Nevada families were denied a promised 20 percent cut in their electric bills. Mississippi teachers were forced to abandon a program that turned struggling readers into some of the nation’s fastest-improving students. And sexual assault survivors in Texas may never see justice, because the money for DNA testing of their rape kits simply vanished.
All because the president asserted power he does not have and blocked money that rightly belonged to the American people. President Donald Trump is using the power of the White House to withhold funds already promised to states. These efforts to cut approved federal grants that benefit Americans across the country are not just unfair.
They are against the law. Over the past two years, the Trump administration has delayed, frozen, or canceled $177 billion in funding approved by Congress and promised to the states. Yet the Constitution is clear that the people’s representatives in Congress decide how to spend taxpayer dollars, not the president.
A new project called Lost Funds, from the States United Democracy Center and Grant Witness, documents the devastating impact on all 50 states and the District of Columbia from the billions of dollars of canceled and disrupted federal funds. These cuts have created uncertainty and hurt millions of American families who rely every day on federally funded state services ranging from school meals to health care to disaster relief and beyond. But states are not helpless when it comes to defending these important programs and services.
We are a former New Jersey attorney general and a former Massachusetts deputy attorney general. We know firsthand the power attorneys general have to protect the people in their states when the federal government oversteps its authority. Today, many state attorneys general are fighting back and confronting a president who is unlawfully depriving American citizens of critical funding intended to improve their lives and communities.
Trump began withholding taxpayer funds in his first days back in the White House. In January 2025, the Office of Management and Budget sent shock waves across the country when it announced a freeze of trillions of dollars already approved for childcare, education, medical help for new mothers, job training for farmers—even clean drinking water. But many states fought back.
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