The federal government distributes more than $1 trillion in grant funding every year to state and local governments, universities, aid groups, scientists, and health researchers, among others. These grants fund everything from repairing bridges to cancer research.
A sweeping new rule proposed by the Trump administration could remake how that money is awarded and give the president and his political appointees discretion to cancel funding or target recipients for virtually any reason—with little opportunity for recourse.
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Under the current system, funding recipients have challenged recent grant cancellations, citing the Administrative Procedure Act and seeking injunctive relief from the courts. But the new rule tries to re-frame grants as federal contracts, which can be terminated “for convenience” by the government. “If this proposed rule becomes the final rule, then it would just be much more difficult for grantees to get relief because the government has the power then to treat their grant like a contract and just terminate it at their discretion,” Dominique Casimir, a government contracts lawyer and partner at the Blank Rome law firm, told The Dispatch.
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"The Trump Administration Shakes Up Federal Grantmaking," by Grayson Logue was published in The Dispatch on June 22, 2026.