Connecticut is receiving an estimated $2 billion less in federal funding under the Trump administration, according to a new tracking tool released by two nonpartisan pro-democracy organizations. The tool, Lost Funds, tracks federal funding by compiling publicly available data from USAspendin g and Court Listener. The tool found that across the nation, states are getting an estimated $174 billion less in federal funding under the Trump administration. This funding in the state used to go to things like emergency preparedness, fighting pollution and health education. The largest single cut was for Connecticut disaster relief funds that were originally granted to state and local agencies. Roughly $341 million in disaster funds were “disrupted” through funding slowdowns. Funding to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program going to Connecticut residents was also heavily impacted, reflecting decreases in the program’s enrollment. Health-related grants, taken together, have lost the most money out of all funding categories in the state. For Connecticut, this includes money going towards infectious disease control as well as biomedical research and health education funding. This is also true nationally — the tracker found that $58.9 billion has been disrupted related to health initiatives across the country. Connecticut is one of 26 states suing the Trump administration on the administration’s distribution of federal funds. In July, Connecticut joined a lawsuit claiming “unlawful conditions” on conditions attached to federal funds used for disaster preparation and response. “Once again, Donald Trump is playing politics with disaster relief. He cannot hold billions of dollars in funding hostage to force states to carry out his political agenda,” Attorney General William Tong wrote in a July press release. “This is not how our Constitution works and not how federal grants work. We stopped similar illegal threats in court twice before, and we’re going to do it again.” Some states are seeing larger disruptions in prior federal funding. But in Connecticut, an estimated half of the $4 billion the state expected from the federal government has been lost. ...read more read less