Alarm as Trump administration pauses all federal spending on grants and loans
Alarm as Trump administration pauses all federal spending on grants and loans
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Memo says social security and Medicare are excluded but congressional Democrats express ‘extreme alarm’. Donald Trump’s second presidential administration has paused all grants and loans disbursed by the federal government, potentially upending programs relied upon by millions of Americans.
In a two-page internal memo, Matthew Vaeth, Trump’s acting head of the office of management and budget (OMB), instructed all federal agencies to “temporarily pause all activities related to obligations or disbursement of all federal financial assistance”.
Vaeth said that the pause does not include social security or Medicare – and that the assistance put on hold “does not include assistance provided directly to individuals”. The halt in spending, coming days after the US halted all foreign aid and placed a pause on renewable energy projects on public land, would ensure that financial assistance is in line with Trump’s policies, Vaeth wrote.
Federal agencies, he added, will halt spending affected by Trump’s recent executive orders that touch upon “financial assistance for foreign aid, nongovernmental organizations, [diversity initiatives], woke gender ideology, and the green new deal”.
The freeze in federal funding, set to take place on Tuesday afternoon, has thrown the future of a vast array of programs into uncertainty. It is probably going to affect universities, the non-profit sector, cancer research, food assistance, suicide hotlines and a range of other areas.
