RALEIGH – An independent analysis estimates that cancellations, freezes and slower federal spending have disrupted $7.42 billion tied to North Carolina.
The Lost Funds Project, an initiative of the States United Democracy Center and Grant Witness, lists 45 funding impacts affecting the state. Its North Carolina page, updated Sept. 16, compares $15 billion in expected federal funding with an estimated $7.42 billion that was canceled, frozen or delivered more slowly than expected.
The Associated Press reported that North Carolina had the fifth-highest estimated amount of interrupted federal funding among the states, behind California, Texas, New York and Illinois.
The largest North Carolina item is an estimated $4.36 billion slowdown in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program funding, compared with $9.74 billion expected. The project also lists $548.3 million in terminated infectious-disease control funding, $522.4 million in biomedical education grants, $490.3 million for pollution-reduction programs and $392.3 million for health organizations and programs.
The database says the affected funding was intended to serve 122 local governments, 60 nonprofit organizations, 31 colleges and universities and 250 other recipients in North Carolina. Those counts describe organizations and public entities connected to the listed funding, not a count of workers or residents who lost benefits.
The project builds its estimates from public records, using USAspending.gov as its primary source for federal award amounts and CourtListener for litigation records. When a national funding figure is available without a state allocation, the methodology estimates North Carolina’s share using historical spending and program-allocation factors.
The database distinguishes formal cancellations from freezes and spending slowdowns. As a result, its $7.42 billion total should not be read as a single rescinded appropriation or as cash that is permanently lost. The estimates can change as agencies update award data, courts act and payments resume.
The North Carolina page says the state joined four lawsuits challenging funding actions and recovered about $22.5 million. That restored amount is small compared with the estimated total disruption, but it illustrates why the figures remain subject to revision.
The project says it updates state pages every two weeks, while USAspending data generally refreshes monthly. The latest North Carolina snapshot therefore represents an analytical estimate based on public records rather than an audited state accounting.