GAO: Agencies canceled $17.8 billion in federal awards
A Government Accountability Office review released July 22 found that four federal agencies reported canceling 796 awards worth $17.8 billion and leaving 2,528 awards totaling $33.6 billion pending a final outcome. The figures came from agency data collected at different times, ranging from June 30, 2025, through February 25, 2026.
The report is an accounting of award status, not a finding that the canceled money was wasted or improperly withdrawn. It also does not show that every award classified as pending remained unresolved on August 3, 2026.
Four agencies were included
GAO report GAO-26-108434 covers the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of the Interior, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration and the Department of Transportation. Together, those agencies had about $628.4 billion in combined budget authority from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act available for all or part of fiscal years 2022 through 2025.
The agencies reported approving about 9,500 awards worth $128 billion. That total includes $122.8 billion in awards approved without modification and $5.5 billion approved with changes to terms or amounts. They reported about $17.8 billion in canceled awards and $33.6 billion in awards pending a final outcome.
GAO said the canceled category includes awards that were terminated, rescinded or withdrawn, as well as awards discontinued by recipients. Some canceled awards were previously announced but unobligated, meaning not every cancellation resulted in federal funds being deobligated. An approved award is also not necessarily fully paid or completed.
Reviews followed January 2025 executive orders
Most of the selected agencies developed new processes after executive orders and related administration priorities beginning January 20, 2025. The processes included checks against executive-order terms and priorities, including references to diversity and environmental justice.
Senior officials made final decisions on whether awards would be approved without changes, modified or canceled, according to agency documents and officials cited by GAO. The executive orders directed agencies to review funding and allowed changes in some circumstances, but the GAO report does not establish that the orders themselves canceled particular awards.
The pace of funding activity varied. GAO said three of the four agencies paused some obligations or disbursements during their reviews. EPA temporarily paused disbursements for awards selected for cancellation, Interior intermittently paused obligations and disbursements, and DOT continued disbursing already-obligated awards but did not obligate announced, unobligated awards until they had been reviewed and approved. NTIA officials said the agency continued obligating and disbursing funds during its review.
That distinction matters because an award decision is not the same as a payment. GAO reported that the four agencies had obligated about 76% of their IIJA budget authority and disbursed about 54% of those obligated funds during fiscal years 2022 through 2025. For the selected agencies receiving IRA money, about 72% was obligated and about 60% of obligated funds was disbursed as of September 30, 2025. Those figures describe broader spending activity, not just the awards listed in the review-status table.
Broadband delays show the practical stakes
Rural broadband funding was one visible example of the uncertainty. Roll Call reported June 30 that about $20 billion in remaining funds connected to the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program was delayed while recipients awaited new guidance. NTIA Administrator Arielle Roth told lawmakers that the guidance would come “this summer” but did not provide a specific date.
GAO separately reported that most BEAD awards had not reached the project-implementation phase, when NTIA disburses funds to recipients, as of June 30, 2025. NTIA had also rescinded approvals of recipients’ final proposed plans and required new plans aligned with modified requirements.
The delay could affect states, broadband applicants, contractors and communities planning projects, but it should not be treated as proof that a particular local project failed. The GAO totals describe agency-reported categories across multiple programs and agencies.
What the report does not answer
GAO said the review-status data were sufficiently reliable to describe the reported status of the reviews, but the agency could not corroborate the data project by project against other available information. EPA and NTIA also did not provide all requested data. NTIA initially provided review-status information through June 30, 2025, although it later supplied some additional information that GAO incorporated where relevant.
The cutoff dates also differ by agency: EPA provided data as of February 25, 2026; Interior and DOT provided data as of September 30, 2025; and NTIA provided its principal status data as of June 30, 2025. GAO said NTIA and DOT reported between February and April 2026 that they had made final decisions on many awards that had previously been pending.
GAO also treated about $20 billion tied to two EPA Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund programs as pending a final outcome. EPA had announced that the grants were terminated, but GAO said EPA’s data still showed them as fully obligated as of March 2026 and that the status of efforts to recover money disbursed to a private financial agent remained unclear.
The review does not cover the Energy or Agriculture departments. GAO said it expects separate reports on those agencies in September 2026, so the current totals do not represent every federal IIJA and IRA program.
For a specific project, readers should check the relevant agency’s award notices, Usaspending records and disclosures from the recipient. Those records may show whether an award was approved, modified, canceled, obligated or disbursed—and whether its status changed after the dates used in GAO’s review.
Sources
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