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A Blog post on January 30, 2025, described the White House Office of Management and Budget (“OMB”) issuance of a January 27th Memorandum for heads of executive departments and agencies addressing:
Temporary Pause of Agency Grant, Loan, and Other Financial Assistance Programs (“Memorandum”).
https://www.mitchellwilliamslaw.com/temporary-pause-of-agency-grant-loan-and-other-financial-assistance-programs/white-house-office-of-management-and-budget-memorandum-us-environmental-protection-agency-federal-financial-assistance
The Memorandum required the addressees to identify and review all federal financial assistance programs and identify those impacted by any of the President’s orders. Of equal importance, it ordered that such agencies:
…temporarily pause all activities related to obligation or disbursement of all federal financial assistance, and other relevant agency activities that may be implicated by executive orders, including but not limited to, financial assistance for foreign aid, nongovernmental organizations, DEI, woke gender ideology, and the green new deal.
As a result, two publications (Energy & Environment and The Hill) reported that the United States Environmental Protection Agency had halted disbursement of certain federal aid in response to the OMB Memorandum.
On January 29th OMB formally rescinded the Memorandum. In addition, on the previous day, a United States District Judge for the District of Columbia (Loren Alikhan) issued a Temporary Injunction on the directive, which would remain in place until at least February 3rd.
