Trump administration admits pulling grants from states that didn't vote Republican

Donald Trump's administration has admitted that it canceled a block of roughly $7.5 billion in Biden-era clean energy funding "based solely" on the fact the money was flowing to projects in Democratic-led states. The cuts were not based on "any programmatic, statutory, cost-reduction, or performance-based factor," the Department of Energy conceded. Instead, the grants were included on a list of cancellations announced in October "based solely on the political identity of the grant recipient's state." The department added that with one exception, 284 terminated grants were slated to fund projects in Democratic-led states. The roughly 340 grants that survived were "in a state that awarded its electoral votes to President Trump in the 2024 election." The admission set off anger on Capitol Hill. Renewed scrutiny into the grant process comes as the Trump administration is pushing to give political appointees more authority to award federal grants, rather than the current expert-led, peer-review system used in many science- and defense-related opportunities. "This proposed rule would essentially undermine that process by adding a layer of political review that could undo scientific recommendations for reasons that have nothing to do with science," Heather Pierce, senior director of science policy at the Association of American Medical Colleges, recently told NPR of the proposal.