President Trump’s administration is allegedly seeking at least $430 billion in government funding, according to a tracker released Tuesday by top Democratic funding negotiators in the House and Senate.
Top Democrats on the Senate and House appropriations committees, Sen. Patty Murray of Washington and Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, released the tracker early Tuesday with the stated goal of “shine a light on President Trump’s vast, illegal funding freeze and how it is hurting people in every zip code in America.”
Democratic appropriations staff created the tracker, which lists the “minimum amount” of monies that the offices claim are blocked, cancelled, or that the Trump administration is attempting to halt in court.
Democrats claim that during the president’s first 100 days in office, 114 programs have had their funding frozen, canceled, or terminated.
This includes approximately $1 billion in funding for HeadStart that Democrats claim has been “frozen,” $400 million in funding for AmeriCorps State and National Grants that has been blocked, $2.4 billion in funding for Wildfire Hazardous Fuels Management that has been “frozen,” and $15 million in funding that has been withheld for Social Security Administration research.
Additionally, the tracker lists what Democratic staff have estimated to be billions of dollars in stalled funding for National Institutes of Health (NIH) programs, the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) Program, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
“No American president has ever so flagrantly ignored our nation’s spending laws or so brazenly denied the American people investments they are owed,” Murray and DeLauro stated on Tuesday.
Democrats complain that the tracker is “not comprehensive” and fails to include information about “the full range of fiscal year 2025 funding that has yet to be awarded or disbursed, but that should be flowing,” as well as other funding that could be blocked as a result of the recent wave of agency layoffs.
Due to legal challenges to the Trump administration’s attempts to restructure the federal government and reduce spending, the number may also alter.
For instance, under the Biden administration, the administration was recently directed to unfreeze funds authorized in climate legislation passed by Congress.
“Agencies do not have unlimited authority to further a President’s agenda, nor do they have unfettered power to hamstring in perpetuity two statutes passed by Congress during the previous administration,” stated U.S. District Judge Mary McElroy, the Trump appointee who issued the order for Trump officials to resume the funding.
In situations where Trump officials are “actively fighting in court to block it,” Democrats confirmed that the tracker included a list of programs that the Trump administration has been compelled to reveal.
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In a statement, they pointed out that “any relief provided by the courts at this stage is only temporary” and that in certain cases, “intended recipients even when ordered by a court to do so” were still unable to access federal monies.
The tracker coincides with a campaign by Republicans in both chambers for legislation that would formalize the cuts that Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency has been pursuing.
