SPRINGFIELD — Calling the elimination of a $20 million federal grant “heartless,” the City Council is vowing to fight for the restoration of funding designed to plant more trees, reduce the need for fossil fuels and cut down on pollution.

The council voted unanimously Monday to support a resolution to protest the loss of the Environmental Protection Agency Community Change Grant. All 13 members asked to sign on as sponsors of the decree.

“If we don’t start standing up and fighting, we are going to be doomed,” said Brian Santaniello, who filed the resolution.

U.S. Sen. Edward Markey affirmed the grant was properly awarded, and Tina Quagliato Sullivan, the city’s deputy development officer for housing, community services and sustainability, said the loss of the money would be “profoundly detrimental” to residents and the city’s revitalization, Santaniello said.

City officials announced in August that Springfield had been awarded the $20 million grant from a competitive application that joined together eight local agencies and a half-dozen city departments. Springfield was the only community in the region to receive an award of this size.

But the release of funds had been in question since President Donald Trump took office. Last week, officials learned the grant had been terminated.

“You have to pretty heartless to go after money that will help out children and people with asthma,” City Councilor Victor Davila said.

He wasn’t the only one to cite the asthma rates that the grant was designed to help reduce. In 2019, Springfield was determined to have the highest rate in the country. It has reduced some now but remains in the top 20 nationwide, according to different studies.

Councilor Jose Delgado called the resolution “an easy yes” for him, since he suffered from childhood asthma, as does his daughter. He thanked Markey and Santaniello for their advocacy.

“When I learned of the federal Trump administration cutting this, I was pretty pissed off,” he said.

Markey, a member of the Senate’s environment and public works committee, was an author of the grant and is continuing to fight for the restoration of the funding. Stories about how the loss affects people will help in the battle, said Jesse Lederman, Markey’s regional director and a former Springfield City Council president.

Currently, Markey is working with other members of Congress and connecting communities affected by the cuts with legal resources to help them fight for grant restoration, he said.

“The Trump administration is attempting to steal $20 million from the people of Springfield to fund tax breaks for billionaires,” said Lederman, reading a statement from Markey.

Eliminating the grant is wrong, as Springfield has worked hard to clean up pollution to reduce asthma rates, and the government should be helping, the statement said.

“This grant includes initiatives to reduce reliance on dirty fossil fuels, expand the city’s urban tree canopy to reduce heat and clean the air, remove hazardous pollutants and restore dilapidated housing stock, provide career training for good paying HVACR technician jobs and more,” Lederman said.

U.S. Rep. Richard Neal, D-Springfield, also is working to try to reinstate the grant, saying under the Constitution that Congress has control of funding, and the grant came through the Inflation Reduction Act drafted by the House Ways and Means and passed by the House and Senate.

“As members of Congress, we know the needs of our communities and how federal dollars can best be of assistance. Any attempt by the Trump administration to withhold federal funding that has been authorized and allocated by Congress is unconstitutional and an executive overreach — period,” he said.

The money, which was to be spent over three years, had a dozen goals, including planting 1,500 trees; installing geothermal heating and cooling systems at the Mason Square branch library and the Kenefick Park Field House; supporting bike share programs; creating a workforce training program for green energy jobs; and developing a complete streets project for the West Street corridor.

City Councilor Zaida Govan talked about the 14-year fight to keep Palmer Renewable Energy from building a 35-megawatt wood-burning plant at 1000 Page Boulevard, because of the pollutants it would bring.

“It is very important for us to do this and stand up,” she said. “It has already passed through Congress. … It is not right. It is not legal, and it should not have happened.”