Federal Judge Richard Gergel has ordered the federal government to pay out grants abruptly frozen by the Trump administration, including $14 million to Nashville for two transportation-related awards. Metro joined five major cities in the suit, led in part by attorneys at the Southern Environmental Law Center, in March.
Unpaid federal grants leave the city scrambling to figure out the extent of Nashville’s growing budget hole
Cities, universities, nonprofit organizations and other recipients of federal funding began reporting the sudden termination of awarded money shortly after Donald Trump took office in January. Many of these cuts violated contractual obligations by the federal government, prompting legal action across the country.
Judge Gergel issued his court ruling on May 20. It gives the Trump administration seven days to indicate its compliance with the order, which includes immediate restoration of the grants included in the lawsuit. Federal agencies that canceled the grants failed to prove their authority or justification for the decision, which the court found to have been both injurious to grant recipients and contrary to the public interest.
“Defendants have contended that the grants were individually reviewed and frozen or terminated for undefined ‘policy reasons,’ the Court-ordered discovery in this case failed to produce a single document showing any individualized review of the Plaintiffs’ grants or discussion of any basis for freezing or terminating the grants other than disapproval of the purposes of the funding,” reads the ruling.
Nashville sued to recover $14 million awarded for two awards: a $4.7 million “Electrify Music City” grant awarded in August to expand public vehicle charging stations, and a $9.3 million “East Nashville Spokes” grant awarded in January to build bike lanes and pedestrian improvements near the East Bank. Both came from infrastructure programs introduced under the U.S. Department of Transportation.
