federal funding

The Trump administration is retreating from a plan to exert greater control over National Institutes of Health grant decisions after significant pushback. A proposed executive order that would have increased White House oversight of NIH funding appears to be dead, according to reporting by Semafor, marking a setback for efforts to centralise control of federal biomedical research grants.

Donald Trump's ongoing conflict with the press is in the spotlight alongside his administration's moves to reduce federal health and education spending. Commentators are weighing how the confrontation with media outlets fits into a broader agenda of shrinking domestic programmes, with NPR hosting a political discussion on the combined impact of these efforts.

President Trump is seeking to cancel nearly $1 billion in funds already approved by Congress, according to a report by KEYE. The move would withhold money lawmakers had earmarked for federal programs, setting up a likely confrontation with Capitol Hill over the president's authority to refuse spending that Congress has enacted into law.

A federal judge in Rhode Island has ordered the Trump administration to restore the $7 billion Solar for All program, which the administration had canceled. The EPA-funded program was designed to bring solar power to low-income households across the country. The ruling marks a setback for the administration's effort to unwind climate spending approved under earlier legislation.

The Trump administration cancelled a $7 billion federal solar energy grant program, but a federal judge in Rhode Island has now ordered the program reinstated. The ruling restores funding that had supported solar projects nationwide, and the decision is drawing attention as part of the wider legal battle over the administration's cuts to renewable energy spending.

The Trump administration is moving to redirect unallocated CHIPS Act funds while relying on tariff threats rather than subsidies to push chipmaking onshore. TSMC retained its $6.6 billion federal grant, but pressure from tariff threats led it to raise its total US investment pledge from $65 billion to more than $165 billion. Commentators note this shifts reshoring costs onto private capital, though tariffs are seen as a far slower route to building semiconductor capacity than direct subsidies.