That's true although in my discussions with university administration, there is a causal arrow that points a bit in the other direction too. I've had conversations with university presidents and other administration (in semi-private contexts) where it's basically stated "we don't need to advocate for state funding because we can sustain ourselves on federal funds."

I note this not to criticize the administration (although you can do that), but to point out that this dynamic has repercussions in terms of incentives. If you're a university president or provost and getting pressure from a conservative legislature to not depend on public funding (which really means "state funding" to them, but that's another discussion), and all of a sudden the federal government becomes this cash flow source, you're going to run to it, and leverage that as "being a good citizen" with the legislature. I think the causal directions go in both ways and have these kind of amplifying effects.