Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey announced Friday that the Trump administration has agreed to release more than $180 million in federal funding for AmeriCorps, the federal agency for national service and volunteerism.

The administration sought to cut the funding this spring, prompting more than two dozen states, including Maine, to sue. Maine had approximately 200 AmeriCorps fellows as of this spring.

In June, a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction on the administration’s plans to 90% of the AmeriCorps workforce, cancel contracts and close $400 million worth of programming. The injunction only applied to the states involved in the lawsuit.

But Frey said the administration continued to withhold $184 million in funding, prompting the coalition of states to file an amended complaint.

Frey said the administration had a deadline of Thursday to respond to the suit. Rather than fight, it agreed to release the funding.

“At the last minute, when required to provide legal justification as to why it withheld funds, the administration instead did what it should have done from the beginning and released the funding,” Frey said in a written statement. “In order to ensure Mainers receive the benefit of programs established under the law, I will continue to work with my colleagues to hold the administration to account when its actions ignore what is legally required.”

John Evanishyn, an AmeriCorps member working with the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, teaches third grade students about vernal pools at Smithfield Plantation in Litchfield in 2023. (Daryn Slover/Staff Photographer)

The AG’s office said the funding would be dispersed nationwide as soon as possible. It’s unclear how much of that funding was destined for Maine.

The funding cuts to the AmeriCorps program were among a host of major moves made shortly after Trump was inaugurated, initiated by the administration’s Department of Governmental Efficiency, which at the time was headed by billionaire Elon Musk. Many cuts to other federal programs also have been challenged in court, some successfully, others not.

AmeriCorps, founded in 1993 under President Bill Clinton, is a national service program that places people with nonprofits, community organizations and public agencies for work in areas including education, health, disaster relief and environmental conservation. As many as 200,000 corps members are dispatched throughout the country at any given time.

Workers who participate in the programs through Volunteer Maine receive living allowances for housing and food, health insurance coverage and are eligible for an award to cover educational expenses at the end of their service.

Among those affected by the cuts in Maine this spring were 12 fellows placed with the Greater Portland Council of Governments who served 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.

“This is upending the lives of 12 young people, many of whom moved to Maine for the first time and are doing really invaluable work for communities across Maine,” GPCOG Executive Director Kristina Egan said at the time. “We feel like this program is the embodiment of cost efficiency. We have low-cost stipends for very talented people. They come here for a one-year commitment to provide community service for the residents of Maine.”

Last year, Maine received $8.6 million in federal funding for AmeriCorps operations that served veterans, seniors, and disaster victims, among others, according to the AG’s office.

Frey was joined by the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin, and the governors of Kentucky and Pennsylvania in filing the lawsuit.