A new grant-tracking database estimates that federal agencies have disrupted as much as $177 billion in funding across every state and Washington, D.C., since President Donald Trump returned to office in January 2025.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
Up to $177 billion in federal grant funding has been terminated, frozen or otherwise disrupted since President Donald Trump began his second term, according to a new analysis attempting to measure the administration’s changes to federal spending nationwide.
The total comes from “Lost Funds,” a tracking project developed by the nonprofit States United Democracy Center and Grant Witness. The organizations compiled thousands of federal grant actions and calculated their financial impact using government spending records, according to an Associated Press report.
Funding disruptions identified by the project have occurred in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, with health, nutrition, environmental programs and disaster relief among the areas affected. The $177 billion estimate amounts to nearly 10% of annual federal discretionary spending, according to the analysis.
The figure does not mean $177 billion has necessarily disappeared permanently.
The database includes different types of funding actions, including grants that were canceled or frozen, and its totals can change when courts order funding restored or agencies reverse previous decisions. The organizations describe the figure as measuring funding affected by administration actions rather than a final accounting of permanently eliminated federal spending.
Some of the disputed funding has already been the subject of litigation, and courts have blocked or reversed portions of the administration’s grant actions. The Lost Funds database is intended to be updated as new agency decisions and court rulings alter the status of individual grants.
The organizations built the tracker primarily from information available through USASpending.gov, the federal government’s public database for awards, contracts, grants and other expenditures.
That approach allows the project to examine individual awards and compare amounts that had been obligated with money already distributed before a grant was terminated or frozen.
The project calculates what it considers lost funding from terminated grants by examining money that had been obligated but had not yet been paid when the award was canceled. That distinction is significant because the full original value of a multiyear grant may be larger than the amount actually left to be distributed when the government terminates it.
The organizations also attempt to account for grants that were later reinstated so that the database can change as legal and administrative decisions develop.
The Trump administration has pursued wide-ranging changes to federal spending since January 2025, including efforts to terminate grants it says conflict with administration priorities, reduce government expenditures or improperly fund programs the administration opposes.
Those actions have affected universities, state and local governments, nonprofit organizations, scientific researchers and other recipients that depend on federal grants.
The administration’s authority to withhold some congressionally appropriated funds has also generated legal challenges. Plaintiffs in several cases have argued that executive agencies cannot cancel money Congress has appropriated without following applicable federal laws, while the administration has defended its authority to review, suspend or terminate awards under various statutes and grant conditions.
The new analysis attempts to consolidate those individual funding disputes into a single national picture rather than examining them agency by agency.
According to the Associated Press, examples identified by the project include funding affecting maternal health efforts in Michigan, educational research in Mississippi and programs serving minority farmers in Iowa. California, Texas, New York, Illinois and North Carolina were among the states with the largest dollar amounts affected.
Because federal grants finance programs operating throughout the country, the effects identified by the tracker are not confined to states controlled by either political party.
The analysis found disruptions in every state as well as Washington, D.C., underscoring the geographic reach of the administration’s broader effort to reconsider federal expenditures.
Health-related grants are among the funding categories represented in the database. Federal grants support activities ranging from medical research and public health programs to maternal care, disease prevention and services delivered by state and local agencies.
Nutrition programs, environmental projects and disaster-related spending also appear among the categories affected, according to the organizations.
Grant Witness and States United say the project is intended to make a large number of separate funding decisions easier for the public to examine.
“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, co-founder of Grant Witness, said in a statement.
The organizations plan to continue revising the database rather than treating the $177 billion figure as a fixed total.
That is necessary because federal grant disputes have remained fluid.
A grant initially listed as terminated could later be restored administratively. A court could order an agency to resume payments. Other grants could be frozen or terminated in the future, adding to the total. Litigation can also remain unresolved for months while temporary court orders determine whether money continues flowing.
The result is a snapshot of federal funding disruptions identified since Trump returned to office rather than a final calculation of what ultimately will or will not be spent.
The analysis also comes with an important distinction between grants that have been frozen and grants that have been permanently eliminated. A funding freeze can interrupt payments without necessarily terminating the underlying award, while a termination can itself subsequently be reversed.
For that reason, the organizations describe the amount as up to $177 billion in affected funding.
The project nevertheless provides one of the broader attempts to quantify the cumulative effect of grant decisions made across multiple federal agencies since January 2025.
Rather than focusing on an individual canceled program or legal challenge, Lost Funds brings those actions into a single database covering recipients and programs throughout the country.
As agencies continue reviewing federal awards and courts continue considering challenges to some of those decisions, the total will remain subject to change.
For now, the organizations’ analysis places the amount of federal grant funding cut or frozen during Trump’s second term at as much as $177 billion, spread across every state and the District of Columbia and touching programs ranging from health and nutrition to environmental initiatives and disaster relief.
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