Question 1: What has DOGE cut so far in Texas?

 

So far DOGE claims to have cut $240 million in federal funding to Texas. Most of that is grants with a few contracts as well.

 

$44 million of that was for the University of Texas. The largest cuts there are redacted, but what we can see shows cuts to a program meant to fight human trafficking and $3 million cut from a program that taught teachers to combine math education with social-emotional learning and equity.

 

$25 million was for Texas A&M. The largest cuts were for “overseas assistance” and for a program that helped underrepresented groups get jobs in cybersecurity.

 

Just over $100 million was for the state Department of Agriculture to help local governments buy food from underserved communities and to support tribal governments.

 

$1 million cut from Houston to create an environmental justice advisory committee. 

 

And then various grants to nonprofits working in Texas and some tribal governments in the state.

 

 

Question 2: There’s been lots of attention in the media about DOGE making mistakes in its data or editing numbers. So do we know these numbers are accurate?

 

The $240 million figure I gave you is probably an underestimate. For 15 of the grants and contracts cut in Texas, DOGE doesn’t list any dollar value of savings. And there’s likely others that don’t actually have the word “Texas” in DOGE’s list but were still operating within the state.

 

Something our team has noticed is that a lot of the grants and contracts in Texas can’t actually be verified with any information that’s publicly available.

 

We’ve found 14 grants so far where DOGE says the grant is worth some amount of money, but that doesn’t match the amount listed on USAspending.gov. Some of those might be mistakes DOGE made, some might be because USAspending doesn’t update in real time and sometimes shows old dollar figures. Either way, the public deserves better transparency with what’s being cut.

 

 

Question 3: So that’s what’s been cut, but how much new money is being sent to the universities?

 

Last year the University of Texas system received $3.5 billion in grants and contracts from the government, like we’ve talked about previously. That was the most ever in one year.

 

This January, the Biden administration gave another $300 million of grants to the university before Biden left office.

 

Since Trump has been in office, another $315.8 million.

 

So definitely a large drop-off. The university received almost the same amount in three weeks under Biden as it has in over three months with Trump.