Trump grantmaking order heightens uncertainty for city funding

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Dive Brief: 

• The Trump administration issued an executive order this month intended to streamline and strengthen oversight and coordination of the federal discretionary grantmaking process.
• The order directs federal agencies to review grant awards to ensure they meet the administration’s “priorities and the national interest” and assess their progress each year. It will also simplify the language on grant application questions, select applications that “advance the President’s policy priorities” and require agencies to reform their policies so the agencies can terminate grants that don’t meet the administration’s interests. 
• Lobbying groups representing local and county governments say they believe the administration’s new policies could make obtaining grants more challenging. 

Dive Insight:

The Aug. 7 executive order, Improving Oversight of Federal Grantmaking, is the latest of several Trump administration actions to block federal money from going to recipients or funding work that do not align with the Trump administration’s priorities. 

The order takes aim at what the administration describes as “diversity, equity, and inclusion and other far-left initiatives.” It directs agencies to select discretionary grant applications that advance the Trump administration’s policy priorities and avoid projects that support race or gender, undocumented immigration and the existence of transgender people. 

It also encourages providing grant funds to a broad range of recipients “rather than to a select group of repeat players.” Grant recipients will need to submit “written explanations or support, with specificity” before drawing down funds for each award. 

The National Association of Counties, in an Aug. 19 post, stated that counties depend on federal grant funds to su