Trump Maintains Federal Funding Pause Executive Orders As OMB Memo Rescinded

Robert RomanoJanuary 31, 2025

0 11 5 minutes read

President Donald Trump’s executive orders relevant to a pause of federal funding pending review “remain in full force and effect, and will be rigorously implemented,” according to White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt in an X post on Jan. 29.

This came after the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) rescinded a Jan. 27 memorandum to departments and agencies ordering a “Temporary Pause of Agency Grant, Loan, and Other Financial Assistance Programs” that were barred by the orders, a memorandum that had an injunction immediately placed upon it by the D.C. District Court on Jan. 28.

In her X post, Leavitt explained that the funding freezes dictated by the executive orders remain in place “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 injunction had applied to OMB’s direction for a pause on “all open awards” but did not apply to the “issuance of new awards” or “other relevant agency actions that may be implicated by the executive orders.”

Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?

Yes

Rather than fight out in court whether OMB could issue a pause for open awards — a process that would likely take longer than the time remaining in the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30 — the White House simply opted to rescind the memo while continuing implementation of the executive orders.

The OMB memo’s funding pause was to provide time to review the legal ramifications of President Donald Trump’s executive orders including securing the southern border, incentivizing energy production, halting foreign aid, withdrawing from the Paris Climate accords, ending federal diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs that violate the Civil Rights Act and enforcing the longstanding ban on federal funds for abortions.

Under the memo, each agency had to “complete a comprehensive analysis of all of their Federal financial assistance programs to identify programs, projects, and activities that may be implicated by any of the President’s executive orders. In the interim, to the extent permissible under applicable law, Federal agencies must temporarily pause all activities related to obligation or disbursement of all Federal financial assistance, and other relevant agency activities that may be implicated by the executive orders, including, but not limited to, financial assistance for foreign aid, nongovernmental organizations, DEI, woke gender ideology, and the green new deal.”

But even without the memo, the executive orders Trump signed do the same exact thing. So, the reviews will continue. By removing the OMB memo — a potential single legal point of failure for all of the orders — anyone who experiences a pause or termination of funds would now have to sue on the merits of that rescission under the law and the individual orders and policies being set forth by the new administration.

For example, the President’s executive order to end diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) practices in the federal government, private sector and at colleges and universities that receive federal funds including via grants and loans to students, “Ending Illegal Discrimination And Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity”. It calls for bringing into effect the 2023 Supreme Court ruling Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College that found affirmative action admissions policies violate the Fourteenth Amendment and the Civil Rights Act: “the Attorney General and the Secretary of Education shall jointly issue guidance to all State and local educational agencies that receive Federal funds, as well as all institutions of higher education that receive Federal grants or participate in the Federal student loan assistance program under Title IV of the Higher Education Act, 20 U.S.C. 1070 et seq., regarding the measures and practices required to comply with Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College, 600 U.S. 181 (2023).”

That could mean that colleges and universities that refuse to end racial and gender preferences in college admissions could see eligibility of federal grants and loans restricted until such time as they come into compliance with the Civil Rights Act, which was adopted in 1964. The fact that colleges and universities—and the Department of Education under prior administrations—was not following the law, or that Congress adopted a continuing resolution for federal grants and loans at a time of non-compliance, does not obviate the present duty of the President to faithfully execute the Constitution and laws of the United States.

Trump would not have to wait, for example, until another continuing resolution was brought into effect this March, or a new budget adopted or when the appropriations bills, consolidated or not, were brought to his desk. He has to enforce the laws as written, right now.

And that applies the pause on foreign aid or other federal funds that were coming in support of the Paris Climate Accords or the World Health Organization, which Trump has withdrawn from after taking office. The policies of the federal government are changing, and so providing time to review existing funding streams, especially those that Congress delegated to the executive branch to implement on a discretionary basis, ensures that those policies are implemented in accordance with the U.S. international obligations. When those international obligations are terminated as the President has the absolute power to do, you don’t keep spending the money to fulfill them.

Generally, the President under Article II of the Constitution wields the unitary executive power and must faithfully execute the laws. That will be so under the issuance of new funding, but also under existing funding to ensure that taxpayer funds are being directed in a way that complies both with Congress’ appropriations but also requirements for receiving federal funds, including compliance with other federal laws that Congress has adopted.

That only makes sense. And President Trump promised to restore common sense to the government, and that includes not issuing awards, grants or loans or any other type of federal assistance that violate the Constitution and existing laws as written — one of his most important jobs as the executive.

Robert Romano is the Vice President of Public Policy at Americans for Limited Government.

Cross-posted with The Daily Torch

Turn your back on Big Tech oligarchs and join the New Resistance NOW! Facebook, Google, and other members of the Silicon Valley Axis of Evil are now doing everything they can to deliberately silence conservative content online, so please be sure to check out our MeWe page here, check us out at ProAmerica Only and Gab. You can also follow us on Truth Social here, Twitter at @co_firing_line, and at the social media site set up by members of Team Trump, GETTR.

Give a middle finger to unaccountable global censors and big tech fascists. Bookmark this site, sign up for our newsletter, and check back often.

While you’re at it, be sure to check out our friends at Whatfinger News, the Internet’s conservative front-page founded by ex-military!And be sure to check out our friends at Trending Views: