These 5 words have killed millions in grants and advanced Trump’s agenda

In the waning days of the first Trump administration, new language went into effect in an obscure regulation covering federal grants. The change appeared to give the government the right to torpedo a grant in the middle of a project with little justification, even if the recipients were doing exactly what the government had told them to do. The revision in November 2020 by Trump’s Office of Management and Budget stated that, “to the greatest extent authorized by law,” a grant could be pulled if it “no longer effectuates the program goals or agency priorities.” In the middle of a pandemic and a contentious election, not many people noticed the change in language buried inside a regulation like 2 CFR 200.340(a)(2). Now, after lurking mostly beneath the radar, five consequential words—“no longer effectuates agency priorities”—are being deployed by Trump’s appointees to kill grants unilaterally across the government and advance the president’s political agenda.

[March 27, 2025]