The consequences of the Trump administration’s decision to halt almost all foreign aid continue to reverberate. The New York Times reported last week that the freeze is affecting international programs “aimed at alleviating hunger, disease and wartime suffering around the globe, as well as ones that help nations with economic development.”
It’s against this backdrop that the White House is apparently halting domestic grants, too. NBC News reported:
President Donald Trump has ordered a freeze to domestic and foreign federal aid in a sweeping effort to stop government funding for causes that don’t fit with his agenda. A memo sent out Monday night from Matthew J. Vaeth, acting director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, said the changes would go into effect Tuesday at 5 p.m. ET and relate to a string of executive orders Trump has signed since taking office last week.
The existence of the memo was first reported by Marisa Kabas, a New York-based journalist who published the document on Bluesky.
If the White House follows through on its latest power grab, the “pause” will apparently continue until at least mid-February.
“Federal agencies must temporarily pause all activities related to obligation or disbursement of all Federal financial assistance, and other relevant agency activities that may be implicated by the executive orders, including, but not limited to, financial assistance for foreign aid, nongovernmental organizations, DEI, woke gender ideology, and the green new deal,” Vaeth said.
There are, to be sure, more questions than answers about what exactly this will mean in practical terms. The simple reality is that federal grants finance much of modern American life, and if the money simply stops flowing, because Team Trump says some of the disbursements might conflict with the president’s wishes, the effects are difficult to measure.
A New York Times report on the OMB memo noted, “The directive threatened to upend funds that course throughout the American economy: Hundreds of billions of dollars in grants to state, local and tribal governments. Disaster relief aid. Education and transportation funding. Loans to small businesses.”
How much money, specifically, are we talking about? According to the White House’s memo, “more than $3 trillion” in federal assistance is on the line, but at this point, no one seems to know for sure whether that figure is accurate.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer issued a written statement that argued, “More lawlessness and chaos in America as Donald Trump’s administration blatantly disobeys the law by holding up virtually all vital funds that support programs in every community across the country. If this continues, the American people will pay an awful price. … Congress approved these investments, and they are not optional; they are the law.”
On the other side of Capitol Hill, Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee published an item to social media with an even more succinct summary: “Hey so this is insane.”
It is not a secret that Trump and his team, after running on an authoritarian-style campaign platform, want to wrestle control over the power of the purse, shifting authority from Congress to the White House, despite the framework of our constitutional system of government. It’s precisely why there’s been so much discussion of late about the Impoundment Control Act. We’re now starting to see what those ambitions look like when pursued as a matter of government policy. In fairness, it’s worth noting that administrations have the legal authority to pause some federal spending temporarily. That’s happened many times, under many presidents. That said, such pauses nearly always deal with a small and specific expenditure, not “more than $3 trillion” in federal assistance. What’s more, Schumer’s statement, referring to administration officials, added, “They say this is only temporary, but no one should believe that.” As for the potential political impact, a Politico report noted that in the coming days, “we’re going to discover the full range of programs, projects and initiatives whose funds have suddenly been blocked. And given the sweeping scale of the order, it seems unlikely these will all be glowingly liberal, woke-tastic DEI projects in coastal America. This order is going to affect communities the length and breadth of the country. “Be careful what you wish for, Mr. President.”
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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