Federal spending freeze poses a risk to public safety
Why the Trump-Vance Administration Hasn’t Regained the OMB Memoglobe’s Order to Review Federal Funding
The OMB memo obtained by NPR states that a brief pause in funding would take effect on Tuesday evening, but a senior administration official said that the pause could be short if an agency determines its programs are in compliance.
The Republican-led administration issued a subsequent memo today attempting to clarify what is and is not covered by the freeze, but it included no information specific to scientific funding, leaving many scientists just as confused as when the order was issued.
Wednesday’s developments follow a federal judge’s order Tuesday that temporarily blocked the effort to pause federal payments for grants and other programs.
The OMB memo was withdrawn because of the injunction and the press coverage of it, said the White House press secretary. Leavitt said that other executive orders on “funding reviews” would remain in effect and that more would follow. “This action should effectively end the court case and allow the government to focus on enforcing the President’s orders on controlling federal spending. The waste of federal funding will be end in the coming weeks and months.
“Facing legal pressure from our clients and in the wake of a federal judge ruling in our case last evening, the Trump-Vance administration has abandoned OMB’s ordered federal funding freeze,” Democracy Forward said in a statement. Our clients, who represent communities across the nation, went to court to stop the administration from taking actions that were illegal.
The new memo says the heads of executive departments and agencies should contact their general counsels “if you have questions about implementing the President’s Executive Orders.”
Congressional Reply to the Cramer’s ‘Monument on Taxpayers’ Request for a Restricted Budget’
Cramer believes that the decision to pause to reexamine spending is a significant test of the separation of powers and will likely face legal challenges.
“[Trump’s] testing his own authority,” Cramer told reporters Tuesday afternoon. The president is getting some guidance that he has more authority than in the past.
The nonprofit organizations that won the temporary stay Tuesday had claimed in their filing that the memo “fails to explain the source of OMB’s purported legal authority to gut every grant program in the federal government.” The groups said that the memo failed to consider the interests of the grant recipients, and that money had already been promised.
Shortly after the decision by the federal Judge Tuesday, a group of attorneys general from 22 states and the District of Columbia filed a separate challenge in federal court.
The early test of just how willing Congressional Republicans would be to cede their control of the purse in favor of their leader was provided by the order.
Most congressional Republicans said the memo was a means to end implementation of Trump’s agenda, which is his prerogative.
“How are we supposed to defend [it] if we don’t know what’s coming out and what it really means? And I’ve got constituents calling so it’s just part of life,” he said.
Why is it illegal to suspend funding from the US Congress? The science community is devastated by the Trump-Trump order to freeze research-grants
It was assumed in an e-mail to faculty that grant expenditures incurred after today may not be covered by federal funding. “This is not a request that I make lightly.”
The memo was challenged in court by a group of states and legal experts, who claim it is illegal to suspend funds from the US Congress. The US Constitution gives Congress the power to appropriate funds, according to Matthew Lawrence, an expert in administrative law. The 1974 Impoundment Control Act limited the president to using his power only for things that are in the public interest.
The order to freeze assistance reflects some of the goals of Project 2025, a policy blueprint written by conservatives for a second Trump administration that sought drastic funding cuts and reorganization of the federal government. Russell Vought, one of the blueprint’s coauthors, is Trump’s nominee to lead the office that issued the new order.
Scientists are concerned about the long-term effects of the administration. It will be simpler to destroy the world’s greatest scientific community than it is to rebuild it, according to a developmental Biologist atNorthwestern University.
Researchers aren’t sitting still: hundreds of scientists sprang into action on the social-media platform Bluesky to organize a rally at the White House today and to set up sessions for people to call their elected officials to stop the freeze.
The disruption is almost incalculable if they are allowed to get away with it, says John Holdren, the former US science adviser to Barack Obama.
The order is only the latest in a stream of White House directives on federal spending, diversity and other programmes that have sown chaos and confusion in the US scientific community. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, charged with protecting US health, has been told to stop communicating with the World Health Organization and destroy all material about diversity by the Trump administration in the past week. The key funders of basic US science have halted research-grant review meetings.
The Environmental Programs in the U.S. Department of Environment and Foreign Affairs, released Tuesday after a House Judgment Blocks it
The list includes a wide array of environmental programs, from state efforts to install drinking water pipes and limit air pollution to disaster recovery programs.
Legal experts, government officials and others across the country were warning Tuesday that the memo could put in jeopardy everything from early childhood education and food assistance programs to efforts to clear land mines in war zones.
More than 2,500 programs at the agencies across the government are listed in the accompanying list of instructions. The instructions include a series of questions for agencies to answer about those programs, including whether they are affected by Trump’s revocation of funding for the US International Climate Finance Plan, impose what the document calls “an undue burden on the identification, development, or use of domestic energy resources” or focus on environmental justice.
A sudden pause in federal aid has sown disarray and outrage across the country, throwing into doubt a wide range of programs that help protect Americans from disasters, provide access to clean drinking water and affordable energy, among many other issues.
On Tuesday, a federal judge temporarily blocked the order right before it was set to take effect after groups including the American Public Health Association sued, according to The New York Times. New York Attorney General Letitia James said on social media that she was in a lawsuit to block the White House order.
The aid given to individuals, including Medicare and Social Security, is excluded, but the memorandum gives no guidance on what it should apply to.