WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump’s budget office on Wednesday rescinded a memo freezing spending on federal grants, less than two days after it sparked widespread confusion and legal challenges across the country.
The Monday evening memo from the White House Office of Management and Budget sparked uncertainty over a crucial financial lifeline for states, schools and organizations that rely on trillions of dollars from Washington and left the White House scrambling to explain what would and wouldn’t be subject to a pause in funding.
The reversal was the latest sign that even with unified control of Washington, Trump’s plans to dramatically and rapidly reshape the government has some limits.
The White House confirmed that OMB pulled the memo Wednesday in a two sentence notice sent to agencies and departments, but said that Trump’s underlying executive orders targeting federal spending in areas like diversity, equity and inclusion and climate change, remained in place.
Administration officials said the notice to halt loans and grants was necessary to conduct a review to ensure that spending complies with Trump’s recent blitz of executive orders. Agencies had been directed to answer a series of yes or no questions on each federal program by Feb. 7. The questions included “does this program promote gender ideology?” and “does this program promote or support in any way abortion?”
Still, the vaguely worded memo, combined with incomplete answers from the White House throughout the day, left lawmakers, public officials and average Americans struggling to figure out what programs would be affected by the pause. Even temporary interruptions in funding could cause layoffs or delays in public services.