Hickenlooper Statement on Cancelled Federal Funding for Colorado

WASHINGTON - Today, U.S. Senator John Hickenlooper released the following statement after President Trump's Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director and Project 2025 author Russell Vought announced the illegal cancellation of $8 billion of federal funding from the Department of Energy (DOE) to mostly Democrat-run states, including Colorado:

"The cancellation of this funding for political vengeance is blatantly illegal. Congress approved this funding to create jobs and to generate cleaner, cheaper power.

"Even if for some dark reason you are against cleaner energy, these projects are well underway. To abandon them now wastes the funds already invested, and needlessly cripples dozens of honest, hard-working small businesses that believed having a legal contract with our country meant something. The White House strategy during their shutdown is to punish Americans who dared to vote against them."

The funding illegally cancelled by Trump comes from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the Inflation Reduction Act, and congressional appropriations. This funding has been contractually obligated, with contracts already signed between the Department of Energy and companies and universities, including in Colorado, for these projects.

98% of the projects cancelled are in Democrat-run states. This is despite the fact that Republican-run states have secured over three-fourths of IRA investments.

Hickenlooper was pivotal in the negotiations and passage of both the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, a once-in-a-generation bipartisan investment in our nation's infrastructure, and the Inflation Reduction Act, the largest investment in climate rescue in the history of the world. Hickenlooper will always fight back against the Trump administration's continued attacks on Congress' power of the purse and investments for Colorado.

Hickenlooper will also reject Republican-led continuing resolutions until Republicans work to lower costs and restore Americans' health care. Republicans control the White House and both chambers of Congress.

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