Zachary Turner, WFAE

In a declaration filed with the court, Joshua Davis, CFO of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, said that if the federal government doesn’t lift the funding freeze, North Carolina will lose out on “$117 million in conservation projects.”

Last year, the state legislature passed a bill restricting wetlands protection to "waters of the U.S.," which was later redefined to a narrower interpretation by the U.S. Supreme Court.