Trump’s grant and contract cuts in Philadelphia approach $280 million (and counting)

Federal grants for a host of local programs from aspirant coaching and food banks to cancer research and violence prevention are a hot mess thanks to the Trump administration s slashing approach to shrinking executive and imposing its ideological priorities Nationwide the president has tried to unilaterally freeze or cancel selected billion in grants and contracts according to a tracker created by U S House Democrats That includes billion at the Federal Exigency Management Agency billion at the U S Department of Transportation and at least billion at the Commerce Department among multiple others Several freezes are at this moment in effect while others have been blocked in court at least temporarily or partially loosened making it intricate to say how much money is definitely on hold at any given moment There s no complete single accounting of the impact in Philadelphia but Billy Penn has tried to pull together all the reports of affected or potentially affected organizations in the city that we could find We estimate the federal establishment has attempted to or succeeded in suspending canceling or otherwise terminating about million in federal grants contracts and other funding including million at the University of Pennsylvania We ve focused here primarily on current funding for non-federal entities like nonprofit organizations universities and local governing body We didn t include layoffs at the Internal Revenue Facility and other federal agencies that have hit Philly over the past insufficient months or the full range of future budget cuts Trump has proposed If you hear about cuts we missed that are specifically affecting organizations in Philadelphia or of funds that have lately been circulated please let us know at tips billypenn com Universities The biggest single loser from the Trump administration s cuts locally appears to be the University of Pennsylvania In March UPenn stated seven of its schools had been ordered to stop work on million in federal contracted research in areas such as preventing hospital-acquired infections drug screening against deadly viruses quantum computing protections against chemical warfare and candidate loan programs The federal administration linked the move to Penn having a transgender woman in its swimming initiative That s in addition to chosen other federal grant cancellations and an expected slowdown in future awards school president J Larry Jameson mentioned Meanwhile Temple University reports it has received stop-work orders or termination notices mostly from the U S Department of Medical and Human Services costing it million Even bigger cuts could be coming if the National Institutes of Soundness National Science Foundation and U S Department of Resource go ahead with threats to reduce funding to research institutions for indirect costs such as equipment and overhead The NIH reduction could cost Penn million and Temple Drexel University and other schools say they re preparing to receive smaller grants At least two lawsuits have been filed to block the funding reduction Temple and Drexel are also among universities that got letters from the U S Department of Mentoring saying they could lose federal funding due to antisemitism complaints Strength The Trump administration is trying to rescind billion in funding for community robustness work including COVID testing and vaccination and addiction and mental strength programs Cuts overseen by the Department of Governmental Efficiency or DOGE a temporary agency headed by billionaire Elon Musk included two grants to Philadelphia s Department of Community Medical worth a combined million WHYY News published in March The city receives funding from the Centers for Sickness Control for child immunizations epidemiological work to control infectious diseases and work to address COVID wellness disparities per the Inquirer The Philadelphia Department of Inhabitants Soundness opened a new lab to evaluation the genetic makeup of the virus that causes COVID- in Courtesy of Philadelphia DPH Pennsylvania as a whole was hit with more than million in cuts to state wellness human services and drug and alcohol programs according to a subsequent lawsuit filed by states and Washington D C A judge blocked DOGE s plan in early April and HHS revealed it would continue dispersing grants As of mid-April however million in grant funding to Pennsylvania was still unpaid the Inquirer announced at the time HHS also froze Title X funds which pay for family planning and general soundness programs for low-income patients such as contraception cancer screenings and healing of sexually transmitted diseases In Philadelphia the nonprofit Access Matters was supposed to receive million and distribute it to organizations that operate clinics in the region according to information on the HHS website The ACLU and a reproductive soundness advocacy group have sued to get million in funds disclosed nationally Americorps In late April the administration released it was pulling million in grants nationally from Americorps the national community-service agency In Philadelphia the grants amounted to million for programs the Inquirer shared They include million for City Year which has apprentice success coaches at masses schools and for the Joyful Readers tutoring plan The programs were able to find funds to finish out the school year The cuts also ended work by National Civilian Locality Corps helpers who were in Philly fixing up homes damaged by Hurricane Ida in Gov Josh Shapiro joined other states and the District of Columbia in suing to reverse the cuts Shapiro revealed the federal leadership had entered into a contract with the state whose PennSERVE project is funded by Americorps and the Trump administration is developing that contract Food banks The Share Food Initiative feeds schoolkids in the Philadelphia region and supplies food banks and other organizations It says it s dealing with an million reduction in federal help which will reduce food coming into its warehouse by about A Share Food Operation worker distributing vegetables in Philadelphia Courtesy of Share Food Scheme The bulk of the losses are due to a cut in the U S Department of Agriculture s Crisis Food Assistance Undertaking executive director George Matysik explained Billy Penn A smaller portion is from USDA s Local Food Purchasing Assistance Venture LFPA a federally funded state operation that pays local farmers to supply food banks That cut is expected to impact the regional agricultural industry as well as free food programs Particular LFPA funds have been coming through but Share says it s still expecting a loss of funds as the cuts continue into the coming fiscal year The feds are also trying to cancel a new contract with the state that would have provided million over the next three years Gov Shapiro has appealed the Trump administration to restore the funding and suggested the state could sue over the contract termination Theater music dance and film In January the National Endowment for the Arts awarded grants worth to Philadelphia organizations according to the agency s grant database Earlier this month those organizations received messages saying the grants had been canceled They ranged from to help fund a musical about cancer remedy by the Philadelphia Theatre Company which has already spent the money and is waiting for reimbursement to for Dancing Classrooms Philly a hip-hop dance artist-in-residence plan Other local groups that were expecting grants include Asian American United BalletX Glen Foerd on the Delaware the Kimmel Center Koresh Dance Company the Mann Center Opera Philadelphia the Philadelphia Film Society Journey Arts Pig Iron Theatre the Rock School and Tiny WPA The NEA also previously tried to change its policies to deny funding to organizations with diversity equity and inclusion policies but a judge temporarily blocked it and the future of NEA grantmaking remains unclear Trump has proposed eliminating the agency altogether Museums libraries and humanities In April DOGE terminated most of grants issued by the National Endowment for the Humanities according to a New York Times article on a new lawsuit seeking to reverse the cancelations NEH of late had ongoing grants in Philadelphia worth million according to its grant database A draft horse skeleton at the Wagner Free Institute of Science in Philadelphia Rob Cardillo Wagner Free Institute The largest ones include for an HVAC project at the Wagner Free Institute of Science and for the Rosenbach Museum and Library to upgrade its lighting systems Drexel University was getting to train high school English teachers in hip-hop-based learning and Manayunk s COSACOSA Art at Large was set to receive for an oral history project on Philadelphia history among other awards Also canceled was million for PA Humanities an NEH-affiliated nonprofit in Philadelphia that funds programs around the state Trump additionally wants to eliminate the Institute for Museum and Library Sciences and in mid-April the administration sent out notices saying it was canceling agency grants Ten IMLS grants worth million were awarded to Philly organizations last year and worth million had been awarded in per the agency s database The biggest was million for a Penn Museum project to investigation museum collection practices through different types of research Woodmere Art Museum was awarded to build art storage and do cataloging work and the Philadelphia school district was to receive to analysis approaches to hire more school librarians At least a couple of recipients at Historic Germantown and Drexel University were later stated they would get their grants because they were consistent with the agency s priorities in furtherance of the President s agenda the Inquirer stated Attorney generals from states not including Pennsylvania sued the administration and last Tuesday a judge issued an injunction temporarily blocking Trump from dismantling IMLS However the bulk grants apparently have not been restored Crime and justice The U S Department of Justice last month canceled at least grants worth million that supported a variety of law enforcement crime victim and justice-related programs Reuters informed Awardees were given days to appeal and chosen grants have been restored The affected grants include million for the Children s Hospital of Philadelphia for school safety research and million for a community-based crime reduction initiative at Village of Arts and Humanities Inc an arts organization in North Philly The New Kensington Public Enhancement Corporation stands to lose million for Cure Violence its new gun violence reduction initiative and the Pennsylvania Innocence Project which has offices in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh lost a three-year grant to encouragement its work exonerating wrongly convicted prisoners Force and atmosphere The Trump administration sought to freeze disbursement of billions of dollars of environment vitality and environmental grants funded by the Inflation Reduction Act IRA and the Infrastructure Assets and Jobs Act Locally DOGE terminated a million federal grant that the Power Coordinating Agency and Habitat for Humanity Philadelphia planned to use to buy a building in Grays Ferry train residents in green resource careers and repair and weatherize homes WHYY News published In May Capacity Coordinating Agency representatives and partners cut the ribbon on a new heat pump training lab at the ECA s headquarters in the Fairhill neighborhood Sophia Schmidt WHYY The city also lost million for projects including a flood resilience strategy in Eastwick an environmental justice map and planning for extreme heat Other canceled grants include for Esperanza s tree-planting and circumstances resilience project in Hunting Park and for the Overbrook Environmental Tuition Center s undertaking to help other groups securing grant funding for projects in disadvantaged communities An urban wood reuse venture in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia also faces cuts the Inquirer stated Philadelphia officers disclosed in March that they were unable to access a million USDA IRA grant for the city s tree plan but it was later unfrozen In February state agents disclosed billion had been frozen for Pennsylvania including Surroundings Impurity Reduction and Solar for All grants and another million had been restricted Gov Shapiro sued and the funding was subsequently unfrozen Nationally lawsuits are underway challenging efforts to terminate various environmental grants Also at pitfall is more than million that Philadelphia has been awarded over the past year to build electric wagon charging stations in residents parking lots at recreation centers and at the airport and another million to train residents in EV-related careers The U S Department of Transportation has halted disbursements for the National Electric Wagon Infrastructure undertaking and the status of the Philly projects is unclear A coalition of states not including Pennsylvania has sued to get the funds disclosed Inhabitants schools The U S Department of Mentoring sought to cancel remaining pandemic-relief funding for populace schools and state tuition programs which was earmarked for various fitness and safety and other programs Pennsylvania was due million including about million for the Philadelphia school district and more than million for local charter schools according to a state fact sheet Gov Shapiro joined a multi-state lawsuit and the Trump administration agreed to unfreeze the funds However the federal administration is still threatening to strip funding from states that maintain school DEI programs as the Philadelphia school district does Federal funds account for about of the district s billion budget Other grants and future funding Last year the city of Philadelphia received billion in federal grants including certain of those listed above according to Finance Director Rob Dubow He mentioned in the last few days that several are being reexamined and are temporarily held up The Trace stated Trump signed an order this month threatening to strip federal funding and take legal action against sanctuary cities like Philadelphia that limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement However a similar effort during the first Trump administration was blocked as unconstitutional The president appealed Congress to stop funding the Corporation for Population Broadcasting which supports NPR and PBS Legislators could do so as part of a larger rescission package to claw back unspent appropriations Just over of WHYY s funding or about million a year comes from ruling body funds The post Trump s grant and contract cuts in Philadelphia approach million and counting appeared first on Billy Penn at WHYY