On July 8, 2025, Sierra Club filed a new Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to shed light on the agency’s freeze of Congressionally appropriated funding, as well as on agency officials’ communications with industry and other external parties who may be influencing OMB's decisions.
Soon after the 2024 election, tech billionaire and former leader of DOGE, Elon Musk, and Project 2025 co-author and now-OMB director, Russell Vought, began developing strategies to dismantle the federal executive branch. Notably, in late January 2025, OMB directed agencies to temporarily stop disbursing large swaths of federal funds that had already been committed to grants, loans, and other programs. Despite several court orders blocking this action, significant federal funds have remained on hold, impeding numerous environmental, climate, and public health initiatives.
In January, the Sierra Club submitted two FOIA requests to the agency: one, alongside the Environmental Integrity Project, seeking all external communications related to the funding freeze and the other seeking communications from OMB to other federal agencies that administer funds for programs that help advance the Sierra Club’s priorities—including all offices of the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy’s Loan Program Office—and certain other records related to the funding freeze. In February, the Sierra Club submitted a third request seeking external communications between key OMB staff and DOGE staff, including Vought, Musk, people connected to fossil fuel and other industries, and right-wing political interests and media. The requested records will bring greater transparency to OMB’s actions and motivations, including the outsized influence that industry likely is wielding on policymaking in the Trump administration.
In addition to ignoring FOIA-mandated deadlines to make a determination as to how it will respond to each request, OMB has also violated FOIA by failing to provide an estimated date of completion for the requests, any responsive documents, or any explanation for withholding documents.
Sierra Club Environmental Law Program attorneys Elena Saxonhouse, Andrea Issod, and Joya Manjur are representing the Sierra Club in this case.