The Trump administration temporarily halted nearly all federal grants, loans, and other financial assistance to beneficiaries in a surprise move Monday to reassess federal spending.
The order came from the Office of Management and Budget in a memo to government agencies directing them to eliminate any federal funding advancing “Marxist equity, transgenderism, and Green New Deal social engineering policies” from their bureaucracies. The directive seeks to bring federal agencies into compliance with a flurry of executive orders from President Donald Trump prohibiting bureaucracies from promoting initiatives such as diversity, equity, and inclusion, among other policies.
The OMB order places a temporary pause on trillions of dollars’ worth of federal assistance programs. However, the memo made clear that Social Security and Medicare payments would not be affected by the temporary pause on government aid.
“Nothing in this memo should be construed to impact Medicare or Social Security benefits,” the Monday memo reads.
OMB’s order further clarified that assistance provided directly to people or received directly by beneficiaries is not included under the pause.
The memo also created an exception allowing federal agencies to carry out “obligations expressly required by law” and issue new assistance “or take other actions on a case-by-case basis.”
OMB oversees the performance of federal agencies and administers the federal budget.
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The budget office said that under the latest order, agencies must submit “detailed information” on programs, projects, or activities out of line with the new administration’s guidelines by Feb. 10.
“Financial assistance should be dedicated to advancing Administration priorities, focusing taxpayer dollars to advance a stronger and safer America, eliminating the financial burden of inflation for citizens, unleashing American energy and manufacturing, ending ‘wokeness’ and the weaponization of government, promoting efficiency in government, and Making America Healthy Again,” according to the memo.