A federal judge has paused a directive from President Donald Trump’s Office of Management and Budget to suspend grant and loan payments, minutes before the funding pause was scheduled to go into effect Tuesday evening.
U.S. District Judge Loren AliKhan issued an "administrative stay" of the directive with respect to all "open awards," while she considers whether to grant a temporary restraining order, according to her order. She scheduled a hearing for Monday morning and ordered the parties to file briefs.
The plaintiffs include Democracy Forward, the American Public Health Association and the National Council of Nonprofits.
The directive issued late Monday created confusion across Washington and state capitals.
OMB eventually clarified that direct assistance to individuals, including payments to farmers and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, is exempt from the directive.
“This is not a blanket pause on federal assistance and grant programs from the Trump administration,” White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said in her first press conference Tuesday. “Individual assistance,” she said, mentioning examples such as Social Security, Medicare and welfare benefits, and food assistance under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, would not be affected, she said.
“If you are receiving individual assistance from the federal government, you will still continue to receive that,” she said. “However, it is the responsibility of this president and this administration to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars. That is something that President Trump campaigned on.”
OMB's initial memo came out late Monday. In a Q&A document issued Tuesday, OMB said “any program that provides direct benefits to individuals is not subject to the pause" and that agencies have been directed to work with OMB "to determine quickly whether any program is inconsistent with the president’s executive orders."
"Any payment required by law to be paid will be paid without interruption or delay," that document said, adding "the pause does not apply across-the-board. It 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."
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The Q&A also said that "mandatory programs like Medicaid and SNAP will continue without pause," as would funds for small businesses and farmers.
There was still confusion about the directive, however, as states reported Tuesday afternoon being unable to access the payment portal for the Medicaid program even though it was supposed to be exempt. Medicaid provides health care and nursing home assistance to low-income people.
Later, Leavitt posted a statement on X that said the White House was aware of the outage. "We have confirmed no payments have been affected – they are still being processed and sent.”
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This story has been updated with a copy of the judge's order.
