Trump's team has disrupted some $430B in federal funds, top Democrats
say, often against the law
[April 29, 2025]
By LISA MASCARO
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration has frozen, stalled or
otherwise disrupted some $430 billion in federal funds — from disease
research to Head Start for children to disaster aid — in what top
Democrats say is an “unprecedented and dangerous" assault on programs
used by countless Americans.
Sen. Patty Murray of Washington and Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut on
Tuesday released an online tracker that is compiling all the ways
President Donald Trump and his adviser Elon Musk's Department of
Government Efficiency are interrupting the flow of federal funds, often
going up against the law.
“Instead of investing in the American people, President Trump is
ignoring our laws and ripping resources away,” said Murray and DeLauro,
who are the top Democrats on the Appropriations committees in Congress.
“No American president has ever so flagrantly ignored our nation’s
spending laws or so brazenly denied the American people investments they
are owed," they said.
The tally is far from complete or exhaustive, the lawmakers said, but a
snapshot in time. It comes in a rapidly changing political and legal
environment as the Trump administration faces dozens of lawsuits from
state and local governments, advocacy organizations, employees and
others fighting to keep programs intact.
At 100 days into Trump's return to the presidency, the project showcases
the extent to which the White House is blocking money that Congress has
already approved, touching off a constitutional battle between the
executive and legislative branches that has real world ramifications for
the communities the lawmakers serve.
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Elon Musk holds up a chainsaw he received from Argentina's President
Javier Milei, right, as they arrive to speak at the Conservative
Political Action Conference, CPAC, at the Gaylord National Resort &
Convention Center, Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025, in Oxon Hill, Md. (AP
Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
The White House and its Republican allies in Congress have said they
are working to root out waste, fraud and abuse in government. The
Trump administration is in court fighting to keep many of the
administration's cuts even as Musk, whose own popularity has
dropped, says he will be cycling off DOGE’s day-to-day work.
And Trump's director of the Office of Management and Budget intends
to soon send Congress a $9 billion rescissions package, to claw back
funds through cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development
and others.
Murray and DeLauro said they want to “shine a light on President
Trump’s vast, illegal funding freeze and how it is hurting people in
every zip code in America.” They said it's time for Trump and Musk
“to end this unprecedented and dangerous campaign."
While Republicans have also stirred with concerns about Trump's
spending cuts, many are reluctant to do so publicly as they try to
avoid Trump’s reactions. Instead, they tend to work behind the
scenes to restore federal dollars to their home states or other
constituencies that have been put at risk by Trump’s actions.
The powerful Appropriations committees in the House and the Senate,
where Republicans have majority control of both chambers, draft the
annual funding bills that are ultimately approved by Congress and
sent to the president’s desk for his signature to become law.
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