The Office of Management and Budget has rescinded its call for a pause on federal assistance, according to the agency’s memo shared by Democracy Forward, which led a legal challenge over the effort. But the White House said that only the original memo calling for the freeze had been rescinded.
The new memo says the heads of executive departments and agencies should contact their general counsels “if you have questions about implementing the President’s Executive Orders.”
“Facing legal pressure from our clients and in the wake of a federal judge ruling in our case last evening, the Trump-Vance administration has abandoned OMB’s ordered federal funding freeze,” Democracy Forward said in a statement. “We are proud of our courageous clients — who represent communities across the nation — for going to court to stop the administration’s unlawful actions.”
But Karoline Leavitt, the White House spokeswoman, told reporters that the move simply meant a recession of the memo.
She said efforts to “end the egregious waste of federal funding” will continue. She said the OMB memo has been rescinded “to end any confusion on federal policy created by the court ruling and the dishonest media coverage.” The administration expects that rescinding the memo will end the court case against it.
After widespread confusion from the initially very broad memo calling for a halt in federal assistance, pending review, the White House tried Tuesday to further clarify which programs would not be affected, later specifying that it would not impact Medicaid and SNAP programs, for example.
This latest statement from the White House is likely to add to the confusion rather than clarify it.
Wednesday’s developments follow a federal judge’s order Tuesday that temporarily blocked the effort to pause federal payments for grants and other programs.
Under the original OMB memo obtained by NPR, a temporary pause in funding was set to take effect Tuesday evening, but a senior administration official said that the pause could be as short as a day if an agency determines its programs are in compliance.
The official said the directive should not be interpreted as a full funding freeze. The official, who was not authorized to publicly discuss the internal memo, said that agencies are supposed to review their grants, loans and programs to ensure that they align with the new administration’s priorities.
Administration officials have insisted that the impacts are misunderstood, but the actual text of the memo is far-reaching and the follow-up guidance has been vague. On Tuesday afternoon, the White House issued a fact sheet that said “the pause does not apply across-the-board” and that “any program that provides direct benefits to Americans” — like Social Security, Medicare and food stamps — “is explicitly excluded.”
The spending memo quickly drew legal challenges on Tuesday.
The nonprofit organizations that won the temporary stay Tuesday had claimed in their filing that the memo “fails to explain the source of OMB’s purported legal authority to gut every grant program in the federal government.” The groups also said that the memo failed to consider the interests of grant recipients, “including those to whom money had already been promised.”
Shortly after the decision by the federal Judge Tuesday, a group of attorneys general from 22 states and the District of Columbia filed a separate challenge in federal court.
Congressional reaction
The order provided an early litmus test for just how willing Congressional Republicans would be to cede their power of the purse in deference to the leader of their party – even temporarily.
The order came late Monday night, as House Republicans were gathered at an annual conference in Trump’s backyard at his Doral golf course and resort.
And, by and large, most Congressional Republicans who spoke about the memo said it was a means to an end to implement Trump’s agenda, which is his prerogative.
House Speaker Mike Johnson called it “an application of common sense,” and said it would “be harmless in the end.”
At least one person at the retreat, Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., said a heads up would have been helpful.
“How are we supposed to defend [it] if we don’t know what’s coming out and what it really means? And I’ve got constituents calling so it’s just part of life,” he said.
Back on Capitol Hill, North Dakota Sen. Kevin Cramer acknowledged the move questions the authority of Congress, but said he wasn’t concerned.
“[Trump’s] testing his own authority,” Cramer told reporters Tuesday afternoon. “He’s getting some guidance that presidents have more authority than they’d traditionally used.”
Cramer said he supports a pause to reevaluate spending, although he said the move will likely face legal challenges and called the decision a “major test of separation of powers.”
Idaho Sen. Jim Risch put it more bluntly.
“For all of you who haven’t noticed, this is a different day in Washington, D.C.,” he told reporters Tuesday.
