WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump\u2019s budget office on Wednesday rescinded a memo freezing spending on federal loans and grants, less than two days after it sparked widespread confusion and legal challenges across the country.
\nThe memo, which was issued Monday by the Office of Management and Budget, had frightened states, schools and organizations that rely on trillions of dollars from Washington.
\nAdministration officials said the pause was necessary to review whether spending aligned with Trump\u2019s executive orders on issues like climate change and diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
\nBut on Wednesday, they sent out a two-sentence notice rescinding the original memo. The reversal was the latest sign that even with unified control of Washington, Trump\u2019s plans to dramatically and rapidly reshape the government has limits.
\nAdministration officials insisted that despite the confusion, their actions still had the intended effect by underscoring to federal agencies their obligations to abide by Trump\u2019s executive orders.
\n\u201cThe Executive Orders issued by the President on funding reviews remain in full force and effect and will be rigorously implemented by all agencies and departments,\u201d White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said, blaming the confusion on the courts and news outlets, not the administration. \u201cThis action should effectively end the court case and allow the government to focus on enforcing the President\u2019s orders on controlling federal spending.\u201d
\nThe White House\u2019s change in direction caught Congress off guard, particularly Trump\u2019s Republicans allies who had defended him throughout the brief saga.
\n\u201cThis is Donald Trump. He throws hand grenades in the middle of the room, and then cleans it up afterwards,\u201d said Sen. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota. \u201cI just think the guy\u2019s a genius.\u201d
\nCramer acknowledged the initial memo may have generated too much political heat, with red and blue states raising alarms over the funding freeze. But the senator suggested Trump \u201cmaybe didn\u2019t understand the breadth\u201d of what had been proposed.
\nBut Democrats said the White House had overreached beyond what Americans want.
\n\u201cMost people voted for cheaper eggs,\u201d said Sen. Martin Heinrich of New Mexico. \u201cThey did not vote for this chaos.\u201d
\nThe funding pause was scheduled to go into effect at 5 p.m. Tuesday. It was stayed by a federal judge until at least Monday after an emergency hearing requested by nonprofit groups that receive federal grants. An additional lawsuit by Democratic state attorneys general was also pending.
\nAfter the initial memo was distributed, federal agencies were directed to answer a series of yes or no questions about each program by Feb. 7. The questions included \u201cdoes this program promote gender ideology?\u201d and \u201cdoes this program promote or support in any way abortion?\u201d
\nAlthough Trump had promised to turn Washington upside down if elected to a second term, the effects of his effort to pause funding were being felt far from the nation\u2019s capital. Organizations like Meals on Wheels, which receives federal money to deliver food to the elderly, were worried about getting cut off. Even temporary interruptions in funding could cause layoffs or delays in public services.
\nOn Tuesday, Trump administration officials said programs that provide direct assistance to Americans, including Medicare, Social Security, student loans and food stamps, would not be affected.
\nHowever, they sometimes struggled to provide a clear picture. Leavitt initially would not say whether Medicaid was exempted from the freeze, but the administration later clarified that it was.
\nDemocratic critics of the order moved swiftly to celebrate the memo\u2019s rescinding.
\n\u201cThis is an important victory for the American people whose voices were heard after massive pressure from every corner of this country,\u201d said Sen. Patty Murray of Washington. She said Trump had \u201ccaused real harm and chaos for millions.\u201d
\nSenate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York said that \u201cAmericans fought back and Donald Trump backed off.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump\u2019s budget office on Wednesday rescinded a memo freezing spending on federal loans and grants, less than two days after it sparked widespread confusion and legal challenges across the country. The memo, which was issued Monday by the Office of Management and Budget, had frightened states, schools and organizations that rely on …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":76324,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76299"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76299\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76325,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76299\/revisions\/76325"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}