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BREAKING: Catholic Charities Diocese of Fort Worth, Texas, sues HHS, alleging that HHS's refusal to pay $36 million in open grant agreements has resulted in "over 100,000 eligible individuals and families losing access to critical services" and layoffs and furloughs across partner agencies.
Despite four attempts by CCFW on January 29 and 30 to obtain payment of obligated grant funds through Defendants' Payment Management Services system ("PMS"), and another ten requests in the following four weeks, Defendants have persisted in unlawfully preventing CCFW from obtaining over $36 million under its open grant agreements— an amount owing that continues to mount with the services CCFW continues to provide, unfunded, with each passing day. As this Court is aware, CCFW has been far from alone in confronting Defendants' unlawful attempt to pause all federal grant funding. On February 25, 2025, the Honorable Judge Loren L. AliKhan of this Court ordered that the Administration was preliminarily "enjoined from implementing, giving effect to, or reinstating under a different name the unilateral, non-individualized directives in OMB Memorandum M-25-13 with respect to the disbursement of Federal funds under all open awards" and that agencies may not take any steps to implement the federal funding freeze as contemplated by OMB Memorandum M-25-13. National Council of Nonprofits v. OMB, Civil Action No. 25-239, Dkt. No. #52 (Feb. 25, 2025) (issuing a preliminary injunction to block the government's efforts to freeze federal funding). Defendants' unlawful behavior, in defiance of the Constitutional authority of Articles I and III co-equal branches of government, results in real-world harm not only to CCFW but also to the more than 100,000 individuals and families to whom CCFW and its partner agencies provide essential, Congressionally-mandated services. In CCFW's case, as CCFW wrote to ORR on February 17, "the lack of payments has resulted in 24 of our 29 partner agencies experiencing staff layoff or furloughs," resulting in the over 100,000 eligible individuals and families "losing access to critical services." Neither CCFW, nor its large network of contractors and sub-recipients, have the ability to 3 Case 1:25-cv-00605 Document 1 Filed 03/03/25 Page 4 of 28 cover the cash flow necessary to continue operating to serve Congress's intent without receiving the Congressionally-appropriated funding for those services. Thus, CCFW's partners have had to lay off staff, close offices, and cut certain supportive services programs as a result of the lack of payments, resulting in a frustration of CCFW's mission and Congressional mandate.
March 3, 2025 at 6:42 PM