On the Trump-Vance Administration’s Ordered Funding Freeze: A New OMB Co-Examination of a National Park Service Advisory Board
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 memo that was posted by news organizations said agencies were directed to review their assistance programs and support activities in order to comply with the policies and requirements of the President. It ordered agencies to provide detailed information on these programs by February 10 and to “cancel awards already awarded that are in conflict with Administration priorities.”
Wednesday’s developments follow a federal judge’s order Tuesday that temporarily blocked the effort to pause federal payments for grants and other programs.
The memo shared by Democracy Forward said the call for a pause on federal assistance has been revoked by the Office of Management and Budget. The White House said there was only the original memo that had been taken down.
“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. Many clients, who represent communities across the country, went to court to stop the actions of the administration.
The heads of executive departments and agencies should talk to their general counsels if they have questions about the President’s orders, according to a new memo.
Reply to Cramer’s Comments on Trump’s Memorandum on Proposed Spending Measurements and the Role of the Public Interest in State and Local Government
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.”
Cramer told reporters Tuesday that Trump is testing his own authority. “He’s getting some guidance that presidents have more authority than they’d traditionally used.”
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.”
A group of attorneys general from around the country filed a challenge in federal court after Tuesday’s decision by the federal judge.
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.
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.
How are we supposed to defend it if we do not know what’s going on? “I’ve got my supporters calling and it’s part of life,” he said.
Frozen Budget Request from the University Provost: Implications for the Impoundment Control Act and the Future of Scientific Research in the United States
We must for now proceed under the belief that grant expenditures incurred after today will not be covered by federal funding according to a email from the university’s provost. This is a request that I need to consider very seriously.
As reported by the journalist Marisa Kabas, the memo was challenged in court by a coalition of states and legal experts who argue it illegally suspends funds appropriated by the US Congress. Matthew Lawrence is an expert in administrative law and he says the US Constitution gives Congress more power over funds than the president. An order that imposes “a halt across the board, and without a special message … would violate the Impoundment Control Act”, he says, referring to a 1974 law that limited the president’s power to impound, or withhold, funding.
The order to freeze assistance is designed to reflect the goals of the policy plan written by conservatives for a second Trump administration that wanted to cut funding and reorganize the government. Russell Vought, one of the blueprint’s coauthors, is Trump’s nominee to lead the office that issued the new order.
Scientists are worried about the long-term effects of the administration’s actions. It will be much easier to destroy the world’s greatest scientific system than it is to rebuild it, according to a developmental Biologist at Northwestern University.
Hundreds of scientists on Bluesky organized a rally at the White House today and are trying to get some people to call their representatives in order to end the freeze.
The disruption is almost incalculable if they are allowed to get away with this, says John Holdren, a US science adviser to Barack Obama.
The White House has sown confusion and chaos in the US scientific community with a stream of directives on federal spending, diversity and other programmes. In the past week, the Trump administration ordered staff members at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), charged with protecting US health, to cease communication with the World Health Organization and scrubbed most federal websites of any material about diversity. Major funders of basic US science have suspended research-grant review meetings.
Comments on a Clean Energy Strategy Memorandum from the U.S. Department of Environment and Climate Change (Climate News)
The list includes a wide array of environmental programs, from state efforts to install drinking water pipes and limit air pollution to disaster recovery programs.
Legal experts, government officials, and others warned Tuesday that the memo could jeopardize many programs, including early childhood education, food assistance, and efforts to clear land mines in war zones.
An accompanying list of instructions shared with Inside Climate News, however, lists more than 2,500 programs at agencies across the government. The instructions include questions about whether the revocation of funding for the US International Climate Finance Plan by Donald Trump will affect the programs and whether there is an unnecessary burden on the identification, development, or use of domestic energy resources.
A pause in federal assistance is sowing disarray and rage across the country, throwing into question a wide range of programs that help protect Americans from disasters and provide access to clean drinking water and affordable energy.
On Tuesday, a federal judge temporarily blocked the order right before it was set to take effect after groups including the American Public Health Association sued, according to The New York Times. In a separate action on Tuesday, the Attorney General of New York said on her social media that she and a group of states were also suing to block the White House order.
While the memorandum said assistance given directly to individuals, including Medicare and Social Security benefits, is excluded, it gave little guidance for what it would apply to.