White House protects federal grants and loans from cold
The White House says it has canceled a memorandum authorizing a federal freeze on hundreds of billions of dollars in grants and loans, which has created widespread panic among millions of people who rely on government assistance.
It was temporarily stopped on Tuesday after a judge, a few hours after being signed by President Donald Trump and the memo was issued by the Management and Budget Office (OMB).
The judge stopped the order until next Monday, after a group of organizations representing grant recipients were filed.
New letter released on Wednesday “OMB Memorandum M -25–13 has been canceled.”
It is not clear what is clear U-turn.
White House press secretary Karolin Lewitt said in a statement that the administration was still chasing a freeze.
“This is not a defense of federal funding freeze. It is only the defend of OMB memo,” he said. “Why? To end any confusion created by the court prohibition. The President’s EO remains in full strength and influence on the federal wealth, and will be strictly implemented.”
The BBC has asked the White House to clarify how to continue in light of Trump’s decision to cancel the prohibition of the judge along with the memo.
Earlier this week, the acting head of the White House Budget Office directed the agencies to “stop all federal financial assistance or all activities related to disbursement”.
The office said the move aims to give time to the new administration to assess what grants and loans were with their agenda.
But this order inspired widespread confusion about which agencies and programs would be affected. An online portal used to use federal funds was briefly taken offline and support groups warned about a suspension in services.
In response to the latest step, Democrats suddenly shifted a news conference set on Trump’s move on Tuesday, which to end congenital citizenship to condemn the move to freeze all federal funding.
“What are they doing basically, to hurt families, to help their billionaire friends,” to help their billionaire friends, “Senate Democratic Minority Leader Chak Shumor told reporters after the order was canceled. Asked reporters after canceling the order.
He said that Republican would continue to try to block future funding, and was stopped only this time due to “resentment” from the public.
He said, “I don’t think it would have happened, except outrage across America. And we are working with our components in the Senate to show that resentment. We will continue to fight.”
Shumor also said that Trump should rescue his nominee again to lead OMB.
The order was one of the several trump issued since Trump took office, which was aimed at cutting the size of the government and reducing federal expenses. Other orders target transgender rights and anyone born in the United States target automated citizenship.
In addition, on Tuesday, the Trump administration offered federal workers and options to continue to receive payments up to eight months in an attempt to further reduce the size of the federal employees and the federal workforce.
On Tuesday, Levit stated that the stop in funding would allow governments to cut spending for “wake up” for gender issues and diversity programs.
Many states had reported issues of reaching money through a government health insurance program, Medicade for low -income people. The White House later stated that the program would not be affected.
It was also stated that social security benefits would not be affected, nor any program “which provides direct benefits to individuals”, including supplementary nutrition aid program, is known as Snap or Food Stamp.
Although the order has been blocked for now, the White House believes that the original memorandum fulfilled its purpose to take steps to follow the President’s executive order to the federal agencies.
