Federal Agencies with the Most Grant Programs

All federal agencies ranked by how many grant programs they administer — the biggest funders in the federal system. Data from USAspending.gov and Grants.gov, covering federal grant awards across all 50 states; see our methodology.

What This Ranking Tells Us

The federal government distributes grants through dozens of agencies, but the volume is heavily concentrated. The Department of Education, HHS, and USDA collectively administer nearly half of all federal grant programs. Agencies with more programs are not necessarily spending more money — some agencies run many small programs while others run fewer but much larger ones. This ranking shows operational breadth: which agencies have the most diverse grant portfolios.

# Name Programs
1 U.S. Department of Education ED 77
2 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services HHS 65
3 U.S. Department of Agriculture USDA 51
4 U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development HUD 35
5 U.S. Department of Transportation DOT 26
6 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency EPA 26
7 U.S. Department of Justice DOJ 23
8 National Institutes of Health NIH 22
9 National Science Foundation NSF 21
10 U.S. Department of Commerce DOC 19
11 U.S. Department of Labor DOL 17
12 U.S. Department of Energy DOE 16
13 U.S. Small Business Administration SBA 13
14 Federal Emergency Management Agency FEMA 13
15 U.S. Department of the Interior DOI 12
16 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention CDC 12
17 National Endowment for the Humanities NEH 11
18 Institute of Museum and Library Services IMLS 10
19 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration NOAA 7
20 National Endowment for the Arts NEA 6
21 National Aeronautics and Space Administration NASA 6
22 U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs VA 6
23 AmeriCorps AmeriCorps 5
24 U.S. Department of State DOS 5

Source: SAM.gov (System for Award Management).

Frequently Asked Questions

Which federal agency gives out the most grants?

By program count, the Department of Education, HHS, and USDA lead. However, by dollar volume, HHS (through Medicaid and <a href="https://grants.nih.gov/grants/oer.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener" class="text-[var(--color-accent)] hover:underline">NIH</a>) and the Department of Transportation (through infrastructure programs) are the largest. The ranking depends on whether you measure by number of programs or total funding.

Do agencies with more programs have more funding?

Not necessarily. Some agencies like the <a href="https://grants.nih.gov/grants/oer.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener" class="text-[var(--color-accent)] hover:underline">National Institutes of Health</a> have fewer programs but enormous budgets concentrated in research. Others like the Department of Education have many programs spread across different educational goals. Always check individual program funding levels rather than assuming agency size equals money available.

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Read our methodology — how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.

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Data sourced from official public datasets. See our methodology for details. Retrieved and formatted by PlainGrants Editorial