DENVER — Colorado Governor Jared Polis launched a new dashboard tracking federal funding cuts in Colorado.
The dashboard indicates that $282 million in federal funds have been defended, while $56 million remains at risk, and $76 million has been terminated or not renewed.
In a release the governor said:
“The Trump administration is trying to rip away local and state funding that supports cybersecurity and public safety, helps Coloradans access or charge low-cost electric vehicles, helps people access food and more. This is federal funding that has already been allocated to states by Congress, and now the administration is working to take it away. We are doing everything in our power to protect this funding for Coloradans and local governments, including pursuing legal action when necessary. This dashboard will help increase transparency and accountability."
The Trump Administration has long said the cuts are necessary to reel in the budget and cut down on waste and fraud.
After taking a closer look at the map, Denver7 tracked larger budget cuts in certain Congressional districts, including the area that Republican Congresswoman Lauren Boebert represents.
Denver7 asked why that might be the case. A spokesperson said viewers should question the data.
"The totals on this map are estimated, actual distribution may vary. Estimates are based upon county level location of recipients or the estimated beneficiaries of the services provided by the state (e.g. grants that award acreage by county). For counties that are split between congressional districts, selecting the district on the map to the right will limit the data presented in that county to only the proportion covered by that congressional district. Some funds may not be fully represented in the geographic distributions, as they could not be allocated to a specific location (e.g. staffing, etc.) As a result, totals presented in the topline data may exceed the sums shown in the geographic breakdowns."
In response, the governor's office said this:
“We appreciate the Congresswoman’s interest in the federal funds dashboard that notes how much funding benefiting Coloradans has been lost or placed at risk by this administration. The data in this dashboard is based on federal funding received by agencies that has been defended and restored via litigation, threatened because of various administration-initiated factors, or cut by the Trump administration – a number of these being grants that protect public health and safety. Given the erratic nature and occasional illegality of the Trump administration’s decisions, the dashboard provides estimates based on the current status of funding. We note on the site some numbers are estimates based on “county level location of recipients or the estimated beneficiaries of the services provided by the state”.
A spokesperson for the governor’s office said they will continue to update the numbers with any new cuts that are announced.
