Faced with widespread criticism and at least two dozen lawsuits, the Trump administration has backed off on the controversial pause on all federal funding.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York said that “Americans fought back, and Donald Trump backed off.”
“This is an important victory for the American people whose voices were heard after massive pressure from every corner of this country—real people made a difference by speaking out,” said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash.
“Still, the Trump administration—through a combination of sheer incompetence, cruel intentions, and a willful disregard of the law—caused real harm and chaos for millions over the span of the last [72] hours which is still ongoing.”
The White House Office of Management and Budget sparked a national frenzy of confusion as states (many that Trump won in the presidential election), schools and organizations faced the loss of trillions of dollars from Washington.
A new OMB memo issued late Tuesday, says the heads of executive departments and agencies should contact their general counsels “if you have questions about implementing the President’s Executive Orders.”
“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.
“We are proud of our courageous clients — who represent communities across the nation — for going to court to stop the administration’s unlawful actions.”
St. Louis Mayor Tishaura O. Jones said in a release that law enforcement efforts for crime reduction, evidence collection for future prosecution of criminal cases, and homicide investigations, which depend in part on employees supported by federal grants, were among the programs that could be impacted.
“Federal funds support law enforcement, seniors, flood mitigation, affordable housing, and so many other necessary investments in our day-to-day lives. For President Trump to gamble with that shows a serious lack of leadership from this White House,” she said.
The St. Louis Business Journal reported Tuesday that Washington University in St. Louis received $683 million in National Institute for Health funding last year. It is the second-largest recipient of the federal health funds in the nation for a second consecutive year.
The development follows a federal judge’s order Tuesday that temporarily blocked the effort to pause federal payments for grants and other programs.
Under the original OMB memo obtained by NPR, a temporary pause in funding was set to take effect Tuesday evening, but a senior administration official said that the pause could be as short as a day if an agency determines its programs are in compliance.
The official said the directive should not be interpreted as a full funding freeze. The official, who was not authorized to publicly discuss the internal memo, said that agencies are supposed to review their grants, loans and programs to ensure that they align with the new administration’s priorities.
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 also said that the memo failed to consider the interests of grant recipients, “including those to whom 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.
Alvin A. Reid of the St. Louis American contributed to this report, which was written by Barbara Sprunt, Elena Moore, Deirdre Walsh, Asma Khalid, and Tamara Keith of National Public Radio