this funding,” she said in a statement.

According to Healey’s staff, the funding halt remains in place despite a Temporary Restraining Order issued by a federal judge blocking the Trump administration’s grant and loan freeze scheme.

“This illegal action will make women and young people less safe, here in Massachusetts and across the country,” Healey said.

The funding in question, according to the governor’s office, was allocated to the Bay State by the CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control in January of 2024. The state’s Department of Public Health was meant to use those funds to support five years of “Rape Prevention and Education” programs.

In the year that ended on January 31, 2025, the state received $862,158 in grant funds, some of which was used to support staff at the DPH’s Bureau of Community Health and Prevention (BCHAP) Rape Education Program. Staff members there are tasked with supporting rape crisis centers across the commonwealth with technical support and training.

According to the governor’s office, despite the fact that the state has checked all of the boxes required to receive their year-two grant funding, and notwithstanding the TRO issued by U.S. District Judge John McConnell, the money still isn’t there and, as of Thursday, the Bay State still hasn’t heard back from the CDC.

A White House spokesperson told the Herald that the governor is mischaracterizing the circumstances. The funding, they say, has been unfrozen as ordered by McConnell, but a “technical issue” with the CDC’s payment systems was slowing things down. That technical issue, they say, has been resolved.

According to a spokesperson for the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy & Environmental Affairs, funding has also been halted for several of their programs, including Solar for All, State Energy Program BIL Funding, Ambient Air Monitoring in Massachusetts Disadvantaged Communities, State Clean Diesel Grants, the Diesel Emissions Reduction Act Program, Clean Diesel Grants, and the Massachusetts Air Sensor Program: Air Monitoring Grants. As of Thursday, those funds were still inaccessible.

The halt comes after President Trump’s Office of Management and Budget, just a week into his second term, sent out an internal memorandum ordering a “temporarily pause all activities related to obligation or disbursement of all Federal financial assistance,” including government grants and loans.

That memorandum was quickly rescinded after several states sued the Trump administration, but legal action continues while the funding freeze seems to remain in effect. Judge McConnell said that “the evidence shows that the alleged rescission of the OMB Directive was in name-only,” and issued a TRO at the request of 22 state attorneys general, including Massachusetts AG Andrea Joy Campbell.

Last Friday, Campbell led her fellow AGs in asking McConnell to enforce his TRO, and on Monday the judge ordered the Trump administration to comply with the court, noting that his instructions on the matter were “clear and unambiguous,” and that the funding must be unfrozen immediately.

“The (Trump administration) must immediately restore frozen funding during the pendency of the TRO,” McConnell wrote.

If frozen funding meant for Massachusetts programs is any guide, the White House hasn’t gotten the memo.

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