The Freeze of Federal Assistance Memo Is Rescinded – Update

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Update: President Trump said he is committed to eliminating funds. The EO was NOT rescinded. Only the memo was rescinded.

Original Story

According to CBS News, on Wednesday, the White House Office of Management and Budget walked back a memo that ordered a freezing of federal grants. They said the directive led to chaos around the country regarding what programs would be impacted.

The latest two-line memo from acting Director of the Office of Management and Budget Matthew Vaeth states that the earlier directive (M 25-13) is rescinded. It directs those with questions about implementing President Trump’s executive orders to contact the general counsels at their agencies.

President Trump is trying to save hundreds of billions of dollars scheduled to go out to wasteful causes regarding climate, DEI, and NGOs. Hopefully, he will publish a new, more specific memo to try to save the dollars thrown out the door as Biden was about to leave office. Biden was just blowing every dollar he could once Harris lost.

Here is one example:

Catholic Charities is one that is getting rich helping illegal aliens enter the country and resettle here. They even coach them on how to stay if ICE comes.

Chaos and Confusion

A lot of the chaos and confusion comes from the media and political opponents. For example, Tim Walz was back, misinforming the public. He claimed Donald Trump ripped out health and child care when he paused spending under an emergency declaration. This was long after it was clarified several times.

According to the White House fact sheet, any program that provides direct benefits to Americans is explicitly excluded from the pause and exempted from this review process. Social Security and Medicare are already explicitly excluded in the guidance, and mandatory programs like Medicaid and SNAP will continue without pause.

The Truth About the Freeze

This was clarified immediately, but people panicked.

The Executive Orders listed in the guidance are:

Protecting the American People Against Invasion

Reevaluating and Realigning United States Foreign Aid

Putting America First in International Environmental Agreements

Unleashing American Energy

Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing

Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government

Enforcing the Hyde Amendment

Any program that provides direct benefits to individuals is not subject to the pause.

The guidance establishes a process for agencies to work with OMB to determine quickly whether any program is inconsistent with the President’s Executive Orders. A pause could be as short as a day. In fact, OMB has worked with agencies and has already approved many programs to continue even before the pause has gone into effect.

Any payment required by law will be paid without interruption or delay.

The pause is expressly limited to programs, projects, and activities the President’s Executive Orders implicated, such as ending DEI, the Green New Deal, and funding nongovernmental organizations that undermine the national interest.


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