Trump budget office orders review of funds to Democratic-controlled states
New Jersey and Delaware are among the 13 jurisdictions included in the budget office’s request, but Pennsylvania is not on the list.
The Trump administration has ordered Cabinet agencies to review federal funding for a group of Democratic-controlled states, according to a White House budget official and records reviewed by The Washington Post, as the administration looks to cut off resources for “sanctuary” jurisdictions that refuse to collaborate with immigration enforcement authorities.
The White House Office of Management and Budget ordered all federal agencies except the Defense and Veterans Affairs departments to report every grant, loan, contract, subcontract and “other monetary awards” to a group of 14 states and Washington, D.C.
The memo, sent Monday with instructions to report back by Jan. 28, says the exercise is meant to “facilitate efforts to reduce the improper and fraudulent use of those funds through administrative means or legislative proposals to Congress.”
“This is a data-gathering exercise only,” the memo states later. “It does not involve withholding funds and therefore does not violate any court order.”
President Donald Trump declared in a speech last week that as of Feb. 1, the federal government would stop making “any payments to sanctuary cities, or states having sanctuary cities, because they do everything possible to protect criminals at the expense of American citizens.”
The Trump administration has surged immigration enforcement in Minneapolis as prosecutors focus on nonprofits there that have received federal grants. Many of the targeted organizations are affiliated with the city’s large Somali community, and Trump has used the situation to call for a crackdown on both federal benefits fraud and immigration from East Africa.
During a speech Wednesday at the World Economic Forum in the Swiss resort town of Davos, Trump described the investigation’s targets as “Somalian bandits.”
“We are moving forward with taking fraud seriously,” said an OMB spokesperson, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal proceedings.
The jurisdictions included in the budget office’s request are: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington state. It also includes the District of Columbia.
The memo was reported earlier by RealClearPolitics and CNN.
It requests agencies provide detailed information on all funds to those states, including money routed for state and local governments, nonprofit organizations and higher education institutions.
The memo includes a worksheet that asks agencies to report money sent to those recipients in the 2025 fiscal year and estimated spending for the 2026 fiscal year.
White House budget director Russell Vought has faced off with Democratic-controlled states before.
During the 43-day government shutdown that stretched from the start of October into mid-November, Vought’s office paused billions of dollars for New York subway and rail projects; Democrats’ leaders in Congress, Sen. Charles Schumer and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, both represent the Empire State.
Vought also attempted to cancel $8 billion in clean energy funds for a group of 16 Democratic-run states. A federal judge said this month that the move was unlawful and reinstated the money.
“Defendants freely admit that they made grant-termination decisions primarily - if not exclusively - based on whether the awardee resided in a state whose citizens voted for President Trump in 2024,” Judge Amit Mehta, of the District Court of the District of Columbia, wrote in his ruling.