Trump administration federal grant cuts have reached up to $177 billion since the start of Donald Trump’s second term. The Lost Funds tracker released Wednesday says the disruptions hit every state and the District of Columbia, with California, Texas, New York, Illinois and North Carolina among the hardest hit.
Scott Delaney, cofounder of Grant Witness, said, "By bringing thousands of funding disruptions from the Trump administration together in a publicly accessible, verified database, Lost Funds puts the magnitude of their impact on full display". The total equals nearly 10% of federal discretionary spending, according to the tracker.
Lost Funds and USASpending.gov
Lost Funds relies on data from USASpending.gov and will be updated regularly as the administration takes new action and lawsuits move through the courts. The tracker is a running accounting of grants that were cut, frozen, eliminated, delayed or otherwise interrupted, rather than a single list of one program or one state.
The researchers found grants related to maternal health in Michigan, education research in Mississippi and assistance to minority farmers in Iowa among those disrupted. Health, nutrition, the environment and disaster relief made up the largest share of the cuts.
States United Democracy Center and Grant Witness
Kelly Rader, research director at States United Democracy Center, said, "Lost Funds shows the extraordinary scale and real human impact of these disruptions, and how states are once again on the frontlines protecting their residents". Norm Eisen is an attorney and cofounder of States United Democracy Center.
The groups said the disrupted grants were beyond the kind of cuts that typically happen when administrations change, even as some courts have ruled against the administration's grant funding cuts. Which specific grants make up the largest share of the $177 billion total is not fully identified in the tracker, and the next changes will depend on new administration action and court rulings.
