Elon Musk flashes his t-shirt that reads “DOGE” to the media as he walks on South Lawn of the White House, in Washington, Sunday, March 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
A coalition of humanities organizations filed a lawsuit in Oregon on Friday against President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) for what the plaintiffs say is an illegal freeze of congressional funding targeted to destroy the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).
The plaintiffs are Oregon Council for the Humanities, a nonprofit advocacy group founded in 1971 that seeks and distributes funding for humanities groups all across the state of Oregon, and the Federation of State Humanities Councils, an organization that includes nearly all of the state and jurisdictional councils nationwide. Both the Oregon council and the multistate organization receive substantial funding from the NEH.
“Since the first week of April 2025, the current Administration and its United States DOGE Service have engaged in a concerted effort to disrupt and destroy the work of the NEH,” says the complaint.
In 2024, Congress appropriated $207 million to the NEH, which then distributes those funds to humanities organizations around the country, such as Oregon Humanities. Typically, the NEH awards grants on a five-year cycle, which means that the sudden yanking of funds puts programs in doubt for years to come.
According to the 34-page filing, DOGE “brought the core work of those councils to a screeching halt” when it “gutted the NEH … with no reasoned analysis and with total disregard for the Congressionally mandated role of councils to ensure that humanities programs reach every part of the United States, enabling our Nation to preserve and honor the stories, cultures, idea, and practices of all Americans.”
“From Mississippi to South Dakota, Maine to California, the Northern Mariana Islands to Idaho, and places in between, NEH funding flows to state and jurisdictional humanities councils who in turn support a multitude of local grass roots public humanities programs throughout the nation,” the filing says.
In a statement on April 24, the Trump administration’s NEH announced its changed priorities:
In collaboration with the Administration, NEH has canceled awards that are at variance with agency priorities, including but not limited to those on diversity, equity, and inclusion (or DEI) and environmental justice, as well as awards that may not inspire public confidence in the use of taxpayer funds.
The plaintiffs in the lawsuit, however, say the agency terminated nearly every grant that the NEH issued during Joe Biden’s presidency, putting important programs on the chopping block. Their filing argues that DOGE’s actions not only have disastrous practical affects, but also that they contravene the constitutional separation of powers.
Further, they say, days after the April 24 statement, they were notified that all grant terminations were “permanent” and that there would no longer be any appeals process available to intended grantees.
According to the claimants, NEH staffers were informed on April 1 that DOGE sought to reduce their numbers by 70% to 80%, and would face “a cancellation of all grants made under the Biden administration that have not been fully paid out.” Moreover, they say, the cuts were not made based on any criteria of waste, fraud, or abuse — but rather were simply an attempt by DOGE to effect “sought wholesale termination of any grant opened under the Biden Administration.”
Furthermore, plaintiffs allege, DOGE is now seeking to “claw back $175 million in grant money that has not yet been disbursed.”
The plaintiffs raise multiple claims of violations of the Administrative Procedure Act as well as separation of powers violations and ultra vires actions against DOGE for going beyond the scope of the agency’s authority. They seek an injunction that would prevent the Trump administration from carrying out its plans to eliminate funding to the NEH.
“The Constitution grants Congress—not the President—the power to create and prescribe the duties of federal agencies, and Congress maintains the exclusive power of the purse in directing how federal funds must be spent,” said the complaint. “The NEH may not refuse to spend funds that Congress has appropriated for state and jurisdictional humanities councils.”
Adam Davis, executive director of Oregon Humanities, provided the following comment to Law&Crime via email Monday:
Oregon Humanities has been proud to serve as the Oregon affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities for over fifty years. We’ve tried to be a bridge between Washington, D.C., and every county and community in Oregon. We work to provide opportunities for all Oregonians to think and talk together about our state and our nation. We’re looking forward to the restoration of the federal-state partnership that has meant so much to so many people here in Oregon and across the country.
You can read the full complaint here.
