A federal judge blocked a directive from President Trump to temporarily stop federal spending on certain programs.
On Monday, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued a memo in order to slash funding meant to “advance Marxist equity, transgenderism, and green new deal social engineering policies.”
The order was supposed to take effect on Tuesday at 5 PM. But the judge granted a stay on the spending freeze as part of a lawsuit.
The idea behind the spending freeze was to give the Trump administration time to “identify and review all Federal financial assistance programs and supporting activities consistent with the President’s policies and requirements,” and went after multiple spending programs that potentially totaled trillions of dollars. It specifically exempted Medicare, Social Security, and other like programs.
“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,” OMB’s memo read.
OMB stated that the cut “is expressly limited to programs, projects, and activities implicated by the President’s Executive Orders, such as ending DEI, the green new deal, and funding nongovernmental organizations that undermine the national interest.”
“Any program that provides direct benefits to Americans is explicitly excluded from the pause and exempted from this review process. In addition to Social Security and Medicare, already explicitly excluded in the guidance, mandatory programs like Medicaid and SNAP will continue without pause,” OMB said.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) called on the Trump administration to immediately "reverse course."
"[T]he taxpayers’ money should be distributed to the people," he said.
"Congress approved these investments and they are not optional; they are the law,” Schumer added, accusing Trump of plunging “the country into chaos.”
Join the conversation as a VIP Member