The federal Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) “Wall of Receipts” appears at first to never end, with page after page of cuts the agency has claimed to make.
In reality, the DOGE website has 1,520 pages of terminated grants, 1,105 pages of cancelled contracts and 49 pages of ended leases, at least as of June 18.
Since the department was officially created on Jan. 20, as part of President Donald Trump administration’s initiative to cut federal spending, it has claimed to save $180 billion across the three categories.
Approximately $630 million of that sum has so far come from cuts to Michigan agencies, education institutions, nonprofits and consulting firms, according to an MLive analysis of DOGE records as of June 18.
The numbers detailed by DOGE aren’t always accurate, however. For example, a contract DOGE identified as worth $8 billion was worth only $8 million. The mistake involving Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement Equal Employment Opportunity Office was widely reported.
Line items are frequently added and deleted from the website without notice, and it’s not yet always clear how the reported savings are being determined.
Despite a promise on its website to upload cuts in a “digestible and transparent manner,” some listed Michigan grants don’t yet include any specific identifying information. Other grants have not yet been terminated in the federal grant tracking system, usaspending.gov, but still show up on DOGE’s list. A few others were slated to end in 2024, before DOGE began.
Still more funds are in a state of limbo due to legal challenges, and it’s not clear how much money the state will get back when the dust settles.
For those reasons, it’s difficult to determine what the final dollar figure impact on the state could be, but despite the uncertainty, numerous Michigan programs confirmed the money has indeed stopped flowing.
Ranging from violence prevention in Detroit to expanding energy efficient housing in Kalamazoo, groups that have lost funding say cuts will lead to operational difficulties.
How much has DOGE claimed to cut in Michigan?
Since President Donald Trump took office for his second term, DOGE has been a key pillar of his administration, established by executive order on Jan. 20 with the purpose of “modernizing federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity.”
From mid-January through the end of May, the department has repeatedly made headlines for selling federal assets, cancelling/renegotiating contracts and leases and ending federal grant programs.
Michigan is no exception.
As of June 18, the DOGE Wall of Receipts claims to have terminated 208 Michigan grant programs, leases and contracts, with estimated total savings of a little over $630 million.
Grant programs made up the bulk of that list. DOGE claims to have cut, or at least attempted to cut, 196 grant programs for $625 million in savings.
The DOGE website also lists at least seven contract terminations making up $4.1 million in savings, and claims to have also saved $1.2 million by canceling at least five Michigan federal agency leases.
A searchable database of Michigan grants, leases and contracts DOGE has included on its list of cuts can be found below, including the date of termination, total amount and estimated savings. Not all the grants included on DOGE’s website have additional identifying information, and not all the cuts appear to be saving the government money at this time.
As of June 18, the state Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) has lost nearly $400.9 million in grant dollars, according to DOGE.
The department also reported $2.4 million in cuts from a contract awarded to MDHHS by the Social Security Administration for “enumeration at birth and race and ethnicity records.”
The Michigan Department of Education is listed on DOGE’s website as having lost $29.6 million from two grants cancelled March 17. Both from the Department of Agriculture, they allow state governments to purchase food from local producers for education and childcare centers, and to expand upon prior local food purchase assistance program work.
The University of Michigan and Michigan State University had the highest total number of terminated grants and contracts.
The DOGE website recorded at least 60 grants and two contracts initially awarded to the University of Michigan from four federal departments, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Science Foundation.
The total savings, according to DOGE, are $32.5 million. The university did not respond to a request for comment.
Michigan State University had at least 47 grants and one contract cancelled, according to DOGE, from five federal departments and agencies, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Science Foundation and USAID. The total savings, according to DOGE, are $46.1 million.
But Michigan State University’s own calculations put that number much higher.
Emily Guerrant, vice president and chief communications officer for the university, said based on how MSU is tracking canceled grants and projects, the impact as of this week is $87 million.
Database changes, legal challenges resulting in uncertainty
Michigan State University isn’t the only organization with different numbers than DOGE.
A $500,000 grant to Ferris State University’s Jim Crow Museum of Racist Imagery, first awarded in July 2023, is also included on DOGE’s list of cuts. Of the original grant, DOGE claims to have saved $182,767.60.
However, Dave Murray, the university’s associate vice president of marketing and communications, said the federal grant towards the design and production of the permanent exhibits in the new Jim Crow Museum has already been spent.
“That funding has already been expended and the project would not be affected by the recent cuts,” he said.
In early March, the Wall of Receipts claimed six leases had been terminated for federal offices located throughout Michigan.
But as of June 18, four of those lease terminations – in Sault Ste. Marie, Traverse City, Baraga and Marquette – were no longer listed on DOGE’s website at all.
Other closures, like a Social Security office in Okemos, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service office space in Ann Arbor and an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) facility in metro Detroit, are still able to be found on the website.
Still more cuts listed by DOGE don’t include a lot of specific identifying information, other than the name of the recipient and the amount of expected savings.
That includes 17 grants awarded to MDHHS and listed as canceled by DOGE on March 23, to the tune of $400.9 million in savings.
Michigan House Democrats and other previous reporting using DOGE’s website listed that figure as closer to $390 million, however, while a lawsuit filed on April 1 by Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel lists the total MDHHS cuts as closer to $379.3 million.
Nessel, who filed suit with a coalition of 23 states and the District of Columbia against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, said the grants fund mental health supports for Michiganders, substance use disorder services, infectious disease controls and childhood immunizations.
Lawsuits by Michigan agencies and organizations in response to the terminations add their own degree of uncertainty when it comes to cuts.
The Flint Institute of Arts received a $150,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities in July 2024 to replace its humidification system. But the Institute’s director of development Marissa Pierce said the organization was told in April its grant was terminated.
“We are currently working through the appeal process and are in communication with the NEH to find out what are the next steps for obtaining the originally approved funds,” Pierce said.
The grant is now still listed on DOGE’s website, but with an expected savings amount of $0.
Pierce said now, the Flint Institute has no choice but to shift its fundraising focus from “programming, exhibitions and other building projects to replacing the money that would have come from the NEH.”
Violence intervention programs, Indigenous orgs have confirmed cuts
Despite some uncertainty surrounding the sum, many Michigan elected leaders and nonprofit groups have confirmed a loss of funding they say will hamper them providing necessary services to state residents.
In a press release sent out in March, Nessel said grant terminations to MDHHS came with no warning and have “quickly caused chaos for state health agencies that rely on these critical funds for a wide range of urgent public health needs.”
Nonprofits like Force Detroit, a community violence intervention group, have also expressed concern about federal funding cuts.
The Detroit organization, which did not respond to a request for comment, has lost $1.9 million intended to implement its community violence intervention program, according to DOGE.
Force Detroit has filed a class action lawsuit in an attempt to restore its funding, claiming that “vital services” have abruptly ceased and staff have been laid off without employment alternatives.
Also among the groups facing funding loss are 12 federally-recognized tribes in Michigan. They’re now fighting for at least $23 million in federal grants clawed back from the nonprofit Inter-Tribal Council of Michigan.
The two grants from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency includes $3 million for a wild rice stewardship plan and $20 million to improve energy efficiency for as many as 300 tribal homes and 12 community resilience hubs.
They are now listed as terminated on the DOGE website, with an estimated savings of nearly $22.3 million. An EPA spokesperson confirmed the cancellation was related to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.
The Indigenous organization that represents all federally recognized tribes across Michigan has officially appealed both cases, and council Executive Director Clayton Kincheloe previously said in a statement that tribal communities rely on the “critical services that this funding was designated to support.”
Higher education institutions, like MSU, have also pushed back against federal funding cuts.
The university has now started a new advocacy campaign to show the benefits of federal support for university research.
MSU President Kevin M. Guskiewicz said researchers and students rely on continued federal funding to “help keep America competitive and to deliver the cures and breakthroughs of tomorrow.”