Federal grants for a host of local programs — from student coaching and food banks to cancer research and violence prevention — are a hot mess thanks to the Trump administration’s slashing approach to shrinking government and imposing its ideological priorities. Nationwide, the president has tried to unilaterally freeze or cancel some $437 billion in grants and contracts, according to a
searchable tracker created by U.S. House Democrats. That includes $102 billion at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, $60 billion at the U.S. Department of Transportation, and at least $42 billion at the Commerce Department, among many others. Some freezes are currently in effect, while others have been blocked in court — at least temporarily — or partially loosened, making it difficult to say how much money is actually 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 government has attempted to or succeeded in suspending, canceling or otherwise terminating about $278 million in federal grants, contracts and other funding, including $175 million at the University of Pennsylvania. We’ve focused here primarily on current funding for non-federal entities, like nonprofit organizations, universities and local government. We didn’t include
layoffs at the Internal Revenue Service and other federal agencies that have hit Philly over the past few 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 recently been released, please let us know at
[email protected].
Universities
The biggest single loser from the Trump administration’s cuts locally appears to be the University of Pennsylvania. In March, UPenn said seven of its schools had been ordered to stop work on
$175 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 student loan programs. The federal government linked the move to Penn having a
transgender woman in its swimming program . That’s in addition to some other federal grant cancellations and an expected slowdown in future awards, school president J. Larry Jameson said. Meanwhile, Temple University reports it has received 14 stop-work orders or termination notices, mostly from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, costing it $3 million. Even bigger cuts could be coming if the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation and U.S. Department of Energy go ahead with threats to reduce funding to research institutions for indirect costs, such as equipment and overhead. The NIH reduction could cost Penn $240 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 60 universities that got letters from the U.S. Department of Education saying they could lose federal funding
due to antisemitism complaints .
Health
The Trump administration is trying to rescind
$11 billion in funding for public health work, including COVID testing and vaccination, and addiction and mental health 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 Public Health worth a combined $40 million,
WHYY News reported in March. The city receives funding from the Centers for Disease Control for child immunizations, epidemiological work to control infectious diseases, and work to address COVID health disparities, per the Inquirer. Pennsylvania as a whole was hit with
more than $495 million in cuts to state health, human services, and drug and alcohol programs, according to a subsequent lawsuit filed by 23 states and Washington D.C. A judge
blocked DOGE’s plan in early April and HHS said it would continue dispersing grants. As of mid-April, however, $617 million in grant funding to Pennsylvania was still unpaid, the
Inquirer reported at the time. HHS also froze Title X funds, which pay for family planning and public health programs for low-income patients, such as contraception, cancer screenings and treatment of sexually transmitted diseases. In Philadelphia, the nonprofit Access Matters was supposed to receive $5.6 million and distribute it to 23 organizations that operate 68 clinics in the region, according to information on the HHS website. The ACLU and a reproductive health advocacy group have
sued to get $65.8 million in funds released nationally.
Americorps
In late April, the administration announced it was pulling $400 million in grants nationally from Americorps, the national community-service agency. In Philadelphia the grants amounted to $10.2 million for 11 programs, the
Inquirer reported. They include $3.8 million for City Year, which has 125 student success coaches at 13 public schools, and $833,500 for the
Joyful Readers tutoring program. (The programs were able to find funds to finish out the school year.) The cuts also ended work by National Civilian Community Corps volunteers who were in Philly
fixing up homes damaged by Hurricane Ida in 2021. Gov. Josh Shapiro joined 25 other states and the District of Columbia in
suing to reverse the cuts . Shapiro said the federal government had entered into a contract with the state, whose PennSERVE program is funded by Americorps, and “the Trump administration is breaking that contract.”
Food banks
The Share Food Program feeds 300,000 schoolkids in the Philadelphia region and supplies 400 food banks and other organizations. It says it’s dealing with an
$8 million reduction in federal support , which will reduce food coming into its warehouse by about 20%. The bulk of the losses are due to a cut in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Emergency Food Assistance Program, executive director George Matysik told Billy Penn. A smaller portion is from USDA’s Local Food Purchasing Assistance Program (LFPA), a federally funded state program that pays local farmers to supply food banks. That cut is expected to impact the regional agricultural industry as well as free food programs. Some 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 $13 million over the next three years. Gov. Shapiro has asked 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 35 grants worth $831,000 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 $50,000 to help fund a musical about cancer treatment by the Philadelphia Theatre Company — which has
already spent the money and is waiting for reimbursement — to $10,000 for Dancing Classrooms Philly, a hip-hop dance artist-in-residence program. 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 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 recently had 11 active grants in Philadelphia worth $1.74 million, according to its grant database. The largest ones include $350,000 for an HVAC project at the Wagner Free Institute of Science and $330,000 for the Rosenbach Museum and Library to upgrade its lighting systems. Drexel University was getting $200,000 to train high school English teachers in hip-hop-based education and Manayunk’s COSACOSA Art at Large was set to receive $25,000 for an oral history project on Philadelphia history, among other awards. Also canceled was
$1.2 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 $3.2 million were awarded to Philly organizations last year, and 10 worth $2.3 million had been awarded in 2023, per the agency’s database. The biggest was $1.1 million for a Penn Museum project to study museum collection practices through different types of research. Woodmere Art Museum was awarded $750,999 to build art storage and do cataloging work, and the Philadelphia school district was to receive $149,120 to
study ways to hire more school librarians . At least a couple of recipients, at Historic Germantown and Drexel University, were later told they would get their grants because they were “consistent with the agency’s priorities in furtherance of the President’s agenda,” the
Inquirer reported. Attorney generals from 21 states — not including Pennsylvania — sued the administration, and last Tuesday
a judge issued an injunction temporarily blocking Trump from dismantling IMLS. However, most grants apparently have not been restored.
Crime and justice
The U.S. Department of Justice last month canceled
at least 365 grants worth $811 million that supported a variety of law enforcement, crime victim, and justice-related programs, Reuters reported. Awardees were given 30 days to appeal and some grants have been restored. The affected grants include $2.3 million for the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia for school safety research and $1 million for a community-based crime reduction program at Village of Arts and Humanities, Inc., an arts organization in North Philly. The New Kensington Community Development Corporation stands to lose $1.5 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, $600,000 grant to support its work exonerating wrongly convicted prisoners.
Energy and climate
The Trump administration sought to freeze disbursement of billions of dollars of climate, energy and environmental grants funded by the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Locally, DOGE terminated a $20 million federal grant that the Energy Coordinating Agency and Habitat for Humanity Philadelphia planned to use to buy a building in Grays Ferry, train residents in green energy careers, and repair and weatherize homes,
WHYY News reported . The city also lost $1 million for projects including a flood resilience strategy in Eastwick, an environmental justice map and planning for extreme heat. Other canceled grants include $500,000 for
Esperanza’s tree-planting and climate resilience project in Hunting Park and $700,000 for the Overbrook Environmental Education Center’s program to help other groups securing grant funding for projects in disadvantaged communities. An urban wood reuse program in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia also faces cuts, the
Inquirer reported. Philadelphia officials said in March that they were
unable to access a $12 million USDA/IRA grant for the city’s tree plan, but
it was later unfrozen . (In February, state officials said
$1.3 billion had been frozen for Pennsylvania, including Climate Pollution Reduction and
Solar for All grants, and another $915 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 risk is more than $20 million that Philadelphia has been awarded over the past year
to build electric vehicle charging stations in public parking lots, at recreation centers, and at the airport, and another $1.5 million to train residents in EV-related careers. The U.S. Department of Transportation has halted disbursements for the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program, and the status of the Philly projects is unclear. A coalition of states (not including Pennsylvania)
has sued to get the funds released .
Public schools
The U.S. Department of Education sought to cancel remaining pandemic-relief funding for public schools and state education programs, which was earmarked for various health and safety and other programs. Pennsylvania was due $185 million, including about $45 million for the Philadelphia school district and more than $1 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 government is still threatening to strip funding from states that maintain school DEI programs, as the Philadelphia school district does.
Federal funds account for about 10% of the district’s $4.5 billion budget.
Other grants and future funding
Last year the city of Philadelphia received $2.8 billion in federal grants, including some of those listed above, according to Finance Director Rob Dubow. He said recently that some are being reexamined and are “temporarily held up,”
The Trace reported. 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 asked Congress to
stop funding the Corporation for Public Broadcasting , which supports NPR and PBS. Legislators could do so as part of a larger “rescission” package to claw back unspent appropriations. Just over 7% of WHYY’s funding, or about $3.8 million a year, comes from government funds.
