Despite widespread news reports that would lead a reasonable person to conclude that frozen federal funds were flowing again, that is not the case. As of this writing, APCC remains unable to access the federal payment system to submit invoices for work legally authorized to be completed under the terms of binding contracts. This is the reality, despite the rescission of the Office of Management and Budget memo freezing trillions in federal spending commitments and several federal court rulings as recent as Monday ordering contractual obligations to be paid.
The truth is we have no idea what the rules are, having received no guidance from federal agencies. We don’t fault the staff at these agencies, as they don’t seem to know what the rules are and are being discouraged (that’s a polite way to say it) from talking to contract holders and grantees. We are left to suspect that the controlling document is Section 7 of this executive order (https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/unleashing-american-energy/) freezing spending of funds authorized under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act.
You might ask what the big deal is here. There are many reasons why you should care about this unilateral breach of contract. Six heavily degraded water resources systems in four towns across the Cape are now in jeopardy. At a minimum, these projects will be delayed, and the result will be the continued burden on Cape residents and the environment that comes from poor water quality and degraded habitat. If the funding is eliminated, then these restoration projects may never happen, or the cost will be imposed on Cape Cod residents. Another impact will be on the workers, local members of the Cape Cod community with mortgages, children and parents to care for, property taxes to pay, and who shop at local stores and restaurants, who will not be paid to do the physical work needed to improve these resources.
Some people think that as the grant recipient, APCC enriches itself, so who cares? That is not how these grants work. APCC serves as the pass-through with roughly 95 percent of the $17.5 million in contracted grants flowing through APCC into the direct implementation of the projects. The remainder offsets a portion, but not all, of APCC’s time managing the projects and ensuring that all these public funds are spent lawfully, efficiently, and effectively. In this current scenario, the big losers are the people who appreciate and enjoy a cleaner environment, the environment itself, and the American workers whose future income and ability to contribute to the economic vibrancy of the region has been thrown into question.
Lastly, there is a larger question at hand. What does it mean to how business is done in America if contractual obligations have no meaning? This is a slippery slope here and the implications to basic tenets of business are profound. How does one move forward with anything if one’s contractual commitment is simply an unenforceable group of words?
Where we go from here is anyone’s guess.
