This shutdown will affect only DHS, whose spending authority is being held hostage as the two parties haggle over proposed "guardrails" to keep ICE and Border Control agents from killing people and terrorizing communities. The grand irony, of course, is that the shutdown will not affect immigration enforcement at all, which was given a separate, unimaginably large source of funding in last year's One Big Beautiful Bill Act. So it's the non-immigration elements of DHS that will take the hit.
According to Malliotakis, the largest amount of money - $5 million - will go toward renovating a building on Staten Island that will be used for EMS classroom training. The exact location was not immediately clear. Currently, personnel must travel to either Randall's Island or northeastern Queens for training, requiring them to be placed out of service and unavailable for duty during those sessions.
McConnell had checked himself in last week "after experiencing flu-like symptoms," a spokesperson said. "Senator McConnell was discharged from the hospital yesterday and is grateful for the outstanding care he received," McConnell's spokesperson said Wednesday. "He is feeling better and will be working from home this week on the advice of his doctors."
MANHATTAN - THE GATEWAY COMMISSION SUED the U.S. Department of Transportation, alleging the agency is withholding $205,275,358 in contractually required payments for the $16 billion Hudson River rail tunnel project and forcing a potential work stoppage Feb. 6 that could cost about 1,000 jobs, reports The case, filed in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, comes as the Gateway Development Commission warns its credit line is exhausted and contractors may be unable to keep building sites active on both sides of the river.
Amid the Trump administration's attack on universities, Harvard has emerged as a particular target. Early on, the administration put $2.2 billion in research money on hold and shortly thereafter blocked all future funding while demanding intrusive control over Harvard's hiring and admissions. Unlike many of its peer institutions, Harvard fought back, filing and ultimately winning a lawsuit that restored the cut funds.
On January 15, the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) announced $75.1 million for humanities projects across the country. Presented as part of President Donald Trump's January 25, 2025 executive order, "Celebrating America's Birthday," the move is the latest example of how the Trump administration is increasingly using federal funding as a vehicle to achieve its broader goals of reshaping higher education.
Just before winter break, news broke that the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill plans to close its centers for African, Asian, European, Middle Eastern, Latin American and Slavic, Eurasian and East European studies. Though UNC administrators said in a statement that decisions on closures are not finalized, they confirmed they are evaluating centers and institutes as part of a budget-cutting effort in response to state and federal funding changes.
President Donald Trump said Tuesday that starting Feb. 1 he will deny federal funding to any states that are home to local governments resisting his administration's immigration policies, expanding on previous threats to cut off resources to the so-called sanctuary cities themselves. Such an action could have far-reaching impacts across the U.S., potentially even in places that aren't particularly friendly to noncitizens.
The Trevor Project used to get some federal funding for operating LGBTQ+ Youth Specialized Services for the federal 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. But the current administration cut funding to that initiative in July. The funding cut came after Trevor Project was targeted for years by the right with accusations of "grooming" children that had no basis in reality. Conservatives claim that the organization is somehow making kids become LGBTQ+, which is not possible. Instead, the organization provides support for LGBTQ+ youth.
The federal government signaled a new direction in federal funding this week when it announced plans to put as much as $150 million into a private semiconductor startup. Instead of a grant or a loan, the government would take an equity stake. It's a meaningful departure from how federal funding has traditionally operated. For years, federal R&D support came structured as non-dilutive grants and Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) awards that didn't require equity concessions.
The freeze applies to the "Child Care and Development Fund" worth $2.4 billion (2.2 billion), the "Temporary Assistance for Needy Families" worth $7.35 billion and the "Social Services Block Grant" worth $869 million. HHS said it had notified the five states and that they would require extra documentation to access the funds. The New York Post was the first to report the funding freeze for certain social services on Monday, citing unnamed federal officials that expressed "concerns that the benefits were fraudulently funneled to non-citizens."
Driving the news: The average award for 2026, the first of five years, is $200 million. Alaska, a rural state with unique challenges for health care access, got the second most funding after Texas, receiving $272 million. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) voted for the bill after being the focus of hours of negotiations with GOP leaders. The Wall Street Journal reported over the summer that officials had reassured Alaska's GOP senators that the state would do well in allotments from the fund.
