Dive Brief: - The Trump administration’s cancellation of $7.6 billion in clean energy grants last year was “based solely on the political identity of the grant recipient’s state,” the U.S Department of Energy said in a July 15 court filing first reported by the New York Times on Friday. - DOE in October 2025 canceled 223 clean energy project grants, all in states that voted for former Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 election. Some of the cancellations have been overturned in court. - Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., called DOE’s filing a “stunning admission” that the Trump administration is “weaponizing the federal funding process,” and further warned that an Office of Management and Budget proposal filed in May would normalize the approach. Dive Insight: There is growing outrage among Democratic lawmakers and advocates to the Trump administration’s use of the federal purse to further its political agenda. The Department of Homeland Security has proposed tying grants to states’ willingness to assist in the enforcement of immigration law. And in May, OMB proposed a new process that would give federal agencies more control over federal grants. DOE’s July 15 filing conceded that none of the 2025 grant cancellations were “based on any programmatic, statutory, cost-reduction, or performance-based factor ... the inclusion of grants in the October notice tranche was based solely on the political identity of the grant recipient’s state, i.e., whether the recipient’s location and/or place of performance was in a Blue State or a non-Blue State.” Details about the grant cancellation process were offered as part of an agreement for DOE to avoid the court’s discovery process. “This stunning admission from the Trump administration confirms what we have long known: they are weaponizing the federal funding process to punish people who did not vote for President Trump,” DeLauro