Tennessee has suddenly lost hundreds of millions of dollars as the federal government cancels promised funding, and recent reactions from two prominent elected officials differ sharply.
It’s unclear how much money the state is losing, but the number is in the hundreds of millions — if not billions. The Department of Health lost $180 million in infectious disease grants. There have been freezes at the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Education and the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services.
Metro Nashville has had $14 million in grants suspended. Vanderbilt University Medical Center has announced it will reduce its own budget by $250 million in the coming year, anticipating cuts to the National Institutes of Healt.
Fielding questions from reporters last week, Gov. Bill Lee echoed the official statements agencies have released, saying the cancellations are well intended and ultimately helpful.
“Most Americans believe the federal government is too big and should be cut,” he said. “That’s what the efforts of DOGE and the federal government are: to create an efficient government, and to get rid of waste, abuse and fraud, and cut excessive government spending. And we’ll be a partner with that.”
During his State of Metro address, Mayor Freddie O’Connell had a different read:
“We’ve lost a reliable partner in the federal government,” he said.
O’Connell noted these aren’t traditional budget cuts. The executive branch is refusing to send money Congress budgeted.
“We’re not standing idly by as the federal government tries to cut funding that’s legally ours,” he said during the address. “We’ve told them we’ll see you in court … We’re going to fight for it.”
Metro has filed two lawsuits against the federal government in an effort to get grant funding reinstated.
The Tennessean reports other departments have been quiet about details, including the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuses Services.
It’s hard to gauge the total money blocked in Tennessee because the slashes have been implemented in a patchwork. Different federal agencies, such as the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, are cancelling grants they administer themselves. The Elon Musk-led team known as DOGE is canceling grants on behalf of some agencies. Only the latter has offered a central repository, but it has been found unreliable. An NPR review found the documented savings were grossly overstated and riddled with errors — including an apparent $8 billion typo.
Then there are multiple ongoing lawsuits challenging the funding freezes, and judges have hit the pause button on several of the cuts. But it’s unclear whether the Trump Administration will comply with those orders.
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