The Trump administration is using an obscure and typically routine federal budget procedure to withhold more than $2 billion for education that Congress approved in February.
Lawmakers belatedly approved a fiscal 2026 budget for the U.S. Department of Education on Feb. 3. Before the agency can actually spend those dollars, the federal Office of Management and Budget by law must “apportion” the correct amounts, or dispense them, into the agency’s accounts.
During past presidencies, the vast majority of apportionments occurred no later than a month and a half after lawmakers approved the federal budget, according to publicly available documents and former OMB staffers.
The second Trump administration has taken a markedly different approach. As of May 21, OMB has apportioned little or no fiscal 2026 funding for 33 of the agency’s competitive grant programs totaling more than $1.8 billion. The office has also apportioned less than one-quarter of the $790 million allocation Congress approved earlier this year for the Institute of Education Sciences, the department’s research arm.
Most of these funds aren’t expected to go out to grant recipients until later this year. And none of the department’s larger formula grants—including for Title programs and special education—is among the programs with missing or incomplete apportionments.
Still, education advocates and federal budget experts have expressed concern that the lack of routine apportionments could foreshadow more funding disruption in the coming months. The department has launched grant competitions in recent months for 10 of the programs without currently apportioned funds—but the agency likely can’t give out new grant awards or replenish ongoing grants using these congressionally appropriated funds until OMB apportions the money for each program.
The White House has twice proposed slashing IES funding and eliminating all 33 grant programs on this list. Congress rejected all of those proposed cuts for fiscal 2026; lawmakers will begin workshopping the fiscal 2027 budget in the coming weeks.
Education Week is closely tracking OMB apportionment disclosures using the OpenOMB transparency portal operated by the nonprofit Protect Democracy. Below is our list of the 34 programs with missing or incomplete apportionments and the date when unspent funding returns to the U.S. Treasury.
Spokespeople for the Education Department have repeatedly said the agency is reviewing every dollar it spends rather than giving out funds “on autopilot.” OMB hasn’t responded to multiple requests for comment.
This post will be updated as new information emerges.
Legal fight over White House role in federal spending continues
More than $1 billion of the currently unapportioned Education Department funds will expire and return to the Treasury if OMB doesn’t release the money in the next four months. That would likely constitute a violation of the federal law that prohibits the executive branch from “impounding,” or declining to spend, congressional appropriations.
Russell Vought, the Trump-appointed OMB director who co-wrote the conservative policy document Project 2025, has said he believes the impoundment ban that’s part of federal law is unconstitutional and that the administration has “not impounded a single thing.” He’s also spoken publicly about using the apportionment process to keep federal spending in line with the president’s priorities.
This approach marks a sharp break with past practice. “For the 27 years I worked at OMB, it never occurred to any OMB staff that a president or OMB director would do what Trump and Vought are doing,” said Kathy Stack, who oversaw the office’s education branch from 2000 to 2005 and the broader division that includes education from 2005 to 2013, during the Bush and Obama administrations.
Similar OMB maneuvers since last year have affected grantees for other agencies, including for community development financial institutions, domestic violence prevention, drought mitigation, health and science research, and public transit.
OMB last year also removed all of its apportionment documents from its website. Protect Democracy and other transparency advocates sued to reverse the move and secured a court order last fall that requires OMB to continue publishing apportionment documents and the spending plans it’s requiring from agencies before releasing certain funds.
2026-05-21 19:41:15
Source link