The Trump administration has cut, frozen, eliminated or delayed up to $177 billion in federal grants since President Donald Trump began his second term, according to a new tracking tool released Wednesday.
The exact amount for a particular state has to be checked through the Lost Funds database, which contains thousands of separate funding disruptions, according to ABC News. However, the initial analysis does not provide one complete dollar figure for every individual state. The analysis found that the funding disruptions affected all 50 states and the District of Columbia, meaning no state was left out of the tracker.
Earlier reporting noted: According to the Associated Press, the figure was released through a new tracking tool called Lost Funds, launched by the States United Democracy Center and Grant Witness, a group of researchers and scientists. The tracker allows users to look at the funding disruptions by state, federal agency and specific programme. The underlying data was compiled from USASpending.gov, the federal government’s public database of spending information. The impact also varied by state and programme. In Mississippi, some of the affected grants were linked to education research , the researchers found.
The $177 billion figure includes grants that were eliminated, frozen or delayed. The groups said the $177 billion in disrupted grants is nearly 10% of federal discretionary spending. Earlier reporting noted: Trump admin cuts $177 billion in federal grants across all 50 US states: Report US President Donald Trump. Earlier reporting noted: The Trump administration has cut or frozen up to USD 177 billion in federal grants since President Donald Trump began his second term, with disruptions affecting all 50 states and the District of Columbia, according to a tracking tool released by the States United Democracy Center and Grant Witness.
It therefore represents funding disruptions rather than only money that has been permanently cancelled.
California, Texas, New York, Illinois and North Carolina recorded the highest total amounts of interrupted federal grant money, according to the analysis. The groups said health, nutrition, environmental programmes and disaster relief accounted for the largest share of the funding disruptions. In Michigan, some disrupted funding was connected to maternal health programmes, according to the analysis, according to ABC News. In Iowa, funding that supported minority farmers was among the grants affected by the administration’s actions, according to the analysis. The organisations said the scale of the disruptions goes beyond the kind of funding changes that normally happen when a new presidential administration takes office. Scott Delaney, co-founder of Grant Witness, said the database brings thousands of funding disruptions into one publicly accessible database so people can see the scale of the changes. Kelly Rader, research director at the States United Democracy Center, said the tracker shows the scale of the funding disruptions and their effects on people and states.
The Lost Funds database is expected to be updated regularly as the Trump administration takes new actions and as lawsuits over the funding decisions move through the courts, according to ABC News. Some of the administration’s grant cuts have also faced legal challenges in court. In some cases, courts have ruled against the administration’s efforts to cut grant funding.
