Federal Grant Cancellation Tracking Project

The current administration has, in many cases, quietly reduced or terminated funding, often without public announcements. This lack of transparency makes it challenging to track the full scope and impact of these cuts. This project aims to systematically identify federal grants and awards to Massachusetts that have been cancelled or rescinded since the start of the current administration in January 2025. By establishing an automated detection process, the Senator’s office can quantify the total financial impact, determine which agencies and programs are affected, and respond quickly to protect critical funding and work with affected organizations and communities in Massachusetts. Funding modifications will be classified into two categories: • cancelled grant: An award made by the federal government where funds were never transmitted to the awardee, or the grant was halted before the full amount was disbursed (since federal grants are often paid in installments). • Rescinded grant: An award where funds were transmitted to the awardee but later clawed back by the federal government. The project will use the USAspending API to analyze each grant’s award history in the dataset. Research indicates that certain award modifications, such as setting the amount to $0 with an action type of “revision”, can indicate a cancellation. Rescinded grants can be identified using criteria where funds have already been disbursed but are later withdrawn, which is typically reflected as a negative transaction amount.