Michael Hernandez
30 January 2025•Update: 30 January 2025
WASHINGTON
The White House further added to confusion Wednesday over US President Donald Trump's attempt to put nearly all federal aid spending on pause, maintaining the policy remains in force.
Acting Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Matthew Vaeth said in a brief note distributed to federal agencies that the agency's memo authorizing the freeze has been rescinded. He further directed departments to contact their top attorneys if they have any questions about implementing Trump's executive orders.
Trump's order, which sought to halt the dispersal of potentially trillions of dollars in grants and loans, sent shockwaves through the US as it prompted widespread confusion and chaos as millions of people questioned whether they would be able to rely on federally-funded services and assistance that they have come to depend on. Just minutes before the order was to take effect Tuesday evening, US District Judge Loren AliKhan ordered the Trump administration not to block funding for ongoing programs through Monday.
The White House said shortly after multiple news outlets reported on Vaeth's newest directive that it "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," spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said on X.
Trump also spoke about the freeze in the past tense during a White House event Wednesday afternoon, saying "there was a short-term pause or funding freeze on certain discretionary spending, payments such as government grants, only for us to quickly look at the scams, dishonesty, waste and abuse that's taken place in our government for too long."
"We are merely looking at parts of the big bureaucracy where there has been tremendous waste and fraud and abuse," he said.
It remains unclear whether the pause is in place. But Congress is delegated spending authorities by the US Constitution, often referred to colloquially as the "power of the purse." The executive branch led by the president is tasked with doling out the money once it has been appropriated by Congress and signed into law.
A president's refusal to disperse appropriated funds is known as impoundment. Congress sought to set parameters on the practice via a 1974 law known as the Impoundment Control Act, which allows lawmakers to review any federal withholdings and requires the president to abide by the outcome of the impoundment evaluation, according to the Government Accountability Office.
The Trump administration had sought to distance its action from impoundment by saying the pause was temporary, but it did not lay out a timeline for when the freeze was to end.
