A Johnson County nonprofit could face grant funding cuts under President Donald Trump’s proposed 2026 federal budget.
House Resolution 1, more commonly known as the Big Beautiful Bill, was passed on Thursday; however, this bill only reconciles changes that Congress and the Trump administration want to make to the fiscal year 2025 budget. The 2026 budget that the local nonprofit is concerned about is still in the works.
The Trump administration is advocating for a $163 billion, or 22.6%, decrease for base non-defense discretionary budget authority, according to a letter by Russell Vought, director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget. Included in that proposal are many items, including cuts to federal block grants that are a major source of funding for Upstream.
In the letter, Vought says items in the approved 2025 spending did not fit the needs of “ordinary working Americans.” Instead, it catered to non-government organizations and higher education “committed to radical gender and climate ideologies antithetical to the American way of life,” the letter says.
The administration went “line-by-line” and evaluated whether the federal or state government should provide certain services.
“We also considered, for each program, whether the governmental service provided could be provided better by state or local governments, if provided at all,” the letter says. “Just as the federal government has intruded on matters best left to American families, it has intruded on matters best left to the levels of government closest to the people, who understand and respect the needs and desires of their communities far better than the federal government ever could.”
It is still to be determined how specifically these cuts would translate to each federal agency and trickle down to states and certain nonprofit organizations that depend on federal discretionary spending to deliver services. The cuts that are expected to impact non-governmental organizations most deeply will likely be decided this fall.
Among the organizations facing uncertainty is Upstream Prevention, a Johnson County nonprofit focused on preventing and reducing youth substance abuse, improving mental health and promoting healthy behaviors in the community. Cuts in the proposal to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services funds, which could impact Upstream Prevention’s staffing and programming, said Kathleen Ratcliff, founder and executive director.
In addition to federal grants that power Upstream, the Trump administration’s proposal aims for cuts to child care, disease research, renewable energy, international peacekeeping and more.
Loss of grant funding
Specifically, Ratcliff said the Trump administration proposal advocates for cuts that could impact the Substance Use Prevention, Treatment and Recovery Services Block Grant, which is designed to provide funding to all 50 states to prevent and treat substance use. It is administered through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, but the money is given to the state through the Division of Mental Health and Addiction, Ratcliff said.
The community coalition Empower Johnson County, which is under Upstream’s umbrella, could also be impacted if the Drug-Free Communities, or DFC, Support Program is cut, she said.
The grant fully funds two staff members and partially funds two additional staff members for Upstream, Ratcliff said.
However, the Trump administration requested to decrease the Health and Human Services Department’s base discretionary funding by 26.2%, from $127 billion to $93.8 billion. The department’s non-base discretionary exempted funding is also set to decrease by 36%, the letter says.
The letter also shows a decrease for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration Eliminations by approximately $1.1 billion because grants were allegedly used to fund things like safe-smoking kits and supplies, and needle exchanges under the previous administration, according to the letter.
On the other hand, the DFC Support Program was created in 1997 and helps communities prevent youth substance use. It is administered by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy and managed through a partnership with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Over 750 community coalitions across the country receive up to $125,000 per year, according to the CDC.
Vought requested to decrease the CDC programs’ funding by approximately $3.59 billion, according to the letter.
Since the funding is in five-year increments and can be continued, Ratcliff said the DFC is helpful for communities.
“It’s one of the few out there that gives really good long-term funding … multiple years of funding which allows coalitions and communities to actually plan,” Ratcliff said, “and efficiently and strategically spend your money each year over those five years because you know you’re going to have it and you make those plans.”
However, the proposed budget cuts looming make things difficult, since the nonprofit plans to have these grants for that whole period or at that full amount.
“[It is difficult] when grants start getting dropped down in amounts mid-administration or mid-grant term, or just disappear while you were expecting it,” she said.
Empower Johnson County is currently in year nine of 10 for the DFC grant, which funds one full-time position. Empower Johnson County will have to “make some hard decisions” on how to spend money if the grant is reduced and how to keep that staff member if the grant goes away completely, Ratcliff said.
“It’s less of the challenge losing one grant, but really this proposed budget has the potential to have multiple different impacts, depending on how it comes out,” Ratcliff said, “because Upstream as a whole is heavily grant funded … Often our work is to help fill gaps in holes that the government just can’t fill.”
If the grants went away completely, the initial effect would be on staffing. However, programs could also be impacted since programming is led by staff, Ratcliff said.
Future planning
While Upstream Prevention’s priority will be keeping staff, Ratcliff said some of the programs or program supplies could be cut. For the past six months, Upstream has held its programming level, while this budget document is in limbo, she said.
It is also challenging to plan for the future. For example, she doesn’t know how much the federal block grant will be cut if it is cut, and the amount may be figured out on the back end, Ratcliff said.
Luckily, the nonprofit has some contingency funds and has built “a really good” operating reserve to remain fully staffed for a couple of months. However, the goal was never to use that and keep it as a cushion.
While the losses could be offset by individual donations and local grants, Ratcliff said the amount would be high.
“It is also a much higher amount of money than than I think we could pull out of the community to help us and keep afloat,” she said, “especially with the impacts that are likely going to happen to other nonprofits and other agencies with the way the budget is proposed at the moment.”
Another challenge is that some of the next set of funding sources Upstream Prevention was planning on using are also on the chopping block.
“So we went from having a fair shot at getting those grants to probably not because they may not exist or they’re going to be much more competitive,” Ratcliff said.
The nonprofit is having conversations with volunteers and key stakeholders to keep them aware of what’s going on, she said.
“[We are] just trying to increase awareness and knowledge and encouraging the public and our volunteers and our stakeholders to really try to pay attention to the things that are being discussed and potentially happening,” Ratcliff said, “because they’re going to have local impacts, whether it’s to Upstream, any initiatives under our umbrella or any of the other many nonprofits in Johnson County.”
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