The total amount of confirmed federal funding cuts to Hawaiʻi state and county programs as of Thursday stands at nearly $95 million, according to figures compiled by Civil Beat.

That number represents confirmed reductions in federal grants and congressional spending in the state, not cuts made by organizations in anticipation of the loss of federal funding and preliminary announcements by President Donald Trump.

The full extent of the cuts won’t be clear for several more weeks or longer as official termination letters must be issued and legal challenges resolved.

Hawaiʻi is a plaintiff in 18 multiparty lawsuits, and last week a federal judge in California ordered a two-week pause in Trump administration plans to halt programs and lay off federal workers. The White House and its Department of Government Efficiency say they are working to root out waste, fraud and abuse in government.

And despite a series of grant terminations listed on the DOGE website, the state of Hawaiʻi has so far received only one official grant termination letter, according to the state’s administrator of federal grants, Mark Anderson. 

Civil Beat is tracking how cuts are impacting agencies based on information from the state and individual counties. It will include confirmed layoffs and eliminated positions as a direct result of cuts, not those made as programs brace for reductions in spending.

A Case Study

A $6 million grant through the National Telecommunications and Information Administration had been intended to help expand broadband access in rural and underserved communities, extend free public Wi-Fi and improve access to remote learning and telehealth services.

Most of that money would have been distributed directly to the counties to run community programs, said Chung Chang, strategic broadband coordinator at the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism. 

The letter from the U.S. Department of Commerce cites the federal provision that enables grants to be terminated but adds that Trump had determined that the Digital Equity Capacity Program is unconstitutional. It also said grants issued in relation to the program “were created with, and administered using, impermissible and unconstitutional racial preferences.”

This meshes with Trump’s promise to stamp out diversity, equity and inclusion programs. The website for the federal program has vanished. The Trump administration is in court fighting to keep many of the cuts.

The state won’t have to return funds because it hadn’t received them yet, Anderson said in an email. Most federal grants don’t provide money upfront but are authorized for programs, which can obtain reimbursement for expenditures. In this case, the state lost access to the approved $6 million.

Hawaiʻi’s Office of Federal Awards Management expected more significant cuts in federal funding and was closely monitoring the situation, Anderson said.

The state will rely on data from a federal grant analysis service based in Washington, D.C., the Federal Funds Information for States. FFIS tracks and analyzes federal grants and was founded by Kansas federal lawmaker Vic Miller with support from the National Governors Association and the National Conference of State Legislatures.

University of Hawaiʻi

The University of Hawaiʻi has had the largest amount of grant funding officially terminated and the largest number of positions affected since Jan. 20. As of Thursday, 76 federal grants had been impacted, including 65 that were fully terminated, UH spokesperson Dan Meisenzahl said.

These terminations reflect a loss of grants worth $78.2 million in funding and impacted nearly 70 employees. It’s not clear how many people lost jobs because of these cuts. Federal and state grants can be used to fund portions of positions.

“Together, these cuts and policy changes represent quite a significant threat to federal funded research, and it is obviously of concern,” UH President Wendy Hensel told the Board of Regents Wednesday. 

The university has created a page to track the federal actions. 

City And County Of Honolulu

Honolulu City Manager Michael Formby reported in April that three grant programs totaling $1.7 million and four congressionally directed spending programs worth $8.7 million had been terminated.

The largest impact was the loss of access to funding for expanded rapid transit service to the Waiʻanae Coast and funds for deferred maintenance on Honolulu’s special needs housing stock.

Mayor Rick Blangiardi’s proposed budget for the next fiscal year sets aside $20 million to cover some programs that could be impacted by the federal cuts. The city can also access funds from a $200 million fiscal stability fund to make up any shortfall.  

City spokesperson Ian Scheuring confirmed Thursday that Honolulu would have received about $1 million from the Digital Equity Capacity Program obtained by the state.

A $10,000 grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Center for Heat Resilient Communities terminated May 5 would have funded the city’s climate adaptation team participation in a program to develop strategies to make O’ahu more heat resilient.

No positions have been impacted by the terminated grants, Scheuring said.

The Big Island

Hawaiʻi island had a $114,000 grant for a program for retired and senior volunteers terminated, said Tom Callis, special assistant to the county’s mayor. That funding would have come from AmeriCorps. The county also lost three AmeriCorps interns who were volunteering in the county’s Research and Development Department, he said.

Hawaiʻi is a plaintiff in a lawsuit challenging cuts to the AmeriCorps program. The county confirmed that no positions have been eliminated as a result of the cuts.

Maui

A National Endowment for the Arts grant for the Hui Moʻolelo storytelling program may be terminated, Lila Lawrence said. It’s an initiative of the Maui Public Arts Corp that supports Native Hawaiian storytelling projects.

Kauaʻi

The County of Kauai has been notified that some federal funding sources may be suspended, but it hasn’t yet experienced a loss in federal grant funding, according to communications officer Alden Alayvilla.

Read the grant termination letter for the digital equity and access grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce below.