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With a two-sentence memo this afternoon, the Office of Management and Budget has rescinded Monday’s memo calling for a widespread freeze on federal financial assistance and grant programs, less than 24 hours after a federal judge had temporarily blocked the freeze.
“OMB Memorandum M-25-13 is rescinded,” today’s memo says.
In a statement issued moments later, however, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said, “The Executive Orders issued by the President on funding reviews remain in full force and effect and will be rigorously implemented by all agencies and departments.”
She said today’s OMB memo “should effectively end the court case,” but that there will be “more executive action” in the coming weeks and months “to end the egregious waste of federal funding.”
Memorandum M-25-13, which was issued late on Monday, would have required federal agencies to identify and “complete a comprehensive analysis” of all federal financial assistance “programs, projects, and activities” to ensure they are “consistent with the President’s policies and requirements.”
The OMB directive could have affected a broad scope of loan, grant and financial assistance programs from the federal government, including funds for state and local governments, such as Community Development Block Grants, school meals, and health, education, public safety and climate programs — although a follow-up “Q&A” document provided hours later by the OMB said the temporary halt in funding is not “across-the-board.”
The document stated: “Any program that provides direct benefits to Americans is explicitly excluded from the pause and exempted for this review process. In addition to Social Security and Medicare, already explicitly excluded in the guidance, mandatory programs like Medicaid and SNAP will continue without pause. Funds for small businesses, farmers, Pell grants, Head Start, rental assistance, and other similar programs will not be paused.”
• Download comprehensive list of programs potentially impacted by the freeze
The M-25-13 memo triggered a frenzy among programs that rely on federal funds, as well as a number of legal actions. Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell was co-lead on a multi-state push to halt the freeze.
The M-25-13 memo gave federal agencies until Feb. 10 to submit to OMB “detailed information on any programs, projects or activities subject to this pause.”
As a basis for the action, the OMB memo cites a series of executive orders signed by President Donald Trump since his inauguration on Jan. 20, including 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, and Enforcing the Hyde Amendment.
The MMA and its federal and state partners are closely following this developing story, and will be working to provide the latest details to members.