Federal Grants And Loan Disbursement Paused By White House

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The White House budget office has ordered a pause on all federal grants and loans. This potentially impacts trillions in government spending and halting public programs that affect millions of Americans.

Federal agencies “must temporarily pause all activities related to obligation or disbursement of all Federal financial assistance,” White House Office of Management and Budget acting director Matthew Vaeth said in the memorandum. The pause also blocks the issuance of new grants.

The memo specifies that the pause will not affect Social Security or Medicare benefits, nor does it include “assistance provide directly to individuals.” The budget office “may grant exceptions allowing Federal agencies to issue new awards or take other actions on a case-by-case basis.”

These freeze on federal assistance is slated to take affect today (Jan 28) at 5 p.m. This marks the latest move by the Trump administration to exert control over federal funding. The pause also applies to “other relevant agency activities that may implicated by the executive orders, including but not limited to financial assistance for foreign aid, nongovernment organizations, DEI, woke gender ideology, and the green new deal.”

How much money the federal government could save through the pause was not immediately clear. The memo itself is very vague to specify which programs are affected and the total cost.