DHS Grants: Approach to Terminations and Pauses Disrupted Some Program Activities

What GAO Found In February 2025, the President issued an executive order that called for agencies to consult with the U.S. DOGE Service (also known as the Department of Government Efficiency) to review and terminate grants within 30 days of the executive order to reduce spending. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials told GAO that they followed directions from the Secretary of Homeland Security in 2025 to determine which grants to terminate. DHS took several actions during fiscal year 2025 to implement the Secretary’s grant review guidance. For example: DHS paused the disbursement of all obligated grant funding in February 2025. With approval from the Secretary, four DHS components terminated 362 grants and deobligated about $1 billion for those grants, as shown in the table below. Deobligations for Grants DHS Terminated January 20, 2025 – September 30, 2025 Agency and component Number of terminated grants Total deobligations after termination (thousands of $) Total for DHS 362 $1,001,777 Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency 1 $0 Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) 215 $999,433 Science and Technology Directorate 35 $2 U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) 111 $2,342 Source: DHS.gov, USASpending.gov, and DHS officials. | GAO-26-109097 DHS’s approach led to it not achieving its fiscal year 2025 objectives and in some cases undermining statutory purposes for its grant programs. For instance, DHS did not fully achieve planned actions to reduce federal spending. In many cases, DHS or its components were forced to reverse their actions after delaying grants that would strengthen preparedness and resilience. For example, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) reallocated funds away from certain states under a grant program that provides federal funds for terrorism prevention and response projects. FEMA then reinstated the funds after a court ordered it to. DHS and its components—including FEMA, which is responsible for most of DHS’s grant programs—continue to take similar actions to place conditions on or terminate grants. DHS now has the opportunity to take a measured approach to grant actions given that it no longer faces an executive order deadline. By developing a process to ensure that grant-making components, such as FEMA, consider lessons learned from prior challenges before taking future actions, DHS could be better positioned to achieve its objectives and ensure that statutory purposes for its grant programs are implemented as required. Why GAO Did This Study In early 2025, the President directed the heads of federal agencies to implement a series of initiatives to reform government operations, including reviewing federal contracts and grants for termination or modification to reduce spending. To advance these initiatives, the President directed agencies to establish teams to work with DOGE. GAO was asked to review DHS and DOGE efforts to terminate contracts and grant awards and make reductions to its workforce in 2025. This report, the second in a series, provides information on DHS actions to review and terminate grants from January through September 2025, and the number and value of grants terminated. The first report focused on DHS contract terminations. GAO reviewed and analyzed documents such as executive orders directing federal agencies to review and terminate grants and DHS documents directing components on how to conduct these efforts. GAO also reviewed DHS data and publicly available award data on the grants DHS terminated during the period of our review, as well as relevant statutes and court filings. Further, GAO interviewed DHS officials and collected written responses about these efforts.

DHS Grants: Approach to Terminations and Pauses Disrupted Some Program Activities

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