Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) speaks during the testimony of U.S. President Donald Trump’s nominee for Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought during his Senate Banking Committee nomination hearing in the Dirksen Senate Building on January 22, 2025 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration will temporarily stop payments on multiple federal programs Tuesday evening, cutting off Americans who rely on what could be trillions in funding and likely setting off a legal challenge over Congress’ constitutional spending authority.
The two-page memo from the Office of Management and Budget announcing the freeze appeared to apply to all federal financial assistance, including grants and loans, though it wasn’t immediately clear which specific programs. A memo footnote said it should not be “construed to impact Medicare or Social Security benefits” but did not mention Medicaid.
“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,” the OMB memo states.
A separate memo from OMB lists off the programs that will be paused temporarily while it reviews which federal spending it deems appropriate.
‘Devastating consequences’
The top Democrats on the U.S. House and Senate Appropriations committees sent a letter to acting OMB Director Matthew J. Vaeth, expressing alarm about how the stop in payments would affect people throughout the country and challenging the legality of the executive branch trying to overrule the legislative branch on spending decisions.
House Appropriations Committee ranking member Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., and Senate Appropriations Committee ranking member Patty Murray, D-Wash., wrote that the scope of the halt in funding, which was approved by Congress on a bipartisan basis, “is breathtaking, unprecedented, and will have devastating consequences across the country.”
“While we may have strong policy disagreements, we should all be united in upholding our nation’s laws and the Constitution,” DeLauro and Murray wrote.
“We will be relentless in our work with members on both sides of the aisle and in both chambers to protect Congress’s power of the purse,” they added. “The law is the law—and we demand you in your role as Acting OMB Director reverse course to ensure requirements enacted into law are faithfully met and the nation’s spending laws are implemented as intended.”
States to file suit
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said during a press conference Tuesday morning that he’s spoken with New York State Attorney General Letitia James about a legal challenge to the spending freeze.
“I spoke to my attorney general this morning. She’s head of the state attorneys general association,” Schumer said. “They’re going to court right away on this horror.”
Article I, Section 9, Clause 7 of the Constitution gives Congress the so-called “power of the purse” by granting it the authority to approve federal spending.
Congress has passed several laws regarding that constitutional authority, including the 1974 Impoundment Control Act, which says that the president cannot simply refuse to spend money Congress has appropriated.
Trump’s pick for OMB Director, Russ Vought, has repeatedly called that law unconstitutional and said he believes the president does have the authority to simply ignore sections of spending law that have been passed by Congress and signed into law.
The Senate has yet to confirm Vought to the role of White House budget director, but is likely to do so in the weeks ahead.
Sharon Parrott, president of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a left-leaning think tank, posted on social media that the OMB memo’s “vague and contradictory language makes it hard to know if funding is imperiled for public schools, community health centers, state and local law enforcement, veterans’ housing, health care through Medicaid, public services on tribal lands, etc.”
“This confusion & apparent withholding of funding isn’t a political game – real state, local, & tribal governments, school districts, nonprofits, & private charities delivering services we all depend on, funded with taxpayer dollars, can’t function without resources and clarity,” Parrott wrote. “Congress has enacted legislation that requires the Executive Branch to fund public services, and the Trump Administration seems determined to subvert Congress, its hand-waving about following the law notwithstanding.”
Parrott worked at OMB as associate director of the Education, Income Maintenance, and Labor Division, during then-President Barack Obama’s second term.
Meals on Wheels
Jenny Young, vice president of communications and chief of staff at Meals on Wheels America, said the OMB memo could “could presumably halt service to millions of vulnerable seniors who have no other means of purchasing or preparing meals.”
“And the lack of clarity and uncertainty right now is creating chaos for local Meals on Wheels providers not knowing whether they’re going to be reimbursed for meals served today, tomorrow, who knows how long this could go on,” Young said. “Which unfortunately means seniors may panic not knowing where their next meals will come from. This adds insult to injury as these programs are already underfunded to begin with. Largely speaking, local providers don’t have the ability to absorb a blow like this, especially if it persists for any extended period of time.”
Young said the Older Americans Act Nutrition Program, which provides some of Meals on Wheels funding, is a grant program administered by the Administration on Aging.