Trump administration cut or froze $177bn in federal grants, tracker finds

Health, nutrition, environment and disaster relief face biggest disruptions

The Trump administration has cut or frozen up to $177 billion in federal grants since President Trump began his second term, according to a tracking tool released Wednesday by a pro-democracy non-profit and a group of researchers and scientists. The cuts and freezes, now catalogued in a public database the groups call Lost Funds, affected all 50 states and the District of Columbia, the States United Democracy Center and Grant Witness said.

Health, nutrition, the environment and disaster relief made up the largest shares of the disrupted funding, the groups said. Among the grants that were eliminated, frozen or delayed were those for maternal health in Michigan, education research in Mississippi and assistance to minority farmers in Iowa, the researchers found.

California, Texas, New York, Illinois and North Carolina saw the highest dollar amounts of interrupted grant money, according to the Lost Funds tracker.

“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,” Scott Delaney, cofounder of Grant Witness, said in a statement.

The trackers’ organizers said the disrupted grants went beyond the kind of cuts that typically happen when administrations change. “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,” Kelly Rader, the States United Democracy Center’s research director, said.

The $177 billion figure represents nearly 10 percent of federal discretionary spending, the groups said.

The new Lost Funds tool, which is being made available for public use, relies on data from USASpending.gov, described by the groups as an open data source of federal spending information. The groups said the tracker would be updated regularly as the administration takes new action and lawsuits move through the courts.

In some cases, courts have ruled against the administration’s grant funding cuts, the groups said.

States United bills itself as a nonpartisan group dedicated to the rule of law and free, fair, secure elections. It was cofounded by Norm Eisen, an attorney who has been involved in prominent lawsuits against the Trump administration, including over the Kennedy Center. Eisen left the States United center in 2021. Grant Witness is a group of scientists, researchers and attorneys who document how funding is changing under Donald Trump’s administration.

A message seeking comment on the analysis was sent to the White House.