Trump’s order caused widespread confusion across the federal government, with healthcare and housing programmes thrown into flux.
The administration of United States President Donald Trump has peeled back a memorandum concerning a federal funding freeze that caused backlash and confusion, with many fearing an end to services ranging from healthcare to housing and childcare.
However, in a social media post on Wednesday, press secretary Karoline Leavitt held firm that Trump’s executive order (EO) to pause federal spending would remain in effect.
She said the latest directive only concerned a memo released by the Office of Budget and Management (OMB) that became public earlier this week.
“This is NOT a rescission of the federal funding freeze,” Leavitt wrote. “It is simply a rescission of the OMB memo.”
The decision came as the result of a federal court decision on Tuesday to temporarily block the funding freeze, within hours of when it was supposed to go into effect.
Nonprofits had brought a legal challenge against the funding freeze, which they argued went beyond the constitutional authorities of the president.
Wednesday’s announcement is likely to contribute to the confusion regarding federal spending in the coming weeks — and whether programmes that rely on such funding would remain operational.
“The President’s EO’s on federal funding remain in full force and effect, and will be rigorously implemented,” Leavitt wrote on Wednesday. Trump himself has argued his executive order was only meant to end wasteful spending.
Still, Democrats touted the announcement of the memo’s cancellation as a victory. In a social media post, for instance, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said the reversal was Trump’s “first major loss”.
“We may not have majorities in the House and the Senate, but we DO have the power to loudly educate and mobilize against the mass looting the Trump admin is attempting against our veterans, healthcare, education, and more,” she said.
During his first week in office, Trump has issued a series of sweeping measures aimed at radically overhauling the federal government and withholding funds from domestic and foreign assistance programmes.
Mixed messages from the administration added to a sense of chaos, as programmes scrambled to find answers about whether they would be affected.
Though the White House said that medical assistance was not included in the order, a series of elected officials said their states had been locked out of funding portals for Medicaid, a government insurance programme for low-income and elderly people.
The memo was abandoned shortly before legal proceedings were scheduled to continue on Wednesday.
In addition to the legal challenge brought by nonprofits, 22 mostly Democrat-led states and the District of Columbia filed their own lawsuit to block the funding freeze late on Tuesday.
Opponents in both cases have argued that Trump’s order was illegal, since responsibility for government spending falls largely to Congress, rather than the president.
“The president does not get to decide which laws to enforce and for whom,” New York state Attorney General Letitia James told reporters on Tuesday in announcing the states’ suit.
The US also suspended nearly all foreign assistance earlier this week, freezing funds for health and humanitarian assistance work around the globe. Military aid for two allies, Israel and Egypt, were exempt from the decision.
That move also triggered a strong backlash — and a government response.
On Wednesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that a series of waivers for “life-saving humanitarian assistance” had been added, although the order does not offer details regarding which programmes qualify.