ENDING GRANT ABUSE: Today, President Donald J. Trump signed an Executive Order stopping unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats from wasting taxpayer dollars on frivolous grants.
- Going forward, President Trump’s appointees will review funding opportunity announcements and grant awards to verify that each grant dollar benefits Americans instead of lining grantees’ pocketbooks or furthering causes that damage America.
- Award decisions will undergo more rigorous evaluation by political appointees and subject matter experts to ensure they benefit the American public, align with Administration priorities, and are coordinated across agencies to avoid duplication.
- The Order also allows for the termination of future grants that do not meet these criteria, including if grantees use their awards in a manner that is inconsistent with the policy objectives in the Order.
- The Order mandates that agencies simplify funding opportunity announcements with plain language.
- The Order directs agencies to award grants to a wide array of meritorious grantees, not just the universities and nonprofits that have received awards year after year.
FUNDING PROJECTS THAT BENEFIT AMERICANS: The Trump Administration has already terminated many wasteful grants. Today’s Executive Order helps ensure that bureaucrats can’t make the same mistakes in the future.
- Federal grants have funded, for example:
- Training doctoral candidates in critical race theory; and
- Developing transgender-sexual-education programs.
- Federal grants have supported dangerous, harmful projects that undermine national security and fundamental rights.
- An unsafe lab in Wuhan, China—the most likely source of the COVID-19 pandemic—engaged in gain-of-function research funded by the National Institutes of Health.
- In a direct assault on free speech, the National Science Foundation allocated millions to develop AI-powered social media censorship tools.
- Taxpayer-funded grants have supported free services for illegal immigrants, as well as organizations that worked against American interests abroad.
- Ideological bias has also long plagued grantmaking.
- A 2024 study revealed that over one-quarter of new National Science Foundation grants were allocated to DEI and other far-left initiatives.
- This Executive Order provides the oversight required to ensure taxpayer dollars are not misused any longer.
- Moving forward, the Administration is committed to implementing robust policies and review processes to prevent the issuance of new contracts and grants that do not serve the public interest or align with national priorities.
AWARDING GRANTS BASED ON MERIT: Federal grant money should be awarded based on a grantee’s ability to produce results, not based on its ability to hire lawyers and grant-writing experts.
- Since Day One, President Trump has prioritized eliminating waste and fraud in the Federal government, ensuring Federal spending aligns with American interests.
- President Trump has also prioritized merit-based decisions starting with the Merit Hiring Plan for the Federal workforce and further prioritizing for grant recipients with this Executive Order.
- President Trump signed a Presidential Memorandum to ensure funding to Nongovernmental Organizations (NGOs) advances U.S. interests and multiple Executive Orders to prevent taxpayer dollars from funding radical ideologies such as DEI, gender ideology, and the green new scam.
- The Trump Administration has already terminated thousands of contracts, saving American taxpayers billions of dollars.
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