The White House Office of Management and Budget on Wednesday rescinded a memo that froze federal grants and loans and created widespread confusion this week.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s budget office on Wednesday rescinded an order freezing spending on federal grants, less than two days after it sparked widespread confusion and legal challenges across the country, according to two people familiar with the matter.
He seems much more comfortable, almost relaxed in how he’s doing the job,” according to Sean Spicer, Trump’s first White House press secretary, who said Trump is showing a new “level of confidence,” having spent four years in office.
The White House budget office on Wednesday rescinded an order freezing federal grants, according to a copy of a new memo obtained by The Washington Post, after the administration’s move to halt spending earlier this week provoked a backlash.
The OMB memo had directed federal agencies to pause grants and loans pending a review of compliance with the agenda of President Donald Trump.
The freeze on hundreds of billions of dollars of federal grants had been temporarily halted by a judge on Tuesday.
An internal OMB document shows that it is official administration policy to block funding to provoke a constitutional challenge.
The new memorandum, just two sentences long, will allow agencies to continue their normal operations after uncertainty over the impact of the initial directive caused widespread chaos across government. It followed a temporary injunction by a federal judge that prevented the original Office of Management and Budget memo from taking effect.
The White House rescinded an order today that froze trillions of dollars in federal grants and loans in an effort to purge the government of what President Trump has called a “woke” ideology. The directive had been temporarily blocked by a federal judge.
The Trump administration’s push for a sweeping pause on federal grants and loans totaling potentially trillions of dollars is on hold for now, on the order of a federal judge.