Fighting Fed’s Pays Off – California Recovers Billions in Federal Funding

SACRAMENTO — Acting as the first and last line of defense against the Trump Administration’s incessant barrage of illegal executive orders, baseless actions, and widespread dismantling of our country’s rule of law, California has protected more than $168 billion in federal funding coming into the state through numerous court efforts. 

In coordination with Attorney General Rob Bonta, California has filed 37 lawsuits, leading or co-leading 23 of them, and separately filed more than 40 amicus briefs in support of other litigation against the Trump Administration in just six months. In the 19 cases where California has sought and a district court has ruled on early relief, the state has succeeded in 17 of them with 13 orders blocking President Trump’s illegal actions currently in effect. 

These actions have ensured that an estimated $168 billion continued to flow to the state through a single early lawsuit challenging the President’s illegal and sweeping freeze of federal funding. California’s continued court actions have also protected an estimated $11.1 billion in federal grant funding from successive targeted efforts by the Trump Administration to defend California’s values. California has also secured concessions and reversals outside of court, including the Department of Education’s recent decision to restore funding it had illegally frozen just days after California filed a lawsuit.

A return on investment

In late 2024, Gov. Newsom convened a special session to set aside state money to pay for legal costs to combat then President-elect Trump’s administration. With support from the Legislature, the state dedicated $25 million for the California Department of Justice or CA DOJ and other state agencies to challenge and defend against illegal actions by the Trump Administration and another $25 million to support legal aid for vulnerable Californians in civil proceedings. 

Through litigation brought on by the CA DOJ, the state has rejected the successive targeted efforts by the Trump Administration to terminate, impound, or condition specific funding for education, healthcare, transportation, and more; defended constitutional rights like birthright citizenship and the right to vote; and stopped the dismantling of federal agencies like U.S. Health and Human Services and AmeriCorps, among other relief to the states. 

• 1/3 of the state’s budget: After the office of management and budget issued a directive that purported to freeze nearly $3 trillion in federal funding, California led a multistate coalition in filing a lawsuit challenging the directive. The CA DOJ secured an immediate temporary restraining order and subsequent preliminary injunction, preserving roughly $168 billion in federal funding for California, representing about one-third of the State’s budget. These are tax dollars coming back into California, which contributes to the federal budget as a net-donor state.
• Transportation funding: California receives approximately $7 billion in grant funding from the U.S. Department of Transportation or DOT each year to support and maintain the roads, highways, railways, airways, and bridges that connect our communities and carry our residents to their workplaces and their homes. In June, the CA DOJ secured a court order blocking the DOT from imposing unlawful immigration enforcement conditions on this grant funding.
• Education funding: The CA DOJ protected $939 million for California schools last week when the U.S. Department of Education reversed its decision to withhold vital education funding just weeks before the school year was set to start in the face of a multistate lawsuit. This funding supports key programs for after school and summer learning, teacher preparation, and to support students learning English.
• Public health funding: The state also protected approximately $11 billion in critical public health funding nationwide, including roughly $972 million for California, through litigation challenging and subsequent court orders blocking the abrupt termination of federal funding for grants that provide essential support for a wide range of urgent public health needs, including identifying, tracking, and addressing infectious diseases; ensuring access to immunizations; and modernizing critical public health infrastructure.
• Electric vehicle infrastructure funding: After the Trump Administration sought to withhold billions of dollars in funding approved by bipartisan majorities in Congress for electric vehicle charging infrastructure, California filed a lawsuit and secured a court order restoring more than $300 million in funding previously awarded to California.