Legacy of Failure continues, unmarred

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/01/29/white-house-rescinds-federal-funds-freeze-memo.html

The White House on Wednesday formally rescinded a controversial memo that had ordered a freeze on federal grants and loans to give agencies time to review programs for their compliance with President Donald Trump's agenda, NBC News reported.

The freeze, which had been set to take effect late Tuesday afternoon, was paused by a federal judge until Monday to give her time to consider arguments by nonprofit groups challenging its legality.

The memo ordering the freeze had been issued by the Office of Management and Budget. It immediately sparked confusion about which programs would be affected and was suspected of causing Medicaid reimbursement portals to go offline for all 50 states on Tuesday.

Acting OMB Director Matthew Vaeth, in a new memo issued Wednesday, wrote, "OMB Memorandum M-25-13 is rescinded. If you have any questions about implementing the President's Executive Orders, please contact your agency General Counsel."

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., told reporters Wednesday, "As you know, Donald Trump just rescinded his horrible OMB freeze," and called on Trump to "rescind Russell Vought's nomination" for director of OMB.

"Russell Vought is the chief cook and bottle washer," Schumer said. "We believe they'll come back and try to do this in other ways. Russell Vought sat in my office and said he was going to do it."

"We don't believe they'll stop," Schumer said. "This has been their goal, to hurt what they're basically doing is being lawless, to hurt families, to help their billionaire friends. And so they're going to keep at it. We're going to keep at it. I don't think this would have happened except for the outcry throughout America."