One week in, the Trump administration is broadening its assault on the capabilities of presidency and shifting management of the federal purse strings additional away from members of Congress.
President Donald Trump’s funds workplace Monday ordered a complete freeze on “all federal monetary help” that may very well be focused beneath his earlier govt orders pausing funding for a variety of priorities — from home infrastructure and power tasks to diversity-related applications and overseas support.
In a two-page memo obtained by POLITICO, the Workplace of Administration and Funds introduced all federal businesses could be compelled to droop funds — except for Social Safety and Medicare.
“Using Federal sources to advance Marxist fairness, transgenderism, and inexperienced new deal social engineering insurance policies is a waste of taxpayer {dollars} that doesn’t enhance the day-to-day lives of these we serve,” in accordance with the memo, which three individuals authenticated.
The brand new order may have an effect on billions of {dollars} in grants to state and native governments whereas inflicting disruptions to applications that profit many households. There was additionally widespread confusion over how the memo could be carried out and whether or not it will face authorized challenges.
Whereas the memo says the funding pause doesn’t embrace help “supplied on to people,” as an example, it doesn’t make clear whether or not that features cash despatched first to states or organizations after which supplied to households.
The temporary memo additionally doesn’t element all funds that will likely be halted. Nonetheless, it broadly orders federal businesses to “quickly” cease sending federal monetary help that may very well be affected by Trump’s govt actions.
That features the president’s orders to freeze all funding from the Democrats’ signature local weather and spending regulation — the Inflation Discount Act and the bipartisan infrastructure package deal enacted in 2021. It additionally imposes a 90-day freeze on overseas support.
Senate Minority Chief Chuck Schumer in an announcement decried the announcement for example of “extra lawlessness and chaos in America as Donald Trump’s Administration blatantly disobeys the regulation by holding up nearly all very important funds that help applications in each neighborhood throughout the nation.”
The New York Democrat urged the administration to elevate the freeze.
“They are saying that is solely momentary, however nobody ought to imagine that,” he stated. “Donald Trump should direct his Administration to reverse course instantly and the taxpayers’ cash needs to be distributed to the individuals. Congress authorised these investments and they aren’t non-obligatory; they’re the regulation.”
Bobby Kogan, who labored on the White Home funds workplace throughout the Biden administration, known as the memo a “large, broad, unlawful” order that violates impoundment regulation, which blocks presidents from unilaterally withholding cash with out the consent of Congress.
“That is as unhealthy as we feared it will be,” stated Kogan, who additionally served as a Democratic aide to the Senate Funds Committee and is now a director on the left-leaning Middle for American Progress.
The president of the Nationwide Council of Nonprofits, Diane Yentel, stated in an announcement that the order “may decimate hundreds of organizations and go away neighbors with out the providers they want.”
The funding pause, first reported by journalist Marisa Kabas, is scheduled to start out at 5 p.m. Tuesday, a day after the memo was despatched to businesses.
Carmen Paun and Adam Cancryn contributed to this report.
