EPA'S frozen funds spark confusion

"IT'S CHAOS, AND THAT'S THE POINT": The status of funding for several EPA programs that both Red and Blue districts across the country are banking on remains up in the air, despite the agency’s own directive to keep money flowing.

The internal EPA memo that POLITICO scooped on Tuesday cites a court directive barring the agency from upholding the Trump administration’s now-withdrawn attempt at a widespread federal freeze. But the money remains inaccessible to recipients across the country and EPA has still not clarified what programs it has unfrozen.

The confusing result has left lawmakers on Capitol Hill scrambling to ensure that dollars already promised to districts across the country continue to flow — and sparked fury from Democrats who accuse the administration of creating an atmosphere of “chaos” and “incompetence,” our Josh Siegel and James Bikales report.

Some programs have sputtered back to life, including EPA’s brownfield remediation program. But the portal for EPA’s $5 billion Clean School Bus program, for instance, remained inaccessible Wednesday, according to two recipients.

And in a letter sent to the president’s desk Wednesday, Democratic lawmakers on the House Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition compiled a list of numerous other programs where funding remains inaccessible — including several under EPA — aimed at lowering state energy bills, maintaining clean air and water, and rebuilding after natural disasters.

“It’s chaos, and that’s the point,” Sen. Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, the top Democrat on the Energy Committee, said Wednesday.