How the Trump Administration Intends to Dramatically Cut Federal Grants, Part 1

Last month, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) released president Trump's proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2018. (We are, of course, still using president Obama's budget.) The presidential budget typically lays out a president's priorities. As the analysts at Management Concepts indicate, Trump's budget for next year intends funding decreases for nearly every Federal department, except for Homeland Security, Defense, and Veterans Affairs. Additionally, Trump is calling for the elimination of 19 independent agencies, including grant-awarding agencies such as the African Development Foundation, Appalachian Regional Commission, Corporation for National and Community Service, Delta Regional Authority, Denali Commission, Institute of Museum and Library Services, National Endowment for the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Humanities

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While the documents we currently have available are only the general outlines of Trump's budget, they do provide us with a heads up on what to expect for the next four years. Significantly, analysts can glean the following guidance for grant writers who include federal applications in their grant campaigns. In sum, Trump is calling for: 

Department of Agriculture

• Eliminating the Water and Wastewater loan and grant program
• Reducing funding for Rural Business and Cooperative Service by $95 million
• Eliminating the McGovern-Dole International Food for Education program

Department of Commerce

• Eliminating the Economic Development Administration
• Eliminating the Minority Business Development Agency
• Eliminating NOAA grants and programs supporting coastal and marine management, research, and education including Sea Grant

Department of Education

• Increasing funding for charter schools, new private school choice program, and Title I
• Eliminating Supporting Effective Instruction State Grant programs
• Eliminating the 21st Century Community Learning Centers program
• Eliminating the Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant program
• Reducing the Federal TRIO and GEAR UP programs by $193 million
• Eliminating or reducing funding for over 20 categorical programs, including Striving Readers, Teacher Quality Partnership, Impact Aid Support Payments, and International Education programs

Department of Energy

• Reducing $900 million from the Office of Science
• Eliminating the Weatherization Assistance Program and the State Energy Program

Department of Health and Human Services

• Increasing SAMSHA funding by $500 million to expand opioid misuse prevention efforts
• Reducing NIH spending by $5.8 billion
• Restructuring similar HHS preparedness grants to “to reduce overlap and administrative costs and directs resources to states with the greatest need”
• Eliminating the discretionary programs within the Office of Community Services, including the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) and the Community Services Block Grant (CSBG)

Department of Homeland Security

• Eliminating or reducing State and local grant funding by $667 million including the Pre-Disaster Mitigation Grant Program, which is “unauthorized by Congress,” and Homeland Security Grant Program.
• Establishing a 25 percent non-Federal cost match for FEMA preparedness grant awards that currently require no cost match

Department of Housing and Urban Development

• Eliminating the Community Development Block Grant program
• Devolving community and economic development activities to the State and local level.”
• Eliminating funding “for a number of lower priority programs,” such as: the Home Investment Partnerships Program, Choice Neighborhoods, and the Self-help Homeownership Opportunity Program
• Increasing funding by $20 million for the mitigation of lead-based paint and other hazards in low-income homes
• Eliminating funding for Section 4 Capacity Building for Community Development and Affordable Housing