Last night, the White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued a memorandum to all federal agencies demanding that they pause disbursing federal grants and loans as of 5 PM on January 28th. This demand has now been stayed until February 3rd by order of a federal judge.
The memo also required that, by February 7th, all agencies fill-out a detailed spreadsheet that asked questions about whether federal programs allow funds to be disbursed in violation of any of several Executive Orders of the President, including Protecting the American People Against Invasion, Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing, and Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government. Specifically, the spreadsheet asks federal agencies to review and inform the Administration whether federal programs:
Provide Federal funding to non-governmental organizations supporting or providing services, directly or indirectly, to removable or illegal aliens
Provide funding that is implicated by the directive to end discriminatory programs, including illegal DEI and “diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility” (DEIA) mandates, policies, programs, preferences, and activities…
Promote gender ideology
Initially, it was believed that this pause applied to all federal education programs, including federal title programs. Late today, the Department of Education informed state superintendents that “the OMB memorandum only applies to discretionary grants at the Department of Education. These will be reviewed by Department leadership for alignment with Trump Administration priorities. The temporary pause does not impact Title I, IDEA, or other formula grants, nor does it apply to Federal Pell Grants and Direct Loans under Title IV, HEA. The Department is working with OMB to identify other programs that are not covered by the memo.”
While Title funds thus do not appear to be paused, the OMB spreadsheet still requires that the Department of Education review them for compliance with the President’s Executive Orders. Even if Title funds had been included, most would have felt no impact from the pause as their funds are disbursed to states and school districts at a later date.
The OMB spreadsheet also specifically lists the Department of Defense’s Language Flagship Grants, the National Security Education Program’s Boren Scholars, Language Training Center and K-12 grant programs, including the World Language Advancement and Readiness Grants, as programs subject to review. It is unclear right now whether funding has been paused for some or all of those programs.
A federal lawsuit challenging this OMB memorandum and seeking a Temporary Restraining Order to bar its implementation was filed this morning in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia by four non-profit organizations. A separate lawsuit from state Democratic Attorney Generals is also expected.
Late on January 28th, a Federal Court in DC issued an administrative stay blocking the enforcement of the OMB memorandum until at least February 3rd. The court indicated that the stay was to allow time for the underlying litigation to play out.
There are other questions that remain to be answered:
Which programs are specifically paused and for how long?
What will happen to those federal programs found not to be aligned with President Trump’s Executive Orders?
Will the Administration attempt to prevent specific federal program funds from flowing to school districts or higher education institutions if they are used to serve “removable or illegal aliens”, are implicated in “illegal DEIA ,andates”, or “promote gender ideology”?
Could the Administration actually rescind federal dollars already disbursed and perhaps already used for these same reasons?
This story is continuing to develop and we will keep you informed as information comes in.