An article from Dive Brief At 11th hour, judge blocks Trump’s pause on federal funding

The higher education community faced an “enormous amount of confusion” in the wake of an OMB directive aimed at ensuring programs adhere to recent executive orders.

Published Jan. 28, 2025 • Updated 16 hours ago Ben Unglesbee Senior Reporter

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U.S. President Donald Trump holds up an executive order after signing it during an indoor inauguration parade on Jan. 20. The White House's budget director recently told agencies to pause federal grants, loans and other aid so they can review their adherence to Trump's slew of orders since coming to office. Christopher Furlong via Getty Images

UPDATE: Jan. 28, 2025: A U.S. District judge halted the government's temporary freeze on federal funding just minutes before it was set to take effect at 5 p.m. Tuesday, according to news reports. U.S. District Judge Loren AliKhan in Washington, D.C., blocked the Trump administration's directive for one week.

The challenge came from a coalition of organizations that filed a motion for a temporary restraining order on Tuesday. The plaintiffs, represented in the legal challenge by Democracy Forward, include the National Council of Nonprofits, the American Public Health Association, Main Street Alliance, and SAGE.

In a LinkedIn post announcing the administrative stay, Democracy Forward said, "This is a sigh of relief for millions of people who have been in limbo over the last twenty-four hours as the result of the Trump Administration’s callous attempt to wholesale shutter federal assistance and grant programs that people across this country rely on."

Dive Brief:

• The Trump administration on Monday ordered a pause on potentially large swaths of federal grants, loans and other financial assistance, with potentially massive financial and operational impact on universities, effective 5 p.m. Tuesday.
• In a two-page memo, Acting Office of Management and Budget Director Matthew Vaeth said agencies need to conduct “comprehensive analysis” of programs by Feb. 10 to ensure they comply with President Donald Trump’s numerous executive orders since taking office. 
• Agency appointees and staff should “align Federal spending and action with the will of the American people as expressed through Presidential priorities,” Vaeth wrote in the memo to the heads of federal departments and agencies. “The use of Federal resources to advance Marxist equity, transgenderism, and green new deal social engineering policies is a waste of taxpayer dollars that does not improve the day-to-day lives of those we serve.”

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Vaeth’s memo highlighted activities that “may be implicated” in Trump’s nascent executive orders, “including, but not limited to, financial assistance for foreign aid, nongovernmental organizations, DEI, woke gender ideology, and the green new deal.” Later guidance issued by the budget office explicitly noted that the pause does not affect all federal grants, and that student aid such as Pell Grants is excluded.

Higher ed groups quickly decried the White House’s pause on grants and other funding, which could wreak havoc on research programs throughout the country. 

The directive “will cause unnecessary disruption to the lives of tens of thousands of students and families at colleges and universities across the country — not to mention jeopardizing important and potentially lifesaving scientific and healthcare research taking place in labs and facilities,” Kara Freeman, CEO and president of the National Association of College and University Business Officers, said in a statement Tuesday. 

Mark Becker, president of the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities, called the order “an overly broad mandate that is unnecessary and damaging.” Becker, in a statement, further pointed to the potential negative impact on scientific research. 

“OMB’s action has unnecessarily injected an enormous amount of confusion and uncertainty across the nation,” Becker added. “We urge the Trump administration to reverse this sweeping order.”

American Council on Education President Ted Mitchell called on the administration to rescind the directive, calling it “unprecedented” and warning that it is already “causing great harm to millions of Americans, as well as our nation’s overall economy and security.”

Democrats, meanwhile, blasted Vaeth’s order as an illegal power grab by the executive branch. 

“The scope of what you are ordering is breathtaking, unprecedented, and will have devastating consequences across the country,” Sen. Patty Murray, vice chair of the Senate appropriations committee, and Rep. Rosa DeLauro, ranking member on the House appropriations committee, said in a Monday letter to Vaeth. “We write today to urge you in the strongest possible terms to uphold the law and the Constitution and ensure all federal resources are delivered in accordance with the law.”

Democratic attorneys general from half a dozen states indicated Tuesday afternoon that they plan to sue the administration to block the pause from taking effect, according to media reports.

By Tuesday, colleges were scrambling to advise faculty and staff about how to proceed.

Virginia Tech, for example, advised researchers to keep working on grant projects unless grant managers confirm that funding had been cut.

At the same time, the university advised researchers on its website to “monitor obligated budget balances to avoid deficits while awaiting future instructions from the agency,” adding that “anticipated future funding remains subject to availability of funds and should not be considered guaranteed.”

Arizona State University researchers are expected to “continue invoicing and business as usual unless notified otherwise,” the institution said in a research operations update Tuesday morning. The "terms and conditions of active awards remain enforceable,” it said. Researchers in the process of applying for federal grants should confirm deadlines, the university advised, as those may change during the pause. 

The Trump administration’s earlier executive orders are already impacting research in other ways, particularly as related to diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility programs.

The National Science Foundation, for example, canceled all review panels Monday for the current week as it develops guidance to comply with Trump’s executive orders.  The reviews will be rescheduled at a yet-to-be-determined date, an NSF spokesperson said in an emailed statement.  

In response to an executive order halting all DEI grant work, Arizona State, for instance, instructed researchers to “stop all DEIA-related activities on your project immediately.”

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