OMB Pauses Most Federal Assistance Programs

The Office of Management and Budget issues a late-night memo ordering federal agencies to “pause” federal assistance payments, excluding those to individuals (such as Social Security, Medicare).

The order takes effect 28 January 2025 at 17:00.

The memo did not specify the scope of affected programs, although it did specifically say to stop payments involving “foreign aid, nongovernmental organizations, DEI, woke gender ideology and the Green New Deal.” It corresponds with but goes farther than a portion of Project 2025.

The range of effect appears to encompass at least nonprofit organizations, food assistance, student loans and scientific research. Well-known programs for which funding is widely expected to stop include Meals on Wheels, Pell Grant, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) programs but the order is unclear. OMB told reporters that Medicaid and SNAP were exempt from the order, but Medicaid payment portals went down for all 50 states.

The memo says the halt is of unspecified temporary duration to allow the new regime to evaluate whether the programs are consistent with Donald Trump’s policies.

The OMB order appears to violate the Impoundment Control Act (ICA) and infringe upon Congressional “power of the purse.” The ICA prohibits the executive branch from refusing, withholding or delaying expenditures allocated by Congress except “to provide for contingencies”; for efficiency; or “as specifically provided by law.” There is no allowance for interfering with funds disbursement due to the executive branch’s disagreement with an allocated expenditure.

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