Aug 7, 07:44 PM

Trump Shifts Control of Federal Grants to Political Appointees

President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order that shifts final authority over federal grants from career civil-service employees to political appointees, tightening White House control over hundreds of billions of dollars in annual discretionary spending. According to a White House statement, the order aims to eliminate what it described as "unaccountable and opaque" decision-making by agency staff and to align grant allocations more closely with the president’s policy priorities. Agencies will be required to write funding notices in plain language, broaden outreach to first-time applicants and terminate projects that fail to meet the new standards. White House spokesman Harrison Fields said the move will restore “merit-based grantmaking” and could save taxpayers billions of dollars, citing examples that the administration considers wasteful. The order follows earlier actions in Trump’s second term—such as pausing humanities funding and cancelling more than 1,800 National Institutes of Health research awards—that expand executive discretion over already-appropriated funds, a posture that has drawn criticism from some members of Congress and the Government Accountability Office.

#Donald Trump #White House #Harrison Fields #Trump #National Institutes of Health #Congress #Government Accountability Office

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Trump Shifts Control of Federal Grants to Political Appointees

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