Washington According to a memo a source gave to NBC News, President Donald Trump’s administration on Wednesday revoked a broad block on the majority of federal grants and loans, just one day after it was announced amid intense criticism.
The directive was reversed on Wednesday, according to a senior administration official.
On Tuesday night, a federal district judge temporarily suspended the order that caused confusion and pandemonium around Washington.
Federal agencies were instructed by the Office of Management and Budget to “temporarily pauseall activities related to obligation or disbursement of all Federal financial assistance, and other relevant agency activities that may be implicated by the executive orders, including, but not limited to, financial assistance for foreign aid, nongovernmental organizations, DEI, woke gender ideology, and the green new deal.” The directive was issued Monday night.
The administration would be able to examine which initiatives were “consistent” with Trump’s agenda during the halt, according to the memo.
Although direct payments to individuals, Social Security, and Medicare were not intended to be impacted, it was unclear which help would be stopped due to the memo’s ambiguous wording.
The White House tried to explain the exclusions throughout the day, but by that point, there was a lot of confusion and stories of individuals and groups not being able to access the systems they needed to get their federal assistance.
For instance, nonprofits that addressed homelessness and health care notified NBC News that online portals to get Medicaid payments were momentarily unavailable, and they could not access websites to withdraw money.
Sen. Patty Murray, a Democrat from Washington, said in a statement Wednesday, “This is a significant victory for the American people whose voices were heard after massive pressure from every corner of this country. Real people made a difference by speaking out.” “Still, the Trump administration through a combination of sheer incompetence, cruel intentions, and a willful disregard of the law caused real harm and chaos for millions over the span of the last 48 hours which is still ongoing.”
A progressive nonprofit organization called Democracy Forward sued OMB, and Judge Loren Ali Khan issued an injunction temporarily halting the freeze’s implementation.
In a statement, Skye Perryman, CEO of Democracy Forward, said, “We condemn the Trump-Vance administration’s harmful and callous approach of unleashing chaos and harm on the American people, even as we hope this will allow millions of people in communities across the country to breathe a sigh of relief.” “To protect the American people, our team will keep bringing swift legal actions, and we will use the legal system to make sure that federal funding is restored.”