Impact of Federal Policies on Hardworking Coloradans

This dashboard breaks down the impact of recent federal policy decisions on driving up costs for hardworking Coloradans and reveals the financial pressure hardworking Coloradans and their families are experiencing as they pay more for basic needs.

Organized by congressional districts, the dashboard highlights the impact of federal spending cuts in Colorado, the effects of tariffs on everyday Coloradans, the drastic increases to health insurance premiums faced by Coloradans, and the ongoing increases in gas and energy prices.

The data underscores that Coloradans are calling for policies that lower costs and expand opportunity. When people have the tools and opportunities to build a good life, the economy grows and businesses prosper.

The full sourcing and methodology is available below the chart or here.
Having trouble seeing the embedded dashboard? Click here to view it on Tableau.

Sources & Methodology:
The Cost of Trump’s Policies in Colorado

Top Cards

Trump Budget Cut / Per Person

Colorado Governor’s Office federal funds tracking dashboard (federalfunds.colorado.gov), as of March 6, 2026. The Governor’s Office tracks state-administered federal grants that have been cancelled, terminated, or frozen by the Trump administration and Congress. Total cancelled and at-risk grant dollars for each district are drawn directly from the Governor’s Office CD-level tracking data. These figures are then divided by district population (~721,700 per district, based on equal apportionment across Colorado’s 8 congressional districts) to produce the per-capita dollar figure shown on the dashboard.

Tariff Cost / Per CO Household

Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), Impacts of President Trump’s Tax Policies in 2026. ITEP models tariffs as a consumption tax, because tariffs raise consumer prices. The figure shown ($1,360) represents the Third Quintile (middle-income, ~$80,000 average household income), which is the most representative “typical household” figure. This is a statewide figure applied uniformly to all districts, as ITEP does not publish congressional-district-level data.

ACA Premium Hike / Annual Avg, Per CD

Using C4HCO’s Open Enrollment Report (Plan Year 2025), county-level ACA enrollment data was crosswalked to congressional districts using the Geocorr 2022 Geographic Correspondence Engine (Missouri Census Data Center), applying 2020 Census population weights to the county → 119th Congressional District correspondence. The at-risk figure represents the share of enrollees receiving Advance Premium Tax Credits (APTC) — 80%, per C4HCO’s statewide APTC participation rate — and is calculated as total enrolled multiplied by that rate. Premium increase figures are drawn from KFF’s CD-level dataset and represent the annual net cost difference for a Silver benchmark plan at approximately $82,000 household income (the median enrolled household), comparing rates after the December 2025 subsidy expiration to prior enhanced-subsidy rates. CD-level figures vary due to local plan pricing; CD-3 (Western Colorado) is the highest in the state, reflecting mountain-county plan costs.

Inflation / Since 2025

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U), All Items series (SA0) and cumulative change in the CPI-U Gasoline series (CUUR0000SETB01) since January 2025.

Trump’s Budget Cuts

~12K People at Risk of Losing Health Care Coverage

The Congressional Budget Office scored H.R. 1 as causing approximately 7.5 million people nationally to lose health insurance coverage by 2034, primarily through new work requirements, more frequent eligibility redeterminations, and limits on state financing mechanisms. Colorado accounts for approximately 1.6% of national Medicaid enrollment (~1.2 million Colorado enrollees per CO Dept of Health Care Policy and Financing’s FY2024-25 Congressional District Fact Sheets vs. ~75.7 million nationally per Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services December 2025 enrollment data), yielding a modeled estimate of approximately 120,000 Coloradans at risk. The figure of 75,000 reflects a conservative adjustment for implementation uncertainty and phase-in timelines. Congressional district estimates — including supporting figures for enrollment, long-term care enrollees, and provider payments — are allocated proportionally based on each district’s share of statewide Medicaid enrollment per HCPF.

~5K Households at Risk of Losing SNAP Assistance

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, citing CBO, projected 4 million Americans would lose food assistance nationally through expanded work requirements and state cost-sharing provisions under H.R. 1. Colorado holds approximately 1.6% of the national SNAP caseload (~332,000 Colorado households vs. ~21.2 million nationally, per USDA’s Food and Nutrition Services December 2025 data), yielding an estimate of approximately 63,000 Colorado households at risk. The figure of 40,000 reflects a conservative adjustment for implementation uncertainty and phase-in timelines. District-level estimates are our own calculations, allocated proportionally based on each district’s share of statewide SNAP participation using Food Research Action Center’s SNAP Congressional District Data (2025, ACS 2023 5-year estimates, 118th Congress boundaries); supporting figures for households with children and households with disabilities also reflect FRAC data.

$395M Lost in Clean Energy Choices Across CO

Grant figures are drawn from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) and the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) Project Cancellations dataset. Solar for All ($312.2M) was eliminated by statute and IRA Environmental Justice projects ($82.7M) were terminated administratively. Both represent direct federal-to-local grants that bypass state agencies and are separate from and non-overlapping with CO Energy Office state-administered grants shown in the bar chart (~$192M statewide). CD-specific project amounts reflect district-level assignments in the same dataset.

Budget Cuts by Program Area (Bar Chart)

Colorado Governor’s Office federal funds tracking dashboard (federalfunds.colorado.gov), as of March 6, 2026. The Governor’s Office tracks state-administered federal grants that have been cancelled, terminated, or frozen by the Trump administration and Congress. Only grants with “Lost/At-Risk” status are included; successfully defended grants are excluded. The Clean Energy figure in this chart reflects CO Energy Office (CEO) state-administered grants only and is separate from the direct IRA cancellations shown in the clean energy card above.

Rising Costs for the Many, Tax Cuts for the Few

Combined Cost of Tariffs, Tax Cuts, and Termination of Tax Credits

Per-household annual impact figures are drawn directly from Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy’s statewide Colorado analysis, covering three components: tariff costs (modeled as a regressive consumption tax), ACA premium increases from the expiration of enhanced subsidies, and OBBBA tax law changes. Income figures represent the average income of households within each group — not the minimum threshold to enter it.