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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowThe White House budget office on Wednesday rescinded an order freezing federal grants, according to a copy of a new memo obtained by The Washington Post, after the administration’s move to halt spending earlier this week provoked a backlash.
In a memo dated Wednesday and distributed to federal agencies, Matthew J. Vaeth, acting director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, states that OMB memorandum M-25-13 “is rescinded.” That order, issued Monday, instructed federal agencies to “temporarily pause all activities related to obligations or disbursement of all federal financial assistance.”
The original White House order freezing federal grants, which became public Monday, caused chaos and confusion in Washington, D.C., appearing to imperil government programs that fund schools, provide housing and ensure that low-income Americans have access to health care. States reported issues accessing funds under Medicaid, and even as of Wednesday, public housing authorities reported being locked out of their funding portal. White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday that assistance for individuals would not be affected.
States reported issues accessing funds under Medicaid, and even as of Wednesday, public housing authorities reported being locked out of their funding portal. White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday that assistance for individuals would not be affected.
The Trump administration withdrew the order a day after a federal judge in Washington temporarily halted its implementation until Feb. 3, allowing public health advocates, nonprofits and businesses—represented by the left-leaning group Democracy Forward—more time to challenge the directive’s legality. Separately, roughly two dozen state attorneys general filed their own lawsuit against the administration on Tuesday, arguing the pause to federal spending had harmed their citizens.
On X, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt acknowledged that the initial budget office memo has been suspended but said the administration’s broader efforts to block spending it opposes remain in effect. Other executive orders approved by President Donald Trump but not rescinded – including a pause on foreign aid and on some clean energy funds approved by the Biden administration – appear to still be in effect, budget experts said. Leavitt said the order was rescinded to make clear that the administration will comply with the federal order pausing the freeze.
“This is NOT a rescission of the federal funding freeze. It is simply a rescission of the OMB memo,” Leavitt posted. “Why? To end any confusion created by the court’s injunction. The President’s EO’s on federal funding remain in full force and effect, and will be rigorously implemented.”
The rescinded order reflects what is likely to be just one of many initial battles over the Trump administration’s attempts to assert far more control over the federal budget. Trump and Russell Vought, his nominee to head the OMB still awaiting Senate confirmation, have maintained that the executive branch should have far more discretion to cancel federal spending without congressional approval.
“While this is extremely welcome news, it only stops those illegal” pauses in government funding approved by the budget office’s funding freeze, said Bobby Kogan, a former Biden administration official at the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning think tank.
Vought and Mark Paoletta, tapped as an attorney for the White House budget office, have said the administration will challenge a 1974 budget law that limits presidential authority to cancel spending. Paoletta has asserted that the law is “unconstitutional,” arguing it reverses presidential authority to cancel federal funds that dates back to the nation’s founding.
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He’s an idiot
It appears that the media are the idiots.
Yes, the media are awful. They don’t talk about the rank incompetence nor the lack of respect for America that this administration has.
He didn’t rescind, it was blocked by a federal judge. Hopefully like all of the BS coming out of Washington.
Tell us you didn’t read the article without telling us.
I am simply amazed at the willful ignorance of reality Trump supporters have.
So, I don’t benefit from any of this BUT, in the interest of journalism it appears as though the was no “reverse” but a clarification of the original intent.