January 29, 2025
Welp – that was fast.
With one line the Trump administration backpedaled, and decided to rescind its temporary freeze memo on federal grant and loan programs. But things are still very confusing and I’m going to explain why.
Here’s the document. From the office of management and budget. Dated today — it simply says OMB memorandum m-25-13 is rescinded. If you have any questions about implementing the president’s executive orders please contact your agency general counsel.
Memorandum m-25-13 is the one I told you all about yesterday in these videos. It said that as of 5 p.m. last night – all funding for federal grants and loan programs would be frozen. The memo said that money would temporarily not go out until the Trump administration insured that the programs adhere to the trump policies. The memo caused a lot of confusion and a lot of outrage from lots of people and organizations in this country from Medicaid recipients to charities and grant recipients in both blue and red states.
Yesterday afternoon a federal judge in Washington DC put an administrative stay – a pause — on this funding freeze until the judge could have a full hearing on Monday to determine whether an injunction to permanently stop the Trump administration from doing this was legal and appropriate.
But here’s where things get confusing….just a few minutes ago – the press secretary put this statement out on x saying. This is this is not a rescission of the federal funding freeze. It is simply a rescission of the OMB memo. 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.
So – what is it? Is the funding going to go out or not? Well – for now…yes. However – it’s also a fact that president trump did sign an executive order calling for a review of all federal grant and loan programs. So those reviews will continue as the press secretary said – but the OMB memo which demanded an immediate temporary pause on the money going out is not happening.
Now – this move to rescind the order so quickly is particularly interesting given the fact that press secretary was insistent on camera yesterday that the trump administration was willing to take this fight all the way to the supreme court if it had to. It’s unclear what caused the trump administration to walk it back in just 24 hours.
