The DOGE Impact Tracker
The human toll of Trump-Musk's 'efficiency' initiative
Cuts Imperil Tampa Project to Address Sewage and Stormwater Issues
A neighborhood near the University of South Florida Tampa campus received a grant in March from the EPA to address longstanding stormwater and sewage issues. But that grant is now on hold, due to DOGE funding cuts, reports WUSF.
The University Area is one of the lowest-lying spots in the Tampa Bay region and frequently sees dangerous flooding, as it did during last year’s hurricanes.
Many residents aren’t connected to city water and sewage and are instead forced to use wells. They’ve reported brown, contaminated water coming up through their pipes.
[Resident Ross] Fabian has to use bottled water when he brushes his teeth at his dentist’s office because he doesn’t want to use what he described as smelly, brown water.
Erica Moody, the chief community development officer with the University Area CDC, said around 400 EPA grant recipients received notice their funding was suspended because their projects no longer aligned with the agency’s priorities.
Funding Cuts Hurt Wildfire Recovery Efforts in L.A.
DOGE cuts to AmeriCorps, FEMA, the Environmental Protection Agency , the Army Corps of Engineers and the Small Business Administration have impacted wildfire recovery efforts in Los Angeles, reports The Guardian:
On 13 April, Tess McGinley was working in her Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) cubicle in Los Angeles, calling people who had lost their homes in the January wildfires, when her team was told to stop what they were doing and leave the office immediately.
McGinley, a 23-year-old team leader for AmeriCorps, the US agency for national service and volunteerism, was helping Fema by reviewing wildfire survivors’ cases to ensure they received housing assistance. Over the past six weeks, she and her seven teammates had reviewed more than 4,000 cases and made hundreds of calls to survivors. Now, even as the team drove home after their jobs were cut, their government phones kept ringing. “Survivors just kept calling us … And we weren’t able to help,” McGinley said…
More than 400 AmeriCorps staff and volunteers were deployed in the aftermath of the January megafires that destroyed thousands of homes and businesses and killed 30 people. They helped 26,000 households affected by the fires and packed 21,000 food boxes. But in April, the agency placed about 90% of its staff on immediate leave.
Cuts to Clean Air Grants Raise Concerns in Charlotte’s Black Neighborhoods
Grants to monitor air quality in four communities near Charlotte, North Carolina, that have high pollution exposures due to nearby energy plants worry residents, reports The Charlotte Observer:
Organizations like CleanAIRE NC are worried too. The Charlotte-based nonprofit installed air monitors in McCrorey Heights in 2024 through a $75,000 EPA grant awarded in 2021. But a $500,000 EPA grant last year to help with similar efforts in north Mecklenburg County has been frozen by the feds.
That grant was for monitoring air quality in four communities which have higher pollution exposures because of energy plants near them: Smithville in Cornelius; Huntington Green and Pottstown in Huntersville; and West Davidson in Davidson…
The coalition is also trying to check if lead paint is in homes. But funding for testing and removal nationally has been pulled by the Trump administration too, according to [community activist Lisa] Mayhew-Jones and published reports.
“I know some people don’t think about the environment and the health of people, but pulling back these funds can cause issues for folks,” Mayhew-Jones said. “We have a lot of seniors with fixed incomes. That means more health challenges and more health costs without being able to do these studies and have clean air.”