The Trump administration must restore hundreds of millions of dollars in AmeriCorps grant funding and thousands of service workers in about two dozen states, a federal judge ruled Thursday.

There were more than 200 AmeriCorps fellows in Maine before the funding was cut last month.

U.S. District Judge Deborah L. Boardman granted a temporary block on the agency’s cancellation of grants and early discharge of corps members, but only for the states that sued the administration in April.

The federal lawsuit, filed by Democratic state officials across the country, including Maine, accused President Donald Trump’s cost-cutting efforts through the Department of Government Efficiency of reneging on grants funded through the AmeriCorps State and National program, which was budgeted $557 million in congressionally approved funding this year.

Boardman also said all AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps members that were discharged from their service terms early should be reinstated, if they are willing and able to return.

But Boardman allowed the 30-year-old federal agency for volunteer service to proceed with its reduction in force, denying the states’ request to restore the majority of staff that were put on administrative leave in April. The agency employs more than 500 full-time federal workers and has an operating budget of roughly $1 billion.

AmeriCorps did not immediately respond to request for comment. The Department of Justice declined to comment.

The agency was created to facilitate volunteer service across the country and oversees several programs that dispatch hundreds of millions of dollars and tens of thousands of people to serve in communities.

It sends roughly 200,000 corps members across the country as part of its service programs. Most corps members get a living stipend during their service and become eligible for funding for future education expenses or to apply for certain student loans.

Volunteer Maine, the state commission that administers federal AmeriCorps funding for several programs in the state, supports eight programs that include more than 120 corps members and receives about $2.5 million in annual funding.

Volunteer Maine plans to reinstate all of its programs and AmeriCorps members but said doing so will be a challenge.

CHALLENGES REMAIN

“With these terminations, it’s not like switching a light back on. You can’t just snap back programs,” said Brittany Gleixner-Hayat, executive director of Volunteer Maine.

While she described the court’s decision as “favorable” and said the organization is grateful for it, this is not the end of the issue.

“There’s potentially a long road ahead in terms of litigation,” Gleixner-Hayat said. “It did harm to our communities and our partners. We’re trying to pick up those pieces.”

The Greater Portland Council of Governments (GPCOG) has 12 AmeriCorps Fellows in its Maine Resilience Corps program, serving in municipal offices, at nonprofits and at regional planning agencies in Cumberland and York counties, working on issues including environmental sustainability, safe drinking water and energy efficiency. The organization hopes to keep them employed, but is viewing the potential restoration of funds with cautious optimism.

“This is favorable and promising, but we would certainly reserve judgment given how quickly things are moving on the federal landscape nowadays,” Belinda Ray, the organization’s director of strategic partnerships, said in an interview with the Press Herald on Thursday. “This is an encouraging sign, but I don’t expect any immediate change.”

Funding for the GPCOG program is filtered through Volunteer Maine, and Ray said that will likely take some time.

“Right now, we are holding the line,” she said. “We will cautiously proceed as we have been with our fellows at their host sites, but I don’t expect to see funding immediately.”

GPCOG had planned to keep its fellows working through the end of the year, with or without funding.

“All of them have been impacted. It’s been really scary for them trying to figure out if they have a position from one day to the next,” Ray said. “We’ve been working hard to keep them and hope to through the end of the year … but it is very difficult without the funding.”

As part of the AmeriCorps State and National grant program, state volunteer commissions distributed more than $177 million in formula-based distributions, as well as $370 million in competitive grants that supported nearly 35,000 corps members serving at 300 organizations, according to announcements last year.

Notices of grants being terminated were sent late on a Friday in April, explaining “the award no longer effectuates agency priorities” and directing grantees to immediately shut down the projects, according to a copy reviewed by The Associated Press.

Volunteer Maine had 46 members working across the state when it received notice that its grant funding would be terminated. The commission also was scheduled to have more than 70 additional members start work that month.

Ellie Hughes moved to Maine for an AmeriCorps post working on wildfire mitigation and energy issues on Chebeague Island, including helping island residents lower their energy costs. Some of her projects include finding ways to divert wood waste from the town transfer station and organizing a brush cleanup.

MAKING A DIFFERENCE

“Just adding one person to a community is not the end-all, be-all, but for Chebeague, it kind of is,” Hughes said in an interview last month. “There are only three full-time employees in the town office. I’ve already been able to advance multiple projects that weren’t even on the table before I came, just because there wasn’t staff capacity to pursue them.”

The states that sued the administration said those extensive and immediate cancellations did not provide the legally required notice and comment period. They said the result would be severely curtailed services and programs for vulnerable populations since states and organizations could not fill the funding void.

AmeriCorps argued in court filings that a temporary block on the agency’s actions as the lawsuit proceeds would disrupt efforts to comply with Trump’s executive order creating DOGE and to “act as responsible stewards of public funds,” according to court filings.

Despite bipartisan support, AmeriCorps has long been a target of critics who decry bloat, inefficiencies and misuse of funds.

“President Trump has the legal right to restore accountability to the entire Executive Branch,” Anna Kelly, White House deputy press secretary, said in a statement after the lawsuit was filed.

The lawsuit was filed by officials in Maryland, Delaware, California, Colorado, Arizona, Connecticut, Washington, DC, Hawaii, Illinois, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin.

Press Herald Staff Writer Drew Johnson contributed to this report.